<P> ON June 5, 2017, United States Secretary of Veterans Affairs David Shulkin announced that the VA's electronic medical recordkeeping will be subsumed into the Department of Defense's Armed Forces Health Longitudinal Technology Application (AHLTA) system, with the work contracted out to Cerner . </P> <P> The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has had automated data processing systems, including extensive clinical and administrative capabilities, within its medical facilities since before 1985 . Initially called the Decentralized Hospital Computer Program (DHCP) information system, DHCP was enshrined as a recipient of the Computerworld Smithsonian Award for best use of Information Technology in Medicine in 1995 . </P> <P> VistA supports both ambulatory and inpatient care, and includes several significant enhancements to the original DHCP system . The most significant is a graphical user interface for clinicians known as the Computerized Patient Record System (CPRS), which was released in 1997 . In addition, VistA includes computerized order entry, bar code medication administration, electronic prescribing, and clinical guidelines . </P> <P> CPRS provides a client--server interface that allows health care providers to review and update a patient's electronic medical record . This includes the ability to place orders, including those for medications, special procedures, X-rays, nursing interventions, diets, and laboratory tests . CPRS provides flexibility in a wide variety of settings so that a consistent, event - driven, Windows - style interface is presented to a broad spectrum of health care workers . </P>

What does cprs stand for in the va