According to the DoD, AHLTA is a next generation EHR and is unrivaled in its size, complexity and capabilities. When fully deployed by December 2006, it will allow beneficiary health records to be accessed worldwide at any military treatment facility.
Key to its design is scalability. While the system has the power to support 9.2 million people, it is also able to connect to a handheld electronic device operated by a medic who is recording information on an injured or sick service member half way around the globe.
The Department of Defense went on to say that it hoped that AHLTA would become a model for other EHR systems and would serve as a beacon as the US followed President Bush’s call for greater IT use in the healthcare sector.
