Armed forces recruit NHS IT systems to boost care in the field

MoD staff will be issued with wrist-based PCs

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) has started the rollout of its electronic health records project, and says the scheme will be linked to the domestic NHS IT infrastructure by 2010.

The MoD's Defence Medical Information Capability Programme (DmicP) will make service personnel's medical and dental records accessible at military medical facilities around the world (see below).

Rollout of the technology by supplier LogicaCMG started at a Colchester medical centre last month and the system will be in all Army, Navy and RAF bases across the world by August 2008.

The plans to link to the NHS fit within the eGovernment Unit's 'build once use often' philosophy, under which infrastructure developments in one part of the public sector should be available for adaptation and reuse elsewhere.

'By working more closely together, both across and within departments, government can save money, reduce waste and move closer to delivering services in the way that citizens want and respect,' according to the latest government IT strategy published in January this year.

Ultimately, links to the £12bn National Programme for NHS IT infrastructure will enable recruits' records to be transferred from local GPs to the military system. It will also provide the health service's summary of the patient's care history to authorised military medical staff.

Reuse of the NHS Choose and Book system will allow MoD medical staff to go online and choose a suitable hospital or consultant when referring patients on from field care.

The tie-up with the domestic health service makes significant financial sense for the armed forces, says DmicP assistant director Colonel Mike Manson.

'Using the NHS IT capabilities will help generate more than £100m return on investment from DmicP over 10 years,' he said.

The MoD proposal is not the first major technology programme to take account of the reuse objective.

Last year, the national biometric identity card programme was significantly altered to make better use of existing infrastructure. Under the updated plans the scheme will use the existing Citizen Information System, rather than relying on the creation of an entirely new database.

The government is also consolidating its web sites. Ninety of its 951 sites have already been shut down, 461 more are scheduled to be closed and another 374 are under review.

The DmicP scheme will set a significant example to other departments, says Butler Group analyst Sarah Burnett.

'The plan is the first instance of shared resources between such different organisations, previous examples have tended to be between similar departments and on a smaller scale,' said Burnett.

The scale and complexity of the public sector has traditionally made it difficult for departments to share resources, hence the tendency to duplicate technology developments. But the government is slowly changing the way IT investments are approached, and the DmicP proposal is a definite step forward, says Burnett.

'There is a lot of room for more joint working that could take shared services to a new level,' she said.

There are a number of other areas where the government could benefit from a similar approach, says Burnett.

'For example, there are multiple secure networks, such as those run by the NHS, Government Connect and Government Gateway,' she said.

Taking electronic healthcare to the frontline

• The Defence Medical Information Capability Programme (DmicP) will create a central database of military health records accessible by military clinicians across the UK, overseas and on the battlefield.
• Medics on the battlefield, where wireless transmission is unavailable, can input details into a mobile device or PDA strapped to the wrist. The information is stored on a memory card and carried by the soldier.
• Information from 277 medical institutions, 165 dental centres and field hospitals in Afghanistan and Iraq can be transmitted wirelessly to the central database.
• The Integrated Health Records server will store all medical, dental, rehabilitation and mental data for personnel, accessible by authorised MoD health staff.
• Ultimately DmicP will reuse domestic health service systems, including electronic bookings and patients records. The links will enable military clinicians to share patient data, book NHS services and access summary care information.