£80 million IT system to hold military medical records

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An £80 million IT system which will allow military healthcare records to be accessed overseas and on the battlefield will be rolled out to all army medical facilities, including overseas bases, by next summer, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) has said.

The Defence Medical Information Capability Programme (DMICP) was trialled at two small sites - Chicksands and Waterbeach Medical Centres - before being implemented on a larger scale in Colchester. Now, it will be rolled out across UK Army medical facilities and by August 2008 will be extended to the Royal Air Force, Royal Navy, Defence Dental Services and permanent overseas bases. The following year, it will begin to be made available in field hospitals, on ships and even in battlefields, via a laptop or other portable device.

"The new system being launched today is all about improving the care and treatment of military personnel," said the undersecretary of state for defence Derek Twigg, in a statement. "Doctors, pharmacists, nurses and other health professionals will now benefit from access to one central database, providing the most up-to-date information on their patients - it will not matter if they are in Birmingham or Basra. This is a truly 21st century way of working and a huge step change in medical care."

Currently, military healthcare records are held in much the same way as civilians' records - on paper or on a single computer.

"The ability to access patient records anywhere, anytime is an invaluable asset and the assurance of a single record for each patient will give medical staff greater confidence that when treating patients they are looking at a definitive record," said Lt Gen Robert Baxter, deputy chief of defence staff (Health). "The system will allow staff to work more efficiently, spend more of their time caring for patients and utilise medical resources more effectively."

By 2010, the DMICP will be connected to the NHS systems, allowing records to be imported in and out of the Defence Medical Services, upon recruitment or retirement.

The IT side of the system is being developed and implemented by LogicaCMG, and will use COGNOS and a clinical data tool called EMIS.

Ed Jones, managing director of LogicaCMG's Space and Defence Division said:

"The complexity of this programme, both in terms of business transformation and technology, cannot be underestimated."

Indeed, the Conservative party welcomed the programme, but warned that the MoD must be careful to keep it from facing the delays and other issues which have troubled the NHS' £12 billion National Programme for IT.

"Elements of the new system, such as the transmission of diagnostic images are welcome and have been in use for some time. However, there's a risk that the programme will follow its NHS big brother 'Connecting for Health' on the growing list of public sector IT disasters," said shadow defence minister Andrew Murrison, in a statement.

He cited concerns about confidentiality and ensuring personnel are given the same right to decline electronic data records that NHS patients have. "It appears that service personnel uniquely will not be able to decline to have their medical data recorded and shared electronically," Murrison said. "Ministers must explain why they should not have the same opt out rights that we have successfully demanded for NHS patient. This is particularly important since the MoD is both the employer and healthcare provider of service personnel and given that DMICP will soon share its data with the NHS."

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