Google has been named a partner in the PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) led bid for the $11B Department of Defense (DoD) EHR Modernization Project, Modern Healthcare first reports. According to PwC health IT practice leader Dan Garrett, Google was always part of the bid.
PwC DoD EHR Contract Bid Details
PwC plans to combine its healthcare operational and transformation capabilities with commercial EHR vendors DSS, Inc. and MedSphere, and systems integrator General Dynamics Information Technology to offer an ‘open source’ EHR promoting greater ease of integration with existing DoD legacy systems as well as unlimited access to ongoing EHR innovations. Google will provide services in infrastructure, including cloud, security, storage, networking, and enterprise search capabilities
PwC selected its proposed solution based on an extensive technical analysis using the DoD’s unique government EHR requirements and the MHS’ patient safety and quality standards. and will provide services in infrastructure, including cloud, security, storage, networking, and enterprise search capabilities.
PwC hopes having Google in the bid will help increase their potential to win the DoD EHR contract given Google’s previous experience implementing its infrastructure services for the DoD’s Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences, which educates prospective military health providers. “One way to guarantee that [continued] innovation is to have a partner like Google,” Garrett said (Tahir, Modern Healthcare, 1/15/15).
Google’s Power of Search
Utilizing Google’s powerful search capabilities will allow providers to quickly query EHR data. For example, a physician can query it for all patients suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and quickly search for correlations between patients with the disorder andcomorbidities, as well as other potential factors that could affect a patient’s health.
Other known bidding teams include:
– Epic/IBM/ (with help from a 17 person advisory group with leading providers)
– Accenture/Cerner/Leidos
– Allscripts/CSC/HP
The ten-year contract is expected to be awarded by this summer.
