Air Force Col. Richard Terry, Acting Chief Information Officer for the Military Health System (MHS) www.health.mil spoke at the HIMSS 2017 conference www.himssconference.org held February 2017. He told the attendees that MHS wants to take steps to duplicate efforts across each of the services medical systems. Also the goal for the MHS network is to standardize clinical and business processes and to improve access to healthcare information within the military medical community.
His remarks were made after the initial deployment of MHS GENESIS www.health.mil/MHSGenesis , the military’s new EHR system at Fairchild Air Force Base in Washington. GENESIS is a single integrated medical and dental EHR for use across the MHS and is scheduled to be fully deployed at all military hospitals and clinics by 2022.
Col. Terry pointed to a series of steps needed to reach full implementation MHS wide over the next five years. He said, “The MHS is consolidating the IT infrastructure so there is one network, one data center, and one configuration and strategy to make sure everyone is on the same page.
He also reports, “As the delivery platform is standardized MHS-wide, the medical community will see one secure and reliable network connecting DOD users with users from the VA. Doctors, nurses, and providers will see an updated system that standardizes core applications.”