IT Enables US Army Doctors to Retrieve Vital Records, Perform Surgery

Telesurgery using MC4(click to view larger) Using paper medical records in military hospitals and mobile medical units can be impractical at best. Doctors and nurses have to flip through paper-based charts to review patient histories in time-pressure situations that often require immediate action. Using the US Army’s electronic medical record system called Medical Communications for Combat Casualty Care (MC4), US military doctors, medics, and nurses record and retrieve medical information from laptops. Rather than searching through reams of paper records, Army medical personnel can quickly punch in a patient’s name and have all of the relevant medical history at their fingertips. Recently, an Army surgeon in Iraq has been able to use the MC4 system not just for record keeping but to perform surgery, which involved transmitting images back to specialists in the United States who assisted the surgeon. To support the MC4 system, General Dynamics Information Technology recently received a 5-year task order, worth up to $154 million if all options are exercised… No More Paper Under the task order, General Dynamics will provide predeployment, deployment, on-site, redeployment and garrison support to the MC4 system, as well as worldwide training, including combat areas and contingency operations use. The task […]