DOD will equip its personnel with PHRs
- By Nancy zz_Ferris
- Jun 03, 2008
The Military Health System plans to make personal health record technology available to some of its members later this year and expand the program to all 9.2 million members as early as next year.
Dr. S. Ward Casscells, assistant secretary of Defense for health affairs, told fellow members of the American Health Information Community today that “we are working on [the PHR project] very hard now.” He said MHS officials want to identify a top commercial vendor and modify its product for military use.
Casscells later told a reporter that although there are about 200 PHR products on the market, “we’re talking to two or three of the biggest [vendors].”
Officials are looking for a robust and flexible PHR system with the same characteristics that would make a product successful in the civilian marketplace, such as ease of use, Casscells said.
When asked whether PHR users would be able to download portions of their records from AHLTA, the Defense Department’s electronic medical record system, Casscells said that is one of the issues officials are exploring.
“We want to get something done by the end of the year,” he said.
He added that he wants military personnel to be more actively involved in their health care and believes the PHR system could help. He said people tend to wait until they are told to get preventive care or seek treatment for an illness.
Rather than pushing military personnel toward health care, “I’d like the patients to pull,” he said.
He said he will consult with the Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology, which plans to begin testing PHR products in 2009.
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