Military health care providers need to be able to rely on their computer systems, no matter where they care for troops. Service members stationed overseas must receive the same quality of health care as their compatriots at home.
Operating in the Pacific region poses special challenges for the Military Health System Cyberinfrastructure Services directorate. MCiS must ensure that all health care data is transmitted without significant time delays or loss of information, despite the great distances between military treatment facilities and MHS data centers in the Pacific region.
MCiS operations in the Pacific include supporting a new Department of Defense “tour normalization” policy for service members deployed to South Korea. When implemented, this new policy will allow service members to move additional family members to South Korea for the duration of their tours.
To accommodate this influx, MCiS has established partnerships with several organizations in the Pacific region including several in Hawaii. These include the Pacific Joint Interoperability Technology Center (JITC), Integrated Technology and Evaluation Center (ITEC), DOD Maui High Performance Computing Center (MHPCC) and the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL).
In collaboration with MHPCC, MCiS will establish a Pacific Operations (PACOPS) center which will provide high-volume data storage technology. In turn, PACOPS will also support the Pacific JITC and ITEC in research and development initiatives for various MHS systems.
MCiS is also looking to leverage the MHPCC DOD Supercomputing Resource Center to help the MHS design the cyberinfrastructure of the future. This facility provides resources for multiple DoD “challenge projects” and also houses the Air Force Maui Optical and Supercomputing site operated by the AFRL. Some of these projects involve advanced modeling and simulation efforts that MCiS will employ in cooperation with the Force Health Protection and Readiness Directorate. In addition, MHPCC representatives identified some high performance computing capabilities that could support MCiS cyberinfrastructure modernization efforts in the future.