One of the more dispiriting things Ed. Donna learned, when I asked Dr. Ward Casscells during October’s Mobile Health Expo closing keynote, was the lack of healthcare coordination between the Department of Defense and the Veterans Administration systems. With service members moving from active duty back to Reserves/National Guard, vice versa, and into discharge and/or retirement, with high rates of PTSD, TBI, mental health conditions and suicide, it seemed almost absurd, not to mention detrimental to better outcomes for them, that most coordination was informal beyond one annual meeting. A joint strategy for managing EHRs may go some way in resolving this into a ‘lifetime record’. DOD, VA prepare recommendation on joint EHR for late March, official says (Federal Computer Week)
Disclosure: Telecare Aware is a sponsor of Mobile Health Expo 2011, New York.