Google Teams with PwC to Bid on $11B Gov't Project
PwC and Google mentioned in October of 2014 that they would be teaming up on large scale cloud projects. The duo made good on their promise as it is being reported that they have entered the race to win the $11 billion United States Department of Defense health system contract. The DoD oversees many of the military’s medical operations including the VA health care system.
PwC and Google would take on the endeavor of modernizing the Defense departments health care IT infrastructure by implementing an open source platform that is endorsed by the Open Source Electronic Health Record Alliance. PwC believes that by going open source, the Department of Defense will be able to avoid vendor lock-in issues down the road.
PwC is leading the bidding of the project while Google will step in on certain aspects of the project to help out with specific expertise. Scott McIntyre from PwC commented on Google’s involvement by saying, “Google is known for its expertise in innovative, secure and open technologies, and the power of Internet scale.” McIntyre also added, “Google can assist us in delivering a cost-effective and efficient solution to serve the healthcare needs of our military.”
The $11 billion dollar project being proposed by the federal government will help streamline many of the IT systems being used in a health care system that serves nearly 10 million active duty personnel and reservists. Many retired military veterans still use the DoD’s health care system therefore the retirees would also reap the benefits of the potential PwC/Google health care IT platform.
PwC has dubbed this endeavor the Defense Operational Readiness Health System or DORHS. Dan Garrett, the head of PwC’s health care IT services group, talked about DORHS in a press release saying “We want to provide an easy to use system for doctors, military personnel and their families to make the best health care decisions possible, without worrying about delayed, lost or incomplete medical information.”
