MHS Leadership Approves IM/IT 2010-2015 Strategic Plan

Charles M. Campbell

January 15, 2010 - This week, the Senior Military Medical Advisory Committee (SMMAC) approved the Military Health System Information Management/Information Technology Strategic Plan for 2010-2015. Leaders from the Army, Navy, Air Force, Health Affairs (HA), TRICARE Management Activity (TMA), Joint Staff, the Joint Task Force National Capital Region Medical (JTF CapMed), and the MHS Office of the Chief Information Officer (OCIO) gathered during the summer of 2009 for a series of offsite workshops to develop the plan. Revisions and leadership approval occurred during the fall months. I see this plan as the roadmap that will guide the organization, and I am excited about putting forth a strategy that commits key resources to the critical initiatives that are needed to meet the MHS core IM/IT objectives. The plan is a living document that IM/IT leaders will formally review on an annual basis.

While there have been strategic planning initiatives that have guided our key priorities throughout the last ten years, this effort by IM/IT leadership across the Services will be our first formally approved plan since 1999. Our strategic plan describes the ten IM/IT goals that MHS will focus on over the next five years, how these goals create mission value, and the initiatives MHS will undertake to be successful. We believe that attaining these goals will allow us to deliver value on two fronts. First, by delivering on Enterprise Intelligence, Electronic Health Record, Personal Heath Agenda, and Interoperability, the MHS will have the IM/IT capabilities needed to become a knowledge-based, patient-centered, systems-minded organization. Second, we will build the necessary culture, processes, tools, and human capital to transform into an optimal IM/IT delivery team.

This strategic plan represents a defining moment for the IM/IT community, a time when we embrace our challenges as opportunities and translate strategy into action. As described in the plan, we cannot meet our objectives and goals without the adoption of executable action plans, and during the 2009 strategic planning workshops, functional and technical leaders of the IM/IT community drafted 13 unique action plans and 14 performance measurements to define specific activities, deliverables and milestones. In the months ahead, the IM/IT strategic planning team will work with these action plan teams across the MHS, and updates will be provided on a regular basis.