Nominee for Assistant Secretary of Defense, Health Affairs ... Cites Military EHRs as a Top Priority

[CC-Conrad Clyburn-MedForeSight]

Colleagues,

As reported in NextGov and the American Forces Press Service ... President Obama's nominee for assistant secretary of Defense for health affairs told a Senate panel that developing advanced electronic health record systems (EHRs) in the Defense Department is one of his top goals, second only to the care of wounded troops...

... Dr. Jonathan Woodson, an Army Reserve Brigadier General with more than 20 years of service,  was nominated in April 2010 ..

Dr. Jonathan Woodson

...He said AHLTA, the department's electronic health record system, should shift its focus from capturing administrative data to providing better service to clinicians ...

... Woodson told the panel he would like to see algorithm-based decision support software incorporated into the system to help clinicians make better decisions, including dispensing drug prescriptions, so military physicians can better deliver "the right care, at the right time, at the right cost." ...

...  Sentor Carl Levin, D-Mich., Chairman of the Armed Services Committee, asked Woodson to compare AHLTA to electronic health record systems used in the private sector, and Woodson, a vascular surgeon who practices at the Boston Medical Center and is an associate dean at Boston University, said the network is "a bit ahead" of systems private hospitals employ ...

... In his prepared testimony, Woodson said Defense needs to reconfigure AHLTA to accommodate the unique needs of various medical departments and include intuitive
systems to support clinicians...

... Woodson said if confirmed he would work with the undersecretary of Defense for acquisition, technology and logistics to examine alternatives for a new electronic health record and then quickly appoint a program manager to develop a new system...

Read on at: http://www.defense.gov/News/NewsArticle.aspx?ID=60300

MedTech-IQ commentary ...

As Thomas Edison most famously stated:

“I never perfected an invention that I did not think about in terms of the service it might give others… I find out what the world needs, then I proceed to invent” ...

ENJOY!

CC