From the Editor-in-Chief: "Aw Heck, Lets Try Again"
Editor-in-Chief, Chester ‘Trip’ Buckenmaier III, MD, COL, MC, USA.
The Armed Forces Health Longitudinal Technology Application (AHLTA) is the military’s electronic health record system.
It is a system that many federal providers love to hate. One particularly disgruntled user who was struggling with the system suggested that AHLTA really stands for “Aw heck, let’s try again!” “Heck” wasn’t really the term he used but his frustration was humorously conveyed.
I was first commissioned in the Army in 1986, and I have lived through the Composite Health Care System (CHCS), CHCS II, and now AHLTA, so I could not help but smile at this user’s play on words. My father worked as a government contractor on the first CHCS. I think it is fair to say the frustrations expressed by this AHLTA word play are grounded in some serious issues with the system.
The software can be difficult to use and AHLTA down time is paralyzing to clinical activity. That said, this editorial is in praise of the Military Health System’s efforts to comply with the presidential directive of 1997 for DoD to develop a centralized, longitudinal electronic medical record that would be accessible throughout the military worldwide. read more
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