Surgeon General Urges Families to Track History
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Despite advances in genetic testing, the U.S. surgeon general on Monday urged Americans to track down and record cases of cancer, heart disease and other diseases prevalent in their families.
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The U.S. Department of Defense and Department of Veterans Affairs still aren&#39;t able to share complete electronic health records of military members and veterans despite working on a project for nine years, employees of the two agencies told a congressional committee Wednesday.While the two agencies have begun to share some text records, including discharge summaries and emergency-room reports, it won&#39;t be until 2008 before they can share vital signs of patients, laboratory data, and family histories, said Dr. Gerald Cross, principal deputy undersecretary of health in the VA&#39;s Veterans Health Administration.Officials from both agencies told the U.S. House of Representatives Veterans Affairs Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations they&#39;re making good progress, but issues remain. &quot;The work to make data computable between two different health-care systems is very complex and requires complete standardization of data,&quot; Cross said.And the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) has yet to see a comprehensive plan from the two agencies to share e-health records, added Valerie Melvin, director of human capital and management information systems issues for the GAO. The GAO has issued multiple reports since 2001 calling for VA and DOD to improve their health records sharing, she noted.The agencies have made progress on short-term projects to share data between some health-care centers, she said.&quot;These exchanges are limited, as significant work still remains to achieve the long-term goal of a comprehensive electronic medical record,&quot; Melvin said. It&#39;s unclear how a number of ad hoc projects will fit into an e-health record program, she said.Lawmakers stressed the importance of getting a record-sharing program in place as wounded military members come back from wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and will get medical service from both agencies. &quot;This is a critically important issue,&quot; said Rep. Harry Mitchell, an Arizona Democrat and subcommittee chairman. &quot;Thousands of our servicemen and women require and will continue to require significant medical care.&quot;While lawmakers called for the agencies to move faster, the GAO noted some progress. The agencies have developed repositories for health data and are starting to populate them with data, a GAO report said. Seven DOD and VA sites are using an interface to the data repositories, the report said.&quot;Much work&quot; remains before the e-health records sharing system is fully operational, the report said.The DOD and VA effort has been plagued by several setbacks in the past nine years. An interface for a data repository was delayed for more than a year at one point, and in July 2002, the agencies split the project into two initiatives after multiple delays.In July, after nine years of work, the two agencies awarded a contract for a consultant to conduct a feasibility study for a common inpatient health record system.Together, the two agencies have spent more than $1.8 billion on health records initiatives since 1998, according to the GAO.But officials from both agencies expressed optimism. Asked if they could share all data within a year, three officials from the DOD and one from the VA said they expect that to happen.&quot;We are all working toward the same end -- to provide the highest-quality care to our nation&#39;s heroes, past and present,&quot; said Dr. Stephen Jones, the DOD&#39;s principal deputy assistant secretary for health affairs.
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A Maryland family caught in the partisan crossfire over a children's health-care bill in Congress is now stepping back into the divisive debate, advocating this time for state legislation that would expand coverage for adults.
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THURSDAY, Jan. 20 (HealthDayNews) -- Problems with documentation of drug responses and child abuse screening and reporting are among the gaps in quality of care for children in California's public mental health clinics, says a University of California, Los Angeles-led study.
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Seeking to put Alzheimer&#39;s disease on the same footing as cancer and heart disease, health officials are embarking on a landmark initiative that regularly will scan the brains and analyze the bodily fluids of 800 people.
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The US government launched a campaign Monday encouraging Americans to learn about their family health history. The campaign, called the &quot;Family History Initiative,&quot; is aimed to help promote personal health and prevent disease.
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While it&#39;s just kid stuff, playtime is one of the keys to keeping in check the problem of obesity in America. Wednesday, the US Surgeon General Dr.
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By Donna Borak, Associated Press  WASHINGTON -- For every generation in this country there has been a war. And with wars come millions of records that can shed light on family history, detailing everything from the color of soldiers' eyes to what their neighbors may have said about them.
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Democratic lawmakers are pressing the Bush administration to disclose the identity of more troubled nursing homes, saying earlier efforts to alert consumers did not go far enough.
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Six months ago, the death of a 12-year-old Prince George's County boy from untreated dental decay shed a grim spotlight on gaps in federal and state medical assistance programs charged with providing care to 30 million poor children.
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Â· State catalogues atrocities during dictatorship  Â· Victims' relatives join president at book launch
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US Surgeon General Richard Carmona has declared Thanksgiving Day as the first National Family History Day, but heâs not interested in genealogy.
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WHAT: US Surgeon General Richard H. Carmona, MD, MPH, along with several agencies of the US Department of Health and Human Services,.
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Fifty years ago, Ronald Herrick wasn&#39;t thinking about making medical history that would one day lead to saving countless lives.
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Â· Iraq and Afghanistan casualties to get HIV tests  Â· Poor record keeping at US field hospitals blamed
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President Bush has picked a Kentucky cardiologist who is interested in fighting childhood obesity to be the nation's next surgeon general, the White House announced on Thursday.
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At family gatherings, talk of the latest ailments is a dinnertime staple. Federal health officials want Americans to take that a bit further over the Thanksgiving weekend and serve