MHS Development and Testing Center

The Armed Forces Healthcare Longitudinal Technology Application and other applications undergo a rigorous development and testing process before they are implemented in the field. This process ensures that the applications function as advertised and that any customization to the product fits the needs of our health care providers and other end users.

To streamline the development and testing process, the Military Health System Cyberinfrastructure Services directorate is consolidating all TRICARE Management Activity development and test labs into a single, centrally managed center: the Military Health System Development and Testing Center. In the new DTC, we will be able to ensure that testing is done in an environment that reflects as closely as possible the environment in the field.

The new DTC will not only improve the performance of applications and modifications at delivery, but it will also decrease the costs and improve the efficiency of the development and testing process. Applications will no longer be tested in isolation. Rather, they will be evaluated in the context of end-to-end system performance, so that something that works well in the testing environment is much more likely to work as intended when deployed to the field.

MCiS is consolidating the current development and test labs in a phased approach, beginning with the clinical application test environments. Business applications will be migrated in a later phase, and a dedicated performance and capacity testing environment is planned for the future.

Network Protection Suite 2.0/MHS Intranet

The Network Protection Suite provides comprehensive, state-of-the-art protection for the systems that make up the local area network and the wide area network of the military treatment facility. The NPS is designed to prevent cyber threats to the local area network and wide area network, and contain incidents and keep them from spreading beyond the trusted side of the network. It is updated continually to address new security threats. This protection ensures the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of data at rest and in transit.

MCiS is managing the transition to the next iteration of the Military Health System Intranet (MHSi), which will provide better performance by upgrading to a faster, more reliable network infrastructure. The upgraded MHSi will incorporate intelligent routing for enhanced access and availability to the “cloud.”

Defense Health Headquarters Network (Base Realignment and Closure)

The 2005 Base Realignment and Closure Commission Final Report establishes a collocated medical headquarters consisting of TMA, Force Health Protection & Readiness and the Surgeons General for the Army, Air Force and Navy. MCiS is leading the information technology component of the project, which includes a network architecture that supports voice, video teleconference and data network requirements of these organizations. The centralization of these functions will improve the integration of applications, data sharing, and interoperability within the MHS and between the Services’ Surgeons General organizations.

Service Oriented Infrastructure

MCiS is leading the way in the transition to service-oriented infrastructure, which will improve data sharing and interoperability across applications and agencies. The core component of the service-oriented architecture is the MHS Enterprise Service Bus. An ESB application communicates via the “bus”, which acts as a message broker between applications. When the ESB receives a message, it routes the message to the appropriate application. To accommodate applications that evolved without the same message-model, the ESB transforms the message into a format that the application can interpret. The ESB not only allows disparate systems within MHS to “talk” to one another, but also enables data sharing and interoperability between the Department of Defense (DoD) and Department of Veterans Affairs and with private sector providers. This level of data sharing speeds changes to existing applications and reduces time-to-market for new applications.

Joint Task Force–National Capital Region Medical

The Joint Task Force is tasked with leading the way for the effective and efficient consolidation and realignment of military health care in the national capital region. As a result of this project, health care providers will be able to access Service Members’ health records with an equal level of service at either of the JTF-CapMed’s main campuses, located in Bethesda, Md., and Ft. Belvoir, Va. The network infrastructure will support approximately 10,000 to 20,000 Army, Navy, and Air Force military and civilian personnel across multiple hospitals with the national capital area. Testing is scheduled to be completed in May 2011, and the centralized system will be operational in early August 2011.

Composite Health Care System Consolidation in Korea

Consolidating three distinct Composite Health Care System databases/Armed Forces Healthcare Longitudinal Technology Application local cache servers into one secure medical facility in Korea will result in a single CHCS/local cache server database for the healthcare records of all beneficiaries serving in Korea. MCiS is managing this consolidation, which will improve the accessibility to critical patient data and streamline the referral process between facilities. The project also will reduce the hardware footprint and maintenance costs currently required to support three disjointed and geographically dispersed databases.