Military doctors to get £80m medical IT system

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) is to spend £80m on a computer system that will give military doctors access to vital medical record information when treating wounded soldiers in combat zones.

LogicaCMG has won the 10-year contract for the Defence Medical Information Capability Programme (DMICP), which will begin to be rolled out across the armed services by the end of 2006.

The system will initially be rolled out to medical and dental units in barracks, air stations and naval bases, before being made available to doctors in combat zones from 2008.

The new medical system will have a central database that will hold the integrated health records of all regular military personnel and civilians, such as the families of soldiers, whose treatment is provided by the Defence Medical Services.

Military doctors will be able to access up-to-date electronic medical records from any location around the world when giving emergency treatment.

By 2010 the aim is to link the DMICP to the £6.2bn NHS IT systems, which will allow for the medical records of new armed-service recruits to be based on their NHS GP record. On discharge, the complete record will be transferred back to an NHS GP once any confidential military information has been removed.

Defence minister Don Touhig called it a "revolution" for the administration of medical records in the armed services.

He said in a statement: "The ability to swiftly check a medical history will aid the clinician's ability to make the best possible choice of treatment for their patients and could, in extreme circumstances, save lives."

The system will be developed using mainly off-the-shelf technologies such as Emis' clinical record software, which is widely used already within the NHS, and business intelligence tools from Cognos.

The service will be hosted from LogicaCMG's facility in south Wales.