Caring For The Nation’s Defence Personnel

Ensuring the well being of its 70,000 personnel is a prime concern for the Australian Defence Force (ADF) as it prepares them for operations. So Joint Health Command decided to introduce a single electronic health record across the ADF and, in early 2011, commissioned CSC to develop and implement the Joint eHealth Data and Information (JeHDI) system.

Agility is a key driver for today’s Defence forces, with greater expectations for rapid response and deployment than in any previous period. This means maintaining healthy personnel ready to be deployed when needed.

Yet, the ADF’s medical records, vital information that supports medical care provision in emergency situations (blood type, allergies), were still kept primarily on paper and in electronic systems that had limited capacity to support field deployments.

The Challenge

Agility is a key driver for today’s Defence forces, with greater expectations for rapid response and deployment than in any previous period.

This means maintaining healthy personnel ready to be deployed when needed. Yet, the ADF’s medical records, vital information that supports medical care provision in emergency situations (blood type, allergies), were still kept primarily on paper and in electronic systems that had limited capacity to support field deployments.

The Solution

Joint health command decided to introduce a single electronic health record across the ADF, and commissioned CSC to develop and implement the joint eHealth data and information (JEHDI) system.

Defence’s JeHDI system is one of the first comprehensive eHealth record projects across Australia in the context of Australia’s National eHealth Strategy.

CSC was selected to drive the project not only for its customised specific solution but also because of its 30 year history as an Australian Defence Prime Systems Integrator.

At the core of the JeHDI system is the EMIS solution from Egton Medical Information Systems, a leading primary care software provider with more than 39 million patient records entrusted to its systems in Europe and the Middle East.

Using EMIS, CSC will deliver a mature, centralised, web-accessible primary care solution that is military specific.

CSC will also provide application hosting and IT support services, organisational change, communication, training and project management.

The JeHDI project will deliver a comprehensive system, implemented through a sophisticated process which manages risks, balances this with the time and cost-saving imperatives that underpin the project.

CSC will leverage the UK MoD Defence Medical Information Capability Programme (DMICP) solution, which is currently providing a healthcare solution delivering a completely automated, integrated health record for all members of the UK armed forces, in peace time, war, in-barracks, on shore and under operational conditions.

The Results

Via the web-based system, Defence personnel will have immediate access to their medical records and healthcare information anywhere the Internet is available.

The benefits of this implementation will have a far reaching impact on the wellbeing of over 70,000 ADF personnel.