The Department of Defense (DoD) has joined the Continua Health Alliance, which promotes connectivity of personal health devices and advocates for standards-based interoperability guidelines.

On Tuesday, Continua announced that DoD's Joint Program Committee-1, through the U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command, Telemedicine and Advanced Technology Research Center (TATRC), has joined the alliance, an international not-for-profit industry organization, which seeks to advance personal connected health by promoting end-to-end, plug-and-play connectivity.

[See also: Continua to drive development with open design guidelines.]

“Continua is honored to welcome the U.S. Department of Defense to our membership," said Clint McClellan, senior director of strategic marketing at Qualcomm Life, who serves as Continua's board president and chairman. "As a longstanding leader in the development and implementation of connected health strategies, we look forward to working with the Joint Program Committee-1 and TATRC to advance the use of technology to support health and wellness for our Armed Forces and the general public.

“Continua values our partnerships with industry, healthcare provider organizations and government agencies around the globe," he added. "Together, we are working to create an ecosystem of interoperable health technologies to support the convenient and secure collection and sharing of personal health data.”

[See also: DoD completes global health IT project begun in 1987.]

Joint Program Committee-1 (JPC-1) and TATRC have played a significant role in developing advanced technologies in areas such as health informatics, medical imaging, mobile computing and remote monitoring.

“JPC-1 and TATRC look forward to participating in Continua and assuming an active role in the organization’s working groups to help advance interoperability and the adoption of personal connected health solutions,” added Robert E. Connors, of the Henry M. Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Military Medicine, and executive health manager at TATRC under the Interpersonnel Government Act.