The Gateway

Commanders need up-to-date surveillance data to properly monitor and allocate personnel and supplies throughout their area of responsibility. Having the ability to review and filter near real-time medical data can reduce the time required to make these decisions.

The web-based application Joint Medical Workstation (JMeWS) gives commanders the ability to view encounter data, disease and non-battle injury rates and analysis, as well as symptom-based information. Patient data can be monitored for abnormalities and alerts can be set when data exceeds pre-determined ranges.

While many commanders utilize JMeWS to enhance their decision making on the battlefield, they also understand that the surveillance data is only as good as the data entered by medical personnel at medical treatments facilities (MTFs).

During previous rotations, Col. William Grimes, former commander of Task Force 61, and Lt. Col. Darlene McCurdy, former commander of TF 146, established and improved business processes so that critical information was captured uniformly in their MTFs. The improved data fed into JMeWs, providing a more accurate snapshot of events for these commands.

A similar endeavor is currently under way in Iraq by TF 44. As I mentioned last month, the command instituted a policy mandating the use of MC4 systems to capture all outpatient and inpatient data. The effort will pay dividends as commanders gain a clearer view of their medical landscape.

Commanders wanting to become better versed in JMeWS can contact their local MC4 country site lead to schedule classroom training or individual, over-the-shoulder training. Additionally, MC4 offers JMeWS computer-based training modules to help users learn at their own pace.

In the coming months, I will travel to theater to get a first-hand account of the great progress commands, such as the TF 44, are making by incorporating JMeWS into every aspect of their medical operations.

On 3 November, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs (ASD(HA)) S. Ward Casscells, M.D., released a memorandum formally requiring all Services to complete the transition to using the Theater Medical Information Program-Joint (TMIP-J) suite of applications for collection and storage of all theater healthcare-related data on Service members.

Enforcement of this policy will ensure the Department of Defense’s (DOD) clinical data repository contains all healthcare data collected on deployed Service members and will further ensure medical information is accessible to the Veterans Administration.

With MC4 deployed since 2003 and more than 200 Army and Air Force MTFs equipped with the TMIP-J suite of applications, I’m proud to acknowledge that our past and present efforts currently position the Army in compliance with this directive.

The memorandum also states that the Joint Theater Trauma Registry (JTTR) program will officially fall under the technical management of Defense Health Information Management System (DHIMS). MC4 will continue to support the deployed trauma registry efforts by providing integrated hardware solutions in theater.

Last month, the DOD Chief Information Office (CIO) awarded the MC4 team second place for the 2008 DOD CIO Team Award. The award recognizes outstanding achievement in DOD information management based on the spirit and intent of the Clinger-Cohen Act of 1996 (Information Technology Management Reform Act) and vision of the DOD CIO.

I would like to pass this honor on to those commands in theater that contributed to this success.