4: Flagship Initiative: Virtual Lifetime Electronic Record (VLER).

Maintain administrative and medical information from the day an individual enters military service, throughout their military career and after they leave the military.

Other Information:

FLAGSHIP INITIATIVE - On April 9, 2009, President Obama announced a groundbreaking vision for the future of electronic health data sharing: the Virtual Lifetime Electronic Record (VLER). VLER “will ultimately contain administrative and medical information from the day an individual enters military service, throughout their military career and after they leave the military.” VLER is a strategic objective for both the Department of Defense and the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), and we have chosen to highlight it as our Open Government flagship initiative for collaboration. This standardized and secure exchange of information will allow for unprecedented, seamless delivery of both healthcare and benefits for our nation’s service members and veterans by the two largest Departments in the United States government. About a quarter of the nation's population is potentially eligible for VA benefits and services because they are veterans, family members, or survivors of veterans. VLER is based on open national standards, and uses the framework of the Nationwide Health Information Network (NHIN) developed under the leadership of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). VLER will allow for the safe and secure sharing of information not only between the Department of Defense and VA, but between government and the private sector, where more than 50 percent of service members and veterans receive their care. The goal of our flagship initiative is to provide seamless access to electronic records for millions of service members and veterans. The Department of Defense and VA are working with HHS and other federal and private sector partners to create an open-architecture, standards-based capability to bring health and benefits delivery into the 21st century.

Stakeholder(s):

• Military Service Members


• Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)


• Veterans


• Members of Vetrans' Families


• Survivors of Veterans

Objective(s):

4.1: Strategic Approach

4.2: Federal Health Information Exchange

4.3: Governance

4.4: Pilot Effort

4.5: Next Steps

Content