But here is the good news: The U.S. Defense Department and Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) have launched an effort to combine their two electronic health record systems into one. Known as the integrated Electronic Health Record, or iEHR, it aims to ensure that health care records will follow troops for their rest of their lives, beginning from the day they swear in to serve their country. The move will improve medical care for all military community members, including those wounded in combat or trying to process a VA claim.

According to News Editor Rita Boland in her article, “Two Government Organizations, One Health Information System,” in this issue of SIGNAL Magazine, the iEHR program is not merely a clearinghouse that stores all information, but rather, a continually evolving network that will use the newest technologies developed in order to provide the best care to U.S. troops.

Utilizing the latest and most useful technical tools means that leaders have not identified an end date for this project. Work began on the new system this past summer, but it’s a continuing process, through which capabilities will be added when they become available.

Roger Baker, VA assistant secretary for information and technology and chief information officer, explains that:

In an ideal world, [users] will wake up one day and find out that we have snuck it in on them. All of a sudden it’s become a single electronic health record system, and they never really notice that we did it.

The VA and Defense Department have agreed to use common data standards, and developers began by putting into place the enterprise service bus, which Beth McGrath, deputy chief management officer for the Defense Department calls the “very foundational piece.”

Project personnel also have learned what impacts both medical providers—including pharmacists—and patients, to better understand what they need. With that knowledge, project staff can define the capabilities to build into the iEHR.

The iEHR fits into the larger virtual lifetime electronic record, a business and technology initiative introduced by the president that includes a portfolio of health, benefits, personnel and administrative information sharing among government and private organizations. Baker notes that:

On the medical side, this is an important component of the virtual lifetime electronic record.

McGrath personalizes the integration issue, saying she would like for her doctors to have all the information they need to make the best choices for future care:

Right now, the doctor is relying on less information rather than more. With access to the iEHR, health care providers will have more data so they can make the best possible decisions with regard to treatment options.

What pitfalls or roadblocks may exist to reach the goal of a fully functional iEHR? How can the military, industry partners and other interested organizations help this process fully succeed? All info in one place, imagine that? Share you opinions here. 

Children of active duty, Reserve, Guard or retired military commissary customers can apply for the scholarships. Recipients must be enrolled or planning to enroll full-time in a four-year undergraduate college or university accredited in the U. S. and have a minimum cumulative grade point average of 3.0 on a 4.0 basis. For complete rules and requirements, visit the program’s website.

The scholarships are funded primarily through companies who sell goods at commissaries.

Homefront Help also has a Facebook page where visitors can gather and share information. If you know of a program that is helping service personnel, veterans or their families please submit that information to Rita Boland, SIGNAL’s news editor.

Conference discussion topics include cloud computing, cyberwar, procurement, wireless broadband and social media. Small businesses’ interaction with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) also will be explored.

Speakers and panelists include Jim Flyzik, president, The Flyzik Group; Peter Tseronis, chief technology officer, U.S. Department of Energy; Cathy Lanier, chief of police, District of Columbia; and Bruce Walker, acting vice president, homeland security, Northrop Grumman Information Technology.

Although the first day of DHS IT strategy sessions is not affiliated with the AFCEA conference, coverage of the sessions will be featured on the Coverage and Collaboration: Homeland Security 2012 Web page.

Developed by the National Center for Telehealth and Technology (T2), the mobile app includes clinical practice guidelines and recommendations from the departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs. It gives health care professionals immediate access to critical information, which ultimately improves the quality of care for service members and veterans. The program includes treatment recommendations, enhanced provider-patient interactions and specialty referrals.

The app is free and available for download from the iTunes App Store and the Android Market.

For information on all the mobiles apps available from the T2, visit www.t2health.org/mobile-apps.

These sites are not affiliated with AFCEA or SIGNAL Magazine, and we are not responsible for the content or quality of the products offered. When visiting new websites, please use proper Internet security procedures.

But when military technology is found to possibly fight cancer—that is welcoming news, as reported by George I. Seffers in his article,”Mine-Hunting Technology Learns to Fight Cancer,” in this issue of SIGNAL Magazine. Seffers speaks to the Office of Naval Research‘s Jason Stack, program officer in charge of the effort.

The ONR is developing active-learning software for identifying undersea mines. The goal is to make underwater mine-hunting robots smarter, eliminating the need for divers to risk their lives, according to Stack:

Within the world of naval mine countermeasures, our overarching goals are to find mines faster and get the man out of the minefield. That’s what we try to do. The active learning algorithms work with humans to help identify mines.

Doctors also face a similar problem: identifying specific cells in human tissue. Physicians must view hundreds of microscopic images containing millions of cells, which can take weeks for a pathologist to manually pinpoint cells in 100 images.

To aid in identifying cells, doctors commonly use an open-source computer program known as Fluorescence Association Rules for Quantitative Insight (FARSIGHT). Developed with funding provided by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and the National Institutes of Health, FARSIGHT identifies cells based on a subset of examples initially labeled by a physician.

Doctors up until now, for example, have not been studying endothelial cells because of time constraints. With FARSIGHT’s integrated active learning, however, the process is now automated and “highly accurate.” The enhanced FARSIGHT can accomplish in a few hours what once would have taken days or weeks.

Badri Roysam is chairman of the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at the University of Houston in Texas. He is also the program investigator for FARSIGHT and says the technology also is being used to benefit the Defense Department’s research into neuroprosthetic devices—robotic arms and legs connected directly to the brain for more natural control and movement.

Right now, the state of the art in active-learning technology is software that asks simple questions requesting that the user label a piece of data, such as whether or not an image is a mine, Stack explains. The final version will feature a prototype that is able to ask many more questions and learn more quickly.

Can FARSIGHT be integrated seamlessly into the medical field, and what impact will this have on peoples’ lives and budgets? Share you opinions and suggestions here.

The website also includes sections for teachers and parents and for caregivers, offering information and guides. Parents can learn more about summaries of typical behaviors throughout the deployment cycle depending on age and receive some parenting tips. Military Kids Connect is an initiative of the U.S. Defense Department’s National Center for Telehealth and Technology.

Homefront Help also has a Facebook page where visitors can gather and share information. If you know of a program that is helping service personnel, veterans or their families please submit that information to Rita Boland, SIGNAL’s news editor.