WASHINGTON — Military medical personnel should prioritize new technology and work with private health care providers to improve medicine for both veterans and civilians, a panel of experts at the Reserve Officers Association said Wednesday.
Through their use of data mining and electronic health records, the departments of Veterans Affairs and Defense have achieved “things in health care that civilian medicine has not,” said Richard Migliori, chief medical officer at UnitedHealth Group.
Jonathan Woodson, assistant secretary of defense for health affairs, cited advances in emergency medicine and trauma care pioneered by military doctors on the battlefield — such as tourniquets and prosthetic technology — that also helped civilian doctors heal victims of the Boston Marathon bombings.
Jonathan Woodson, assistant secretary of defense for health affairs, spoke Wednesday at a Reserve Officers Association panel. He emphasized how leveraging new technology is the future of military health care.
“Military medicine has been a rich source of innovation that has shaped and reshaped the way in which civilian surgery and medicine is practiced,” Migliori said.
However, more study and technological improvement is needed to care for veterans who have suffered catastrophic injuries during combat in the Middle East, Woodson said. Improvements in care for amputees are particularly important.
Woodson showed a video demonstrating how prototypes of prosthetic limbs controlled through implanted electronic sensors are helping veterans live “fully active, independent and involved” lives with their families.
“Modernization of the health system is truly critical,” said retired Maj. Gen. Andrew Davis, ROA executive director.
Although the panelists stressed the VA’s tech-savvy approach and commitment to using electronic health records, the agency has faced wide criticism over its struggle to digitize and respond to hundreds of thousands of backlogged veterans’ disability claims. Although the VA instituted an automated processing system to resolve the backlog, as of December it still had about 400,000 pending claims which are supposed to be eliminated by the end of 2015.
The department is also grappling with 265,000 appeals.
In early February, the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America released a report recommending the VA find a way to link its data to the Defense Department databases to streamline its operating system.
The ROA panel also touted the importance of holistic and preventative care. Recently the departments have put more emphasis on issues such as exercise, healthy eating, smoking and drug and alcohol use, officials said. Military health care should enable healthy habits along with providing services, ROA national health services officer Robert Kasulke said.
Making it easier for veterans to transition back into their communities is a vital element of modern care in light of the “new type of wounded warrior” who returns to both combat and civilian life.
“It’s about rebuilding their bodies, their minds, their spirits,” Woodson said.
