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DOD/VA CHDR Reaches Milestone: 1 Million Patients
July 29, 2011
The departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs achieved an important milestone June 24, when the number of shared patients for whom the departments exchange computable outpatient pharmacy and medication allergy data reached 1 million patients.
In 2006, VA and DOD began sharing computable pharmacy data through an interface between the Clinical Data Repository of AHLTA and the VA’s Health Data Repository. This initiative, called CHDR, integrates the outpatient pharmacy and medication allergy data for shared patients, allowing DOD providers to see an integrated view of medications from DOD military treatment facilities and retail pharmacy network, VA facilities, and DOD and VA mail order pharmacies.
“Sharing computable pharmacy and medication allergy data provides the ability to conduct drug-drug and drug-allergy interaction checks with data from both departments,” said Mary Ann Rockey, Program Executive Officer of Joint Medical Information Systems for the Military Health System. “This is just one example of the ways the departments support better patient care and safety for beneficiaries and Veterans.”
Initially, identifying these shared patients was done through a manual process to place an Active Dual Consumer “flag” on patients who had received health care from both departments in the past 36 months. In 2008, DOD implemented a process to automatically identify patients in both systems and set the ADC flag on approximately 100 patients each day.
The automated system was improved in 2010 with the release of CHDR 2.0, and by July 2010, was applying the flag to approximately 3,600 patients per day who were receiving health care from both systems. The departments initially set a goal of identifying 850,000 ADCs by September 2011, but surpassed that mark in May and hit the 1 millionth activation on June 24.
“I am extremely proud of the efforts and dedication of the CHDR team in reaching this significant milestone,” said Army Col. DaCosta Barrow, Program Manager for the Defense Health Information Management System, “This achievement represents an important step toward maximizing interoperability between DOD and the VA.”
By Saunsurae Robinson, Defense Health Information Management System
Saunsurae Robinson
Defense Health Information Management System