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PILOT PROGRAM WILL SHARE MILITARY MEDICAL
RECORDS -- Pentagon to share the military's
huge
medical database with health care providers
in the Tampa Bay area.
Story here...
http://www.sptimes.com/
2007/04/05/Hillsborough/
Military_prepares_to_.shtml
Story below:
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Military prepares to share medical records
By WILLIAM R. LEVESQUE
TAMPA - Soldiers wounded in Iraq or Afghanistan are often treated by a
battlefield doctor or medic who inputs medical information in a handheld
computer the same way another generation's physicians used ink and
clipboard.
If the same soldier later visits a nonmilitary hospital back home, that
health data often proves as elusive and unreachable to private doctors
as a stealth fighter over Baghdad.
The Pentagon is trying to knock down those electronic walls.
Pentagon and state health officials Wednesday announced a pilot program
to share the military's huge medical database with health care providers
in the Tampa Bay area, a project defense officials hope one day will
catch on across Florida and the nation.
It's the Pentagon's first effort to link its medical records to the
private sector.
Local doctors and nurses using some of the same software and handheld
devices developed for special operations forces in battle zones will be
able to share with the military information on both active-duty
personnel and retired veterans.
The information initially passed back and forth might seem modest:
allergies, prescriptions, surgical history, lab results. In coming
years, more detailed data will be part of the network, from dental and
eye exam records to radiology reports.
"It will lead to better, safer care," said Dr. Andrew Agwunobi,
secretary of the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration, during a
short ceremony at MacDill Air Force Base. "This is especially true in
emergency situations when a person might be unable to give their own
medical history and in which every second counts."
At first, roughly 500 area doctors and three area hospitals will
participate. They are All Children's Hospital in St. Petersburg, H. Lee
Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute in Tampa and Tampa General
Hospital.
The hope eventually is to connect to all area hospitals and additional
doctors.
Officials said they had no specific timetable on when shared information
will first become available or when the network will be expanded.
"We are on the first step of a very difficult journey," said Dr. Stephen
Jones, principal deputy assistant secretary of defense for health
affairs.
Setting up an electronic health care information network "will be akin
to building America's cross-continental railroad. It's just as
monumental an undertaking," Jones said.
The Pentagon already has a system to share medical data with the
Department of Veterans Affairs, reducing some legwork as officials
transition to an enlarged network that includes state doctors.
The Pentagon's internal database links 70 military hospitals and 400
clinics and temporary medical facilities in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Information on 9-million people, both active-duty military and some
though not all retired veterans, is part of that network and will soon
be available to participating Tampa Bay doctors.
William R. Levesque can be reached at
levesque@sptimes.com or
at (813) 226-3436.
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Larry Scott --
