Tricare Management Authority has issued a request for information about strategies for building an immunization function in the integrated electronic health record system being developed by the departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs, Government Health IT reports (Mosquera, Government Health IT, 8/7).
Background
President Obama announced the integrated EHR, or iEHR, project in 2009. The joint system will allow every service member to maintain a single EHR throughout his or her career and lifetime.
DOD and VA have said they do not expect to fully implement the iEHR system until 2017 (iHealthBeat, 7/30).
Immunizations for Service Members
Military personnel receive many immunizations during their careers, including vaccinations for influenza and measles during their training and about 20 shots -- for hepatitis, smallpox and other diseases -- prior to deployment (Brewin, NextGov, 8/6).
DOD and VA currently use separate IT systems to manage immunization information.
Details of RFI
Tricare said it is seeking information from vendors and the open-source community about the development of a joint immunization function that could:
- Allow health care providers to order immunizations;
- Document administered immunizations and adverse reactions;
- Record a patient's immunization history; and
- Track vaccine inventory (Government Health IT, 8/7).
According to Tricare, the immunization function also should be able to:
- Alert clinicians to potential adverse reactions to immunizations;
- Interact with computerized provider order entry systems;
- Interact with DOD and VA scheduling systems; and
- Predict the need for vaccines based on disease outbreaks (NextGov, 8/6).
Tricare is accepting responses to its RFI until Aug. 17 (Government Health IT, 8/7).