NAVMISSA Provided Valuable Technical Support for Recently Completed Pacific Partnership 2012

Navy News Service

Story Number: NNS121003-28
10/3/2012

From Navy Medicine Information Systems Support Activity Public Affairs

SAN ANTONIO (NNS) -- During Pacific Partnership 2012 (PP12), Navy Medicine Information Systems Support Activity (NAVMISSA) provided vital technical support before, during and after the four and half month deployment from May to the middle of September.

The main overlapping goal of the annual humanitarian and civic action (HCA) mission was to bring together U.S. military and civilian personnel, host and partner nations, non-government organizations (NGOs) and international agencies to build stronger relationships and develop disaster response capabilities.

NAVMISSA helped in sharing and building trust with host nations Indonesia, Philippines, Vietnam and Cambodia.

"We engaged with host nation personnel and government officials in every country at different levels," said LT Michael Wray, NAVMISSA Information Management Officer. "I specifically spoke with the Minister of Health at each country, or their representative, worked in the various Medical Civic Action Projects (MEDCAPS) ashore and assisted with various subject matter expert exchange (SMEE) activities ashore."

"Additionally, and possibly most importantly, I was able to interact regularly with host nation civilians about their health and provide support on numerous occasions. We also dealt with security, military, police, local volunteers, teachers and translators," said Wray, who handled PP 12 duties as Deputy Director of Medical Operations and Planning.

Wray was overall in charge of the planning and execution of all Medical, Veterinary Subject Matter Expert Exchanges and similarly related events both ashore and on board the USNS Mercy.

PP12 lasted approximately four and a half months from May through the middle of September and was the largest annual HCA mission in the Asia-Pacific region. NAVMISSA was part of 1,200 member multi-national, multi-organizational, multi-specialized team of medical, dental, preventive medicine, veterinarians and engineering personnel

"(It was) an outrageously successful mission! In only eight weeks of operations, USNS Mercy crew was able to see over 50,000 patients, conduct almost 1,000 surgeries, and over 60,000 hours of subject matter expert exchange hours. Additionally, they treated over 7,000 animals, finished several construction projects, repaired almost 250 pieces of medical equipment and gave away over four tons of donations," Wray said, noting that at the forefront, military medical staff, engineers, members of the Military Sealift Command and NGO's all worked together in a coordinated effort to make PP12 happen.

"A little unknown fact that also from San Antonio was a program manager assisting to support the contract for one of the very valuable information management systems utilized on board USNS Mercy," said Wray.

According to Wray, NAVMISSA provided program management support for the Theater Medical Information Program -Maritime (TMIP-M), which customized a wide variety of information management systems to extend the Garrison-based AHLTA capabilities to deployed medical units working on PP12. TMIP-M enabled complete clinical care documentation, medical supply and equipment tracking, patient movement visibility, and health surveillance in theater environments. This data was seamlessly consolidated into a single database known as the Theater Medical Data Store which was then transmitted to the Clinical Data Repository to provide secure worldwide access to service- members' health records.

Several months before USNS Mercy departed San Diego in May for PP12, TMIP-M was installed on the hospital ship, replacing the Composite Health Care System. During PP12, TMIP-M was used by clinical providers, independent duty corpsmen, and NGO participants to document over 1,000 encounters during the mission. TMIP-M applications used included; Shipboard Automated Medical System (SAMS) Radiation Health module, to document exposures to radiation; TMIP CHCS Cache' (TC2), to provide documentation for inpatient health care and computer-based provider order-entry including ancillary services order-entry and result-reporting. More than 500 clinical staff personnel were trained on the TMIP-M application during PP12.

In addition to humanitarian missions, TMIP-M has been implemented by military medical practitioners supporting Operations Iraqi Freedom, Enduring Freedom, as well as other strategic healthcare missions. Under NAVMISSA's leadership TMIP-M is currently installed on 87 ships (including submarines) with an additional 50 ships scheduled for TMIP-M implementation in FY13.

Additionally, NAVMISSA spends more than $5M annually to provide fleet deployment and support, overseas contingency support, and centralized direction, management, integration, coordination and documentation over the assigned resources.