“One of the greatest challenges facing the military health system is finding consistent, effective ways to communicate a warfighter’s health information as he or she moves from point-of-injury to a military treatment facility (MTF). Erik Buice, Vice President of Civil and Health at Northrop Grumman Corporation, said many MTFs operate with older, legacy systems in a ‘low-to-no’ communications environment. Because of those factors, it has been incumbent on the military care providers to find workarounds in order preserve the health, safety, and longevity of each Soldier, Sailor, Marine, and Airman during the course of care…”
“Yet there is now technology in place, Buice said, that can enhance communications, both on and off the battlefield – adding the kind of bandwidth that will allow vital information like details of a warfighter’s health status, his or her medical history, as well as the type and manner stabilizing care he or she received while in route to the MTF.”
“’There are certainly ways to add bandwidth where it is needed,’ said Buice. ‘Yet, there’s more to it than that. You also have to find ways to link systems that, in the past, haven’t been able to talk to one another.’”
“The decision to move the military health system, regardless of branch, to a single electronic health record (EHR) system, MHS GENESIS, under the Defense Health Agency, is a step in the right direction, said Buice. Yet, many military providers and MTFs still rely on a host of older legacy systems that, regardless of increased bandwidth, may not be able to transfer data to where it’s most needed. That ‘hyper-variance’ can be an issue when trying to improve comms across the military health landscape…” Read the full article here.
Source: Connecting Systems, Connecting Care: Improving Comms from Point of Injury to MTF – By Northrop Grumman, July 10, 2020. Healthcare IT News.
