The Department of Health and Human Services is expected to soon provide an updated set of guidelines to the health care community, and to federal agencies, regarding the effort to put in place a uniform system of electronic medical health records nationwide.

The Department of Veterans Affairs - which oversees one of the largest health care systems in the world - has been working to take the Department's VISTA health records management system into a new realm of upgraded open source software and hardware systems -- while meeting the mandate to become part of a nationwide electronic health records network.

Similarly, Navy officials say they've been helping the Defense Department sync up with Veterans Affairs, and eventually with the electronic records in the civilian world, with the promise of better patient care through shared medical data.