The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) added occupational and environmental exposure data to the Federal Electronic Health Record (EHR) this month, giving VA care teams at 10 medical centers direct access to more information that can support clinical decisions.
In a May 26 press release, the VA said the update brings Individual Longitudinal Exposure Record (ILER) data into the Federal EHR. The VA and the Department of Defense (DOD) created the ILER, which provides an electronic record of occupational and environmental health exposures across a service member’s career. The Trump administration rebranded the DOD as the Department of War.
“Having this important veteran exposure information available directly in the Federal EHR is a significant improvement from having to search standalone applications,” said VA Deputy Secretary Paul Lawrence, who oversees the VA’s Electronic Health Record Modernization (EHRM) program.
“By reducing the need to switch between applications and giving our staff members more efficient access to this data, they can spend more time caring for veterans,” Lawrence said.
VA said the ILER integration was one of seven planned Federal EHR upgrades completed this month. The other six capability and interface updates were added to improve system functionality and usability, the department said.
The Federal EHR is live at 10 VA medical centers and 55 VA clinics, serving more than 408,000 veterans.
The department resumed deployments of the Federal EHR in April after spending years in a reset period to address user concerns at the first deployment sites.
The VA plans to deploy the Federal EHR to 13 medical centers in 2026 under its accelerated EHRM schedule.
Next up, the department is scheduled to deploy the Federal EHR on June 6 at Chillicothe VA Medical Center (VAMC) in Chillicothe, Ohio; Cincinnati VAMC in Cincinnati; Cincinnati VAMC-Fort Thomas in Fort Thomas, Ky.; and Dayton VAMC in Dayton, Ohio.
Three deployments are slated for August at Fort Wayne VAMC in Fort Wayne, Ind.; Marion VAMC in Marion, Ind.; and Richard L. Roudebush VAMC in Indianapolis. VA also plans October deployments at the Alaska VA Healthcare System in Anchorage and the Louis Stokes Cleveland VAMC in Cleveland.
According to a budget document from the VA, the department plans to deploy the Federal EHR system to 26 additional sites in fiscal year 2027. The VA has not yet released a detailed, site-by-site schedule for those deployments.
Congress has given the VA until June 1, 2026, to provide that schedule.