The men and women of our armed forces are deployed all over the planet.
There are 197 countries in the world. The United States has (at least) 162,581 troops – in 178 of them.
Their global exposure means they are exposed to all sorts of organic diseases – and man-made toxins.
A research study entitled: “The Impact of Deployment and Combat Exposure on Physical Health Among Military Personnel: A Systematic Review of Incidence, Prevalence, and Risks” looked at thirty-two relevant studies and 1,681 English-language news articles. The study documents the staggering array and variety of diseases and ailments our service members suffer.
And that’s when they’re serving in (relative) peace. Service in war creates additional health problems.
We recently ended a 20-plus year war in Afghanistan:
“Veterans who served in Afghanistan during Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF), Operation Freedom's Sentinel (OFS), or related operations may have been exposed to a range of environmental and chemical hazards that carried potential health risks.”
Service in the second Iraq War resulted in its own health maladies:
"During their deployment to Iraq in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF), many Veterans were exposed to a wide array of toxic substances and psychologic stressors, most notably airborne/environmental pollutants from open burn pits.
“Service members do not deploy whilst unhealthy, but often they return with a multitude of acute and chronic symptoms, some of which only begin to manifest years after their deployment.”
This is true for all our foreign-stationed men and women – not just those in the hot zones. New sufferers, and new symptoms, will continue to arise long after their deployments – and their service.
Treating all of them optimally during, and after, their service must be a moral imperative of the country they’ve served.
It’s 2024. In the modern age you must have a modern computer system. Until recently, the Department of Defense (DoD) had anything but. Thankfully, that has been rectified.
How Health IT Upgrades Are Transforming the Military Health System:
“Top military health officials recently highlighted the importance of maintaining premium care for patients at a time when information technology systems are changing rapidly across the Military Health System….
"Experts talked about how systems like MHS GENESIS foster innovation and improve responsiveness.”
MHS GENESIS is the Defense Department’s new Electronic Heath Records System (EHRM) – which the DoD has now successfully implemented all over the world.
It replaced a decades-old, balkanized, non-interoperable system. Its antiquity prohibited the DoD from properly sharing health data. Within the DoD. Or with anyone else – public or private.
Which is a huge problem. Like, say, when service members retire – and have to transition their health care to the Veterans Administration (VA).
A VA that has a health records system that may be even older and more awful than was the DoD’s.
Thankfully, the VA’s implementation of MHS GENESIS has now begun:
“The Department of Defense’s federal electronic health records system, MHS GENESIS, completed its final site deployment at the Captain James A. Lovell Federal (VA) Health Care Center in North Chicago, Illinois.”
Lovell is the fifth of the VA’s eighty-four domestic hospitals to join the DoD in the 21st Century.
Has the VA experienced some transition technical problems? Yes. But that is hardly a surprise - given the half-century-plus-old system they’re replacing.
And if one were to guess what was causing the problem? Would one guess it was the brand new, state-of-the-art system – or the decades-old, non-interoperable system?
My bet is the ancient system is the problem. And my evidence begins with: The entire DoD has successfully implemented the new system.
And the very few complaining about the new system? Are bizarrely insisting we maintain the prehistoric status quo by continuing to use the existing ancient system.
Which makes zero sense.
And leaves our veterans out in the cold.
We live in a world full of warfare – and manifold dangers. And we ask our service men women to place themselves in harm’s way throughout this treacherous world.
When they become injured and sick as a result of their service? It is imperative we give them the very best health care.
It seems obvious to me that promise includes providing a modern, interoperable health care records system.
Anything less than that is unthinkable.
Jason Beardsley is a 22-year veteran of the United States Army and Navy, having served as a senior advisor to the Secretary of Veterans Affairs.
