Modernizing the Federal Electronic Health Record

Dr. Paul Tibbits has more than 35 years’ experience leading change management, process re-engineering, and IT initiatives that support federal healthcare programs. He developed and implemented two worldwide medical record systems in the Department of Defense (DOD), restructured IT management, and regularly represented IT projects to senior government and private sector executives and Congress. Among them was the first and largest change management program in support of DOD’s first and largest medical IT program. In December 2006, Dr. Tibbits began his career with the Department of Veterans Affairs where he served as deputy CIO for enterprise development; deputy CIO for architecture, strategy and design; and program executive officer for the Financial Management Business Transformation program, prior to his current position. He currently serves are executive director for the OIT Office of Technical Integration. Dr. Tibbits is board-certified in internal medicine and cardiology and is a Fellow of the American College of Cardiology. Dr. Tibbits is a veteran, having served 26 years in the U.S. Navy, and was qualified in undersea medicine. He was a member of the Navy Acquisition Corps and was a Defense Acquisition Workforce Improvement Act trained acquisition professional.

Mr. William J. Tinston serves as the Director for the Federal Electronic Health Record Modernization (FEHRM) program office. In this role, he oversees the FEHRM’s efforts in implementing a single, common federal electronic health record (EHR) with the Department of Defense (DOD), Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and Department of Homeland Security’s U.S. Coast Guard (USCG). The FEHRM enables joint decision-making and drives federal solutions for optimizing EHR implementation and operation.

Mr. Tinston has three decades of experience in defense acquisition program management, portfolio and investment management, and enterprise information technology. He previously served as the Program Executive Officer for the Program Executive Office, Defense Healthcare Management Systems (PEO DHMS). In this role, he led the deployment of DOD’s EHR. Additionally, he worked with VA and USCG to assist their transition to the same EHR as DOD, ensuring progress toward a single, common record for every beneficiary.

Prior to PEO DHMS, Mr. Tinston held senior executive positions at the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA), most recently serving as the Program Executive Officer. In this role, he was responsible for the management and oversight of DLA’s Major Automated Information Systems programs and special interest programs and was the milestone decision authority for DLA’s less-than-major programs. He was the corporate provider of acquisition management services and provided overall direction and guidance for the development, acquisition, testing, systems integration, product improvement and fielding for assigned DLA programs.

Mr. Tinston holds a Bachelor of Science in Business and Information Systems. He is Defense Acquisition University-certified at level three in Program Management and Information Technology. His honors include the DLA Meritorious Civilian Service Award and a Federal Computer Week Federal 100 Award. As a testament to his work, the Defense Information Systems Agency recognized him as an Outstanding External Contributor.