Military Health to evaluate two electronic dental records systems

The Military Health System said it plans to spend the next six months evaluating two applications for an electronic dental record system that three military services would use following an abrupt move by the Army earlier this month to cancel the rollout of its dental module.

The cancellation resulted from an agreement with all the services to review their dental health record options, which include AHLTA Dental, developed by Northrop Grumman and maintained by SAIC, and the Army Corporate Dental Application, according to Michael Kilpatrick, director of strategic communications at MHS.

In June 2008, the Army Dental Command awarded Harris Corp. an $11.6 million contract to develop its Corporate Dental Application. The application would be part of the AHLTA electronic health record, which the Defense Department operates for members of the uniformed services.

MHS originally planned to deploy AHLTA Dental to more than 370 Army, Air Force and Navy clinics worldwide. In June, MHS hailed AHLTA Dental as a groundbreaking application, and Charles Campbell, MHS chief information officer, said it "improves the sharing of patient information, allowing clinicians easy access to patient information anytime."

Since the Army dental record system already is deployed at Army and Air Force clinics, including remote battlefield locations, "it makes sense to review our options," Campbell recently said.

He added, "We need to make sure we can keep pace with the dental community's evolving needs, so I would rather take time to examine those needs and make adjustments now rather than replacing the system later."

MHS also must ensure it provides clinicians with tools that can best support their needs, according to Dr. Jack Smith, acting deputy assistant secretary of Defense for clinical and program policy. "While we're still evaluating the business case for a change, the Corporate Dental Application appears to provide a reasonable alternative to address many of the current needs of our dental providers and is in alignment with our electronic health record way a head strategy," he said.

Kilpatrick said another reason for evaluating the systems is the "Army's Corporate Data Application provides some of the dental community's required capabilities that are not in the AHLTA Dental module."

The three services will take part in the dental record evaluation designed to select the best alternative, Kilpatrick said.