The Military Health System is combining a number of health information technology systems and employees into a single organization to promote the health of military personnel.
Deputy Secretary of Defense Gordon England signed a memorandum Feb. 26 establishing the new Armed Forces Health Surveillance Center.
The center’s functions include analyzing health surveillance data, providing information on known and potential health threats, and responding to disease outbreaks by monitoring data and coordinating investigations and assessments.
The organization’s mission is to promote the health of military service members by providing actionable information for commanders, policy-makers, planners and health care providers, said Col. Robert DeFraites, the center’s provisional director.
“Health surveillance is very important for medical readiness and force health protection,” he said. “Our experiences following the first Gulf War and from the operations in Iraq and Afghanistan taught us that we need a comprehensive approach to detecting, assessing and responding to the multiple health threats our troops face.”
Defending against pandemic infection will be a key aspect of the center’s work, said Dr. S. Ward Casscells, assistant secretary of Defense for health affairs. “MHS is committed to improving the capability to anticipate, detect and respond to health threats, especially those posed by newly emergent infectious diseases such as severe acute respiratory syndrome,” he said.
In an effort to provide a comprehensive source of strategic health surveillance information, the Defense Department will combine several systems: the DOD Serum Repository, the Defense Medical Surveillance System, the DOD Global Emerging Infections Surveillance and Response System, and elements of the Deployment Health Support Directorate.
DOD is also involved in a collaborative project with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention through which the latter tracks infectious diseases by analyzing DOD’s sick-call data.
Government Health IT presents Rick Friedman, director of the division of state systems for the Center for Medicaid and State Operations with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, in this recent eSeminar regarding how the federal Centers of Medicare and Medicaid Services is partnering with state Medicaid and health and human services officials to bring Medicaid into the digital age. Paul McCloskey, Government Health IT editor, moderates.
