The U.S. military is enhancing its electronic health record system and is using the technology to help treat military personnel on the battlefields of Iraq, officials told a conference on military medicine this week.

The Department of Defense aims to provide a life-long electronic health record to every member of the armed services. Tricare, the military’s healthcare system, by the end of the year plans to offer its Armed Forces Health Longitudinal Technology Application (AHLTA), according to  William J. Winkenwerder Jr., assistant secretary of defense for Health Affairs and director of TRICARE Management Activity. AHLTA is a clinical data repository with information on all beneficiaries that can be accessed from anywhere in the world.

"It provides a retrievable record, and that's essential, given the high rate of deployment that this global war against terrorism creates," said David S. C. Chu, MD, under secretary of defense for personnel readiness.

The system has a theater counterpart that is being tested in Iraq using Theater Medical Information Program software in addition to the DOD’s electronic health record system.

“We literally went from legal pad technology to an electronic record,” Lt. Col. David Parramore told attendees at  Tricare’s annual “Military Medicine: Transforming the Future,” conference.

Since July 2005, information about 186,866 patients in Iraq has been entered into the electronic health record system. Upgrades to the system will include a patient tracking system and clinical references so that physicians can electronically access information on best practices for certain procedures, according to Lt. Col. Cluade Hines, Jr. Hines said those functions would be ready for the military to begin testing by October.