U.S. still pursuing unified health record for soldiers, vets

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The government is still working toward creating a unified electronic health record for troops and veterans, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta told Congress on Thursday, two days after announcing a change in the approach criticized by lawmakers. The Pentagon and the Department of Veterans Affairs said on Tuesday they were going to focus on integrating VA and Defense Department data using existing computer systems, rather than a previous plan to create a single, $4 billion computer system from scratch by 2017. …