OUR REMARKABLE STORY

The Desert Storm Challenge - 1991

The United States military had the same challenges, particularly after Operation: Desert Storm (1990-1991), where more than 697,000 American troops were deployed to forward areas surrounding Iraq.  These troops were comprised of Active Duty personnel, Reservists, and National Guard.  The medical records for these troops were scattered amongst thousands of individual practices, hospitals, and labs throughout the world – on paper more often than not.  Point-of-Care access to critical medical records was virtually impossible when doctors attempted to treat forward troops.  Post-Desert Storm, leaders within the MHS (Military Health System) determined that integration of every disparate practice system was technologically and financially unfeasible.

The Integrated Clinical Database (ICDB) - 1994

In 1994, the ICDB (Integrated Clinical Database) was established.  Often credited to military health visionaries,  Colonel Jill Phillips (USA, retired) and Colonel  Jaime Rosado (USAF, retired), the ICDB started as an initiative of the Air Force Surgeon General's office, and has continued to enjoy the support and guidance of the AFSG throughout its development and fielding. From the beginning, the ICDB project was focused on meeting the needs of personnel in the field. To support that aim, Providers, Nurses, and Support Staff helped to create the initial Functional Requirements used for the software development.

From a 2003 ICDB Mission Statement:

The Official Mission Statement for the ICDB program offers a view into the originating ideas and concerns that led to the tool being developed and fielded. The goal of this program was the creation of a tool that enables clinical staff to accomplish their mission of better quality care, by simplifying access to the data they need on a daily basis.  The mission of ICDB is to integrate data from diverse clinical information systems into a single, uniform, open-architecture platform that facilitates the rapid development, prototyping, deployment and sharing of leading-edge tools that support local commanders and their staffs in meeting both their unique, MTF-specific missions and MHS strategic goals.

HEALTHeFORCES - 1999

By 1999, a front-end EHR had been developed.  It was engineered to be web-based from the very beginning (in 1999 the US military had no bandwidth limitations such as those experienced by the American public, who were largely using dial-up internet connections at that time).  Called ‘HEALTHeFORCES,’ the EHR went on to deploy worldwide and win healthcare technology awards.  By 2002, over $42 Million had been invested in the platform, and over 3 million patient records had been stored on it.

HEALTHeSTATE - 2005

HEALTHeSTATE, LLC was founded to continue the Private-Sector development of the core HEALTHeFORCES product for private practices.  The product earned CCHIT Comprehensive and Meaningful Use Certification.  In 2012, the first HEALTHeSTATE private practice received Meaningful Use money.

HEALTHeWV - 2006

In 2006, the late Senator Robert Byrd (WV) spearheaded an effort to ‘privatize’ the HEALTHeFORCES products for civilian use.  An additional $15 Million in federal earmarks were invested in a private-sector technology transfer effort to make the products applicable to the private healthcare market.  Test bed for this effort was an initiative titled “HEALTHeWV,” whereby the platform was implemented in 43 Federally Qualified Health Centers (“FQHC’s”) and Community Health Centers (“CHC’s”) in Virginia and West Virginia.

HealtheWV Program Impact Statistics as of 2012
•    43 clinics/sites (42 in West Virginia, 1 in Ohio) including 2 academic curricular sites
•    153 providers and 450 clinical staff users trained to utilize the system
•    Average of 890 unique users access the system
•    More than 1,199,900 prescriptions have been written
•    More than 894,700 patient progress notes documented since June 2006

Remote Online Veterinary Record (ROVR) - 2013

Remote Online Veterinary Record (ROVR) is a secure, web-based application for world-wide use to support the United States Army Veterinary Services (VS).  It supports government owned animals (GOAs) and privately owned animals (POAs).