Defense Health Agency officials are shifting their mindsets on innovation to "make IT boring again," so that technology can become more of a standard service for supporting the agency's IT modernization efforts, according to a Jan. 21 Government CIO Media report.
During the AFCEA Health IT summit on Jan. 16 in Rockville, Md., DHA officials Francisco Dominicci, Tom Hines and Bill Tinston explained that the agency's goal is to make IT viewed as a utility to seamlessly support the DHA healthcare delivery for the military, the publication reports.
Mr. Tinston, who serves as program executive officer of the Defense Healthcare Management Systems, described the new perspective on IT in comparison to Disneyland. He likened IT "to the power and infrastructure that run an amusement park so end users, or park attendees, can enjoy the rides or end results," according to the report.
Mr. Tinston oversees DHMS' transition to a Cerner EHR. He said he has been working to create a collaborative environment with his team to boost creative technological solutions.
"We need to change our mindset, and we need to start thinking business drives technology, not technology driving business," Mr. Tinston said. "We need to start transforming ourselves and thinking differently."
DHA will apply the new perspective to various technological priorities, including the EHR modernization effort and maintaining legacy system capabilities as the agency transitions to modern IT assets and systems, the officials said.