“Federal health leaders, including the director of the Defense Health Agency and the acting assistant secretary of defense for health affairs, discussed areas for synergy and collaboration between military and civilian health care partners at a virtual roundtable held by the American Hospital Association April 12.”
“During a federal health update panel, DHA Director Army Lt. Gen. (Dr.) Ronald Place emphasized the importance of smarter data and information sharing in support of the health care mission.”
“‘We often talk about our interest in creating a more integrated health system, not simply within the Department of Defense, but within the broader American health system,’ he said.”
In doing so, the DHA is looking at multiple and different ways to integrate data sharing both from the Military Health System as well as from outpatient physicians’ offices, Place explained.
“As an example, Place highlighted MHS GENESIS, the new electronic health record (EHR) system being deployed across the MHS, which the Department of Veterans Affairs will also incorporate.”
“‘In support of that, we’re also growing our participation in health information exchanges so that we can more easily share clinical information within our network, with the network, and with other hospitals,’ he said…”
“Dr. Terry Adirim, acting assistant secretary of Defense for Health Affairs, expanded on MHS GENESIS in a broader discussion on the MHS Transformation efforts amid responding to the COVID-19 pandemic.”
“‘COVID-19 has been a challenge for all of us, including the Department of Defense and military medicine,’ she said. ‘We not only have to respond to our beneficiaries within DOD, but we’ve also provided a response to our fellow Americans.'”
“For example, she highlighted DOD’s active engagement in vaccinating.”
“‘Our Defense Health Agency has led our military medical departments in establishing a program and all the policies, and we’ve administered already over 2.6 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine’ among DOD personnel, she said. ‘We’ve also administered several million doses in our support of the FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) mission to vaccinate fellow Americans…'” Read the full article here.
Source: DHA, HA leaders discuss MHS Transformation at AHA panel — By Claudia Sanchez-Bustamante, May 6, 2021. DVIDS.
