[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 7558 Introduced in House (IH)]
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119th CONGRESS
2d Session
H. R. 7558
To direct the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of Veterans
Affairs to jointly adopt and use interoperable image-sharing software
technology for the purpose of sharing medical images and related data
at medical facilities of the Department of Defense and Department of
Veterans Affairs, and for other purposes.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
February 12, 2026
Mr. Schweikert introduced the following bill; which was referred to the
Committee on Armed Services, and in addition to the Committee on
Veterans' Affairs, for a period to be subsequently determined by the
Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall
within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To direct the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of Veterans
Affairs to jointly adopt and use interoperable image-sharing software
technology for the purpose of sharing medical images and related data
at medical facilities of the Department of Defense and Department of
Veterans Affairs, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Achieving Interoperability of
Medical Systems Act of 2025'' or the ``AIMS Act of 2025''.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
Congress finds the following:
(1) Section 1635 of the National Defense Authorization Act
for Fiscal Year 2008 (Public Law 110-181; 10 U.S.C. 1071 note)
directed the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of Veterans
Affairs to jointly--
(A) develop and implement electronic record systems
that allow full interoperability of personal health
care information between the Department of Defense and
the Department of Veterans Affairs; and
(B) accelerate the exchange of such information
between the two departments.
(2) Such section established the Department of Defense-
Department of Veterans Affairs Interagency Program Office (with
a Director and Deputy Director) for such purposes and
authorized the Secretaries to carry out pilot projects to
assess the feasibility and advisability of various
technological approaches to the development of the record
systems.
(3) Such section also requires--
(A) the Director of the Interagency Program Office
to submit to the Secretaries and to Congress annual
reports on the activities of the Office;
(B) the Secretaries to make such reports available
to the public; and
(C) the Comptroller General of the United States to
conduct semiannual assessments of the progress of the
Secretaries in carrying out the requirements of such
section.
SEC. 3. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE AND DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS
INTEROPERABILITY OF MEDICAL IMAGES AND RELATED DATA.
(a) In General.--The Secretary of Veterans Affairs and the
Secretary of Defense shall jointly adopt and use interoperable image-
sharing software technology--
(1) accessible by facilities of the military health
service, as well as the GENESIS platform of the military health
service and the Federal Electronic Health Record platform of
the Department of Veterans Affairs; and
(2) at each Department of Veterans Affairs and Department
of Defense medical facility.
(b) Scope.--The technology adopted and used under subsection (a)
shall provide for interoperability between all of the following:
(1) Military medical centers included in the Military
Health System.
(2) Department of Veterans Affairs medical facilities and
clinics.
(3) Non-Department providers that have entered into
agreements with the Secretary of Veterans Affairs under section
1703 of title 38, United States Code.
(c) Plan.--Not later than 180 days after the date of the enactment
of this Act, the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of Veterans
Affairs shall provide to the Committees on Armed Services and the
Committees on Veterans' Affairs of the House of Representatives and the
Senate a briefing and submit to such committees a report on the plan of
the Secretaries, and an associated timeline, for achieving the full
interoperability of medical images and related data between the
Department of Defense and Department of Veterans Affairs in accordance
with subsection (a). The plan shall include each of the following:
(1) The expansion of the services provided pursuant to
contracts entered into between the Secretary of Defense, the
Secretary of Veterans Affairs, and application-based vendors
that meet interoperability standards.
(2) An assessment and comparison of the baseline medical
image interoperability that exists, as of the date of the
enactment of this Act, between the Department of Defense and
the Department of Veterans Affairs and external partners of
such departments, including--
(A) non-Department of Veterans Affairs imaging
providers described in section 1703(c) of title 38,
United States Code; and
(B) imagining providers who are described in
section 199.6 of title 32 of the Code of Federal
Regulations, or any successor regulation.
(3) An identification of one or more licensed
interoperability software technology solutions of choice that--
(A) is shared by hospitals and health care
providers to benefit patients before and after
discharge from provider care and that is accessible to
current and future providers, in compliance with
applicable accessibility requirements, including mobile
user interface, as established in the Information and
Communication Technology and Software portions of the
Revised 508 Standards under part 1194 of title 36 of
the Code of Federal Regulations, or any successor
regulation, and in adherence with the Web Content
Accessibility Guidelines 2.1AA, as established by the
World Wide Web Consortium and in effect on the date of
the enactment of this Act;
(B) enables the electronic medical records system
of a hospital, or in the case of a Department of
Veterans Affairs facility, the Federal Electronic
Health Record of the Department, to interface with
interoperability technology and other electronic
medical records systems and providers to promote mobile
connectivity between hospital systems and facilitate
increased communication between hospital staff and
providers that use different or distinctive online and
mobile platforms and information systems when treating
acute patients;
(C) captures and forwards clinical data, including
laboratory results and images, provider notes,
historical clinical conditions, procedures,
medications, cardiology testing results, and vital
signs, and provides synchronous patient clinical data
to health care providers regardless of geographic
location;
(D) provides a synchronous data exchange that is
not batched or delayed, at the point the clinical data
is captured and available in the electronic record
system of a hospital;
(E) is capable of providing proactive alerts to
health care providers on their smartphones or a smart
device;
(F) allows both synchronous and asynchronous
communication using a native smartphone application;
(G) is mobile, can be used on multiple electronic
devices, and includes the industry standard 39 built-in
application for the two most popular operating systems
and a built-in application available to all users;
(H) as patient-centric communication and is tracked
with date and time stamping;
(I) provides interoperability to include imaging-
related workflows of image exchange, sharing, and
collaboration;
(J) provides enterprise-wide deployment that is
comparable to the size and complexity of the largest
integrated health care system in the country;
(K) allows a patient to manage their own health
using a mobile application in alignment with wearable
technology devices or the function referred to as the
``Share My Health Data'' available through the Veterans
Health Administration;
(L) adheres to integration standards for software
applications to connect to an electronic health record
system, or in the case of a Department of Veterans
Affairs medical facility or a Military Health System
facility, use a Federal Electronic Health Record
system, as established by the Office of the National
Coordinator for Health Information Technology of the
Department of Health and Human Services, including--
(i) Substitutable Medical Applications,
Reusable Technologies on Fast Healthcare
Interoperability Resources, known as ``SMART on
FHIR'', which allows third-party applications
to integrate directly with electronic health
records and patient portals;
(ii) open authorization protocol 2.0
(OAuth2) for session authentication, which
bolsters security and patient safety by only
allowing authorized users with validated access
to view, share, and import images and related
data; and
(iii) Digital Imaging and Communications in
Medicine, which is the regulated standard for
medical images; and
(M) is cost-effective with a high return on
investment that is supported by the use of artificial
intelligence in the image sharing workflow.
(d) Requirements for Plan.--In developing the plan required under
subsection (b), the Secretaries shall ensure that--
(1) the software used for interoperable medical images and
related data of the Departments is designed to--
(A) improve health care delivery and quality by
addressing the increased costs, delays, and patient
burden of repeat images caused by the couriering of
compact discs and DVD-ROMs as the primary mechanism for
sharing patients' medical images in the continuum of
care;
(B) the plan includes the development, by not later
than two years after the date of the enactment of this
Act, of a robust data storage platform capable of
storing health data from the Department of Veterans
Affairs, the military health service, and health
information exchanges used by non-Department providers
that have entered into agreements with the Secretary of
Veterans Affairs under section 1703 of title 38, United
States Code;
(C) provide patient-centered care by facilitating
faster diagnoses, enabling more informed decision-
making and promoting better communication;
(D) support more efficient use of the time of
clinical and support staff and improve retention by
helping to prevent burnout; and
(E) promote the effective use of shared services
between the Departments, including joint facilities and
military treatment facilities that provide clinic space
for the Department of Veterans Affairs, and in
coordination with non-Department providers that have
entered into agreements with the Secretary of Veterans
Affairs under section 1703 of title 38, United States
Code; and
(2) the plan includes an implementation timeline and
associated milestones, and an identification of the projected
total cost.
(e) Reports.--Not later than six months after the date of the
submission of the report required under subsection (b), and annually
months thereafter, the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of
Veterans Affairs shall jointly provide a briefing and submit to the
Committees on Armed Services and the Committees on Veterans' Affairs of
the House of Representatives and the Senate on--
(1) any updates to the plan included in the report required
under subsection (b); and
(2) metrics and quantified cost and time savings associated
with using an interoperable software solution in health care
that complies with the health insurance portability and
accountability act privacy standards under part 160 and part
164, subpart of title 4 of the Code of Federal Regulations, as
in effect on the date of the enactment of this Act.
(f) Definitions.--In this section:
(1) The term ``GENESIS'' means the electronic health record
system known as ``MHS GENESIS'' that is used by the military
health service.
(2) The term ``military treatment facility'' has the
meaning given such term in section 1073c of title 10, United
States Code.
(3) The term ``electronic health record'' means an
electronic version of a patient's medical history, that--
(A) is maintained by the provider over time, and
may include all of the key administrative clinical data
relevant to that person's care under a particular
provider, including demographics, progress notes,
problems, medications, vital signs, past medical
history, immunizations, laboratory data and radiology
reports;
(B) automates access to information and has the
potential to streamline the clinician's workflow; and
(C) has the ability to support other care-related
activities directly or indirectly through various
interfaces, including evidence-based decision support,
quality management, and outcomes reporting.
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