An Electronic Health Record That Includes Dental? It’s a Reality for our Military

The Military Health System is leading the charge with the groundbreaking implementation of a dental component to AHLTA, the military’s electronic health record, and our Service men and women are reaping the benefits.

For the first time in the history of the MHS, AHLTA-Dental consolidates Tri-Service Dental Records into a single, secure electronic resource, creating worldwide access to a Service member’s integrated medical and dental record. AHLTA-Dental manages planned workloads by linking diagnoses to procedures, providing real-time access to information for readiness and supporting tracking of patient dental readiness classifications.

“AHLTA-Dental ushers in a new era for medical readiness. With such extensive capabilities, AHLTA-Dental improves the sharing of patient information, allowing clinicians easy access to patient information anytime. It creates opportunities to reinforce health promotion and disease prevention activities,” said Charles Campbell, MHS, Chief Information Officer.

Approximately 377 dental clinics will train and implement AHLTA-Dental by the end of calendar year 2010, starting in the mid-Atlantic region. The Defense Health Information Management System’s Deployment Operations team is working closely with the Service Representatives to ensure all military treatment facilities are ready and prepared for a successful launch at each site.

Almost 11,500 personnel are slated to complete two interactive Web-based lessons preparing for on-site training that includes eight hours of classroom training followed by four to six hours of on-the-job training.