Pentagon calls for longitudinal EHRs in five-year HIT plan

The Military Health System will redesign its IT infrastructure and beef up its electronic health records to become more comprehensive and longitudinal, according to a newly released strategic plan. It is the first time since 1999 that the MHS has had a formal strategy for information technology and information management.

The five-year plan calls for more collaboration between the three branches of the armed forces, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the MHS IT division and Tricare, the military's managed care group.

"Our architecture must enable responsive and reliable solutions and rapid delivery of new capabilities," the plan says, according to Government Health IT. "Our EHR needs to be intuitive, aggregate data for each patient over time and across providers, operate in all care settings, and allow sharing of information with our health partners."

Secondary goals of the strategy include a "Personal Health Agenda" to give patients electronic access to their own medical records, conduct virtual visits with clinicians and request appointments and medication refills online. Military brass also want to emphasize "enterprise intelligence" to share knowledge and disseminate best practices.

The plan is intended to mesh with a 2008 strategy to adopt service-oriented architecture, which, in part, facilitates interoperability between the MHS and the Department of Veterans Affairs.

For more:
- read this Government Health IT story
- download the Military Health System strategic plan (.pdf)

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