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Decision support system aids military during patient transfers

By Molly Merrill , Associate Editor

Military officials say the deployment of a pervasive operational business intelligence system has allowed them to be more efficient in evacuation and care activities, minimizing suffering and improving care.

Information Builders, a New York-based business intelligence provider, is helping the United States Transportation Command (USTRANSCOM) devise optimal patient movement plans based on urgent medical needs, available facilities, in-transit visibility and enterprise-wide cost and performance analytics.

TRAC2ES, an acronym for the TRANSCOM Regulating and Command and Control (C2) Evacuation System, is a decision-support, reporting and analysis tool that helps the U.S. Department of Defense and other federal agencies, such as the Federal Emergency Management Agency, coordinate patient movement on a global basis.

"TRAC2ES has transformed the DoD's distribution network with an extensive information technology backbone," said Gerald Cohen, president and CEO of Information Builders. "TRANSCOM now has a patient movement system that helps to assure positive outcomes for sick and wounded soldiers anywhere in the world."

The system,built on Information Builders' WebFOCUS BI platform, supports patient movement from the battlefield to definitive care and, when necessary, to rehabilitative care in hospitals such as Walter Reed. The system also tracks and coordinates patient information throughout the U.S. military's worldwide network of healthcare facilities.

"When soldiers are wounded in battle, the military needs to provide efficient medical transport in conjunction with real-time information and pinpoint accuracy," said Lt. Col. Keith Lostroh, TRAC2ES functional program manager. "TRAC2ES helps us provide advanced care for our troops."

Approximately 2,500 users now have access to the system, which provides three different domains to access personal, medical and movement data. WebFOCUS enables data-level and role-based security to partition the data based on each user's needs and requirements.

"Our utmost concern is for patient safety, quality of care and efficient use of resources. Business intelligence technology is helping us meet these objectives," said Lostroh.