“… It’s been several years since the Defense Health Agency consolidated the Military Health System’s network and information technology operations into a single, unified network infrastructure that can track health care operations around the world.”
“That transition occurred with such little fanfare that it might seem boring – but that’s just fine with the IT professionals at DHA, who say “boring” translates into finding a solution that is both reliable and stands the test of time.”
“With IT assets at approximately 600 military hospitals and clinics throughout the United States and around the world, “We’re global,” said Pat Flanders, the DHA’s chief information officer and deputy assistant director for information operations.”
“’When you think about the context of, say, vaccine distribution and tracking, we’re the only entity that’s truly doing that globally,’ he said.”
“His remarks came as part of a presentation entitled, “Making IT Boring Again – Priorities, Progress, and Pandemics,” at the Health Information and Management Systems Society’s annual conference in Las Vegas, where he presented with Tom Hines, his senior advisor and director of engineering and technology transformation for the DHA.”
“Flanders and Hines spoke to a crowd of more than 1,000 people, mostly medical and IT professionals, about cybersecurity within the DHA, and integrating multiple service branch-centric networks, as well as elements from the Defense Information Systems Agency, into a single network infrastructure…”
“Hines said DHA’s IT priorities now include:
- Continuous monitoring and beginning the migration to “continuous authorization”
- Pushing hard on the continued standardization of software and tools
- Continued decommissioning of legacy systems and their associated hardware and software platforms
- Looking hard at optimization of storage platforms and an overall reduction in the footprint and costs
- Adding new metrics and measurements of performance to drive toward desired outcomes
- Introducing increased automation into maintenance and configuration tasks to reduce operating costs…” Read the full article here.
Source: Making IT Boring Again: The Quiet Success of DHA’s Global Network – By Jacob Moore, August 26, 2021. Military Health System.
