Information Science and Technology: A New Paradigm in Military Medical Research

Abstract

The escalating pace of technologies such as computers and mobile communications systems, along with major advances in neurobiology, increases opportunities for military medical problem solving. This convergence of information technology with medicine was new as a core funded program in military medical research, but foundational research had been conducted by the Telemedicine and Advanced Technology Research Center (TATRC) through special congressional interest projects, small business innovative research programs (SBIRs), and other special funding programs in the Department of Defense (DoD) totaling $500 M/year for more than a decade before its inception. Five main thrust areas formed the new funded program supported by the Joint Program Committee 1 (JPC1) to transform military health care to a safer, will-predictive, preventative, evidence-based, and participatory system. These focus areas included medical simulation and training, mobile health (m-Health), open electronic health record and medical systems interoperability, computational biology and predictive models, and knowledge engineering. This modest investment in transformational research stands to produce huge benefits in cost savings in military medicine through improved efficiencies provided with everyday technologies.