The Veterans Affairs Department is still on track to permit iPads onto the departmental network by Oct. 1, said VA Chief Information Officer Roger Baker.

Baker spoke to reporters Aug. 30. Between 100 to 200 VA personnel, including Baker, currently participate in a iPad pilot. Clinicians, in particular, have pushed the VA to permit the mobile devices onto the network; many of the pilot participants work in the Washington, D.C. medical center.

However, even after the VA finalizes its iPad network controls, personnel won't be allowed to connect their own iPads, at least for now, Baker said. There is currently no departmentwide strategy, either, for procuring iPads. The budget for buying them will have to come out of each facility director's budget, at the director's discretion.

"We have made some of the motion that would be necessary for us to do an acquisition through IT, but I can't say that I, if you will, have authorized a particular acquisition strategy for these at this point," Baker said.

The VA is also planning to affix radio-frequency identification tags on high-value electronic devices "to the point of being able to tell when it walks out the door and being able to tell whether it was supposed to or not," Baker said. The VA already has WiFi RFID pilots ongoing in two upper Midwest administrative areas known as Veterans Integrated Service Networks (VISNs 10 and 11).

"Facility CIOs love the concept of not having to go out and count every desktop in their facility on a regular basis. That turns out to be one of the more onerous task we've given the CIOs," Baker sodded.

For more:
Audio: VA CIO Roger Baker's August IT report

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