TBI cases need better tracking, officials say

TBI cases need better tracking, officials say
By Kelly Kennedy - Staff writer
Posted : Wednesday Jan 30, 2008 5:35:38 EST

Medical commanders directly involved in the care of service members injured in Iraq and Afghanistan lament the lack of interoperability among electronic records systems, urge better education about brain injuries at the unit level, and ask for better documentation of troops involved in explosions.

But on the opening day of the annual Military Health Systems conference Monday in Washington, those medical officers also praised newly developed procedures that let line commanders track the care of their injured men and women.

And while electronic records are still not where medical officials want them to be, they have evolved greatly just in the last three or four years, they said.

The medical commanders, some of whom spoke by satellite from the battlefield in Iraq, also thanked the health care workers at the conference for helping to save the lives of combat troops.

Lt. Gen. Eric Schoomaker, the Army surgeon general, invited his medical commanders to talk about “issues of concern and glitches” with electronic records and in the screening of mild traumatic brain injuries in front of about 3,000 attendees.


Rest of article at: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/01/military_tbiconference_080129w/