Building the structure for a stable electronic health record
When bridges age without the proper maintenance – it puts people at risk because the infrastructure is unable to support the need. This is why engineers are constantly checking and strengthening the infrastructure instead of just throwing on a coat of paint and considering it ready for traffic.
The military’s electronic health record is not that different. As it ages, the infrastructure on the back end needs to be strengthened and stabilized to ensure a strong foundation to run the software.
To prevent the infrastructure of our EHR from crumbling, Military Health System providers and the Tri-Service Infrastructure Management Program Office are working diligently to strengthen the existing infrastructure.
“This stabilization is our way of looking into the future to ensure we are setting ourselves up for success as newer applications are added,” said Chuck Campbell, MHS chief information officer.
Under the program management of Air Force Col. Jaime Rosado, TIMPO is setting up a common test and evaluation environment to initiate the stabilization process.
“This is where all common MHS-managed, central applications will be evaluated prior to pushing out into production,” said Sonya Edom, director of TIMPO customer relations, whose primary focus is the military’s EHR.
Edom said that the goal of the test environment is to emulate the environment where the users rely on the enterprise programs to work, often in life or death situations.
“Testing in this way will allow us to catch a lot of issues before deploying a new system or software,” she said. “This will be a phased effort focusing on the military’s EHR first, and we will move to additional programs and initiatives.”
As a result, Campbell hopes that innovative initiatives will come about by having a lot of interest and bids from the private sector.
“Requests for proposals should be posted in the next month or so and those vendors interested should check out www.fedbizopps.gov and consider bidding on an effort,” Campbell said. “Once a request for proposals is posted to the site, we welcome vendor questions and are happy to supply the answers.”
The second phase of stabilization will include the repository for the many terabytes of information currently collected by the military’s EHR. The repository continues to grow with the MHS beneficiary population, currently at 9.6 million. The department’s repository is currently stabilized, but as needs increase, additional resources will be needed, MHS officials said.
“With the increasing need to share with the Department of Veterans Affairs and the private sector through the Nationwide Health Information Network, we are redoing the way we deliver applications and share information with our DOD/VA partners,” said Edom.
In addition, TIMPO is building an MHS Intranet capability that will allow better management of how applications are delivered across the MHS, Edom said. “It is much easier to manage a closed network than to have multiple networks operating simultaneously. For now, MHS cannot install infrastructure in theater of operations until we have a better way to deliver the information that is needed and under development.”
By Karen Roberts, OCIO Communications
Editor’s Note: Karen Roberts is the director of communication for the MHS Office of the Chief Information Officer. To learn more about TIMPO changes, visit www.health.mil/mhscio or write to OCIOcommunications@tma.osd.mil.
Subscribe to receive The Portal in your e-mail inbox each month.