5 Takeaways from HIMSS 2025

The Department of Veterans Affairs announced in March 2025 it will deploy its federal electronic health record (EHR) system at nine more medical facilities next year, with complete deployment of the EHR at all VA medical facilities as early as 2031.

The Federal Electronic Health Record Modernization (FEHRM) office — which unites capabilities across the VA, Defense Department, Coast Guard and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration — is aligning with new priorities in the administration.

“There’s clearly demand to get this single record and create the interoperability that’s going to drive the support of the two health care systems with one another. I expect to see a lot of demand for acceleration and change, and proof that we can do this and do this more effectively going forward,” said FEHRM Director Bill Tinston.

Defense Healthcare Management Systems’ Chris Nichols shared his vision for data-driven health care.

The growing reliance on electronic health records, telemedicine and connected medical devices expands the attack surface, making patient data and critical systems more vulnerable to cyberattacks.

Former U.S. Cyber Command Commander and NSA Director Gen. Paul Nakasone called for a forward-thinking approach to cybersecurity and innovation, leveraging lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic and cultivating the next generation of the health care workforce.

“We have to get beyond just talking about the problem of ransomware … we’re always on the right-hand side talking about what occurred. I want to talk about how to get on the left-hand side, so we don’t have these ransomware attacks,” said Nakasone.

APIs are key to health data exchange. The VA’s Veterans Confirmation API, for example, determines for a provider whether a patient is “confirmed” or “not confirmed” as a title 38 veteran. The confirmation API has received 10 million queries and confirmed 200,000 veterans so far.

“Stanford Health has shared, and I think this was only in their first three months, 12,000 veterans that they confirmed. 46% of those veterans that they confirmed had one of the 38 presumptive diagnoses for military toxic exposures,” said Meg Marshall, director of informatics regulatory affairs at the Veterans Heath Administration.

Plus, HL7’s Diego Kaminker discussed the latest FHIR standards that are enabling health providers exchange data between applications.

VA is on a journey to advance and implement innovative AI solutions and boost interoperability to ultimately improve the delivery of benefits and services to veterans.

Dr. Shane McNamee, senior advisor to the chief medical information officer for health solution architecture at the Veterans Health Administration, and Dr. Johnathan Nebeker, executive director of Clinical Informatics and Digital Health Office chief medical informatics officer at VHA, explained how the agency is improving data integrity to unlock AI’s full potential and enhance patient care.

“60 to 80% of clinical, population health teams is spent working for the computers and connecting all the programs together and connecting all the data together, and we need massive efficiency gains associated with health care delivery. That leads us to agentic AI,” McNamee said.

Officials also discussed AI’s growing role in electronic health records and health innovation overall.

Noel Hara, vice president and CTO for NTT DATA’s Public Sector, noted AI’s ability to improve patient outcomes while reducing burden on the health care system.

Hara also explored automation and cloud adoption in government, and how technology enhances health care efficiency and outcomes.

“One of the things that really excites me every year when I come to HIMSS is looking at the different wearable technologies, the remote patient monitoring technologies that are out there, what we call at NTT DATA ‘augmented care at home,’” Hara said.