2007 Rising Star: Mark Goodge

: Tri-Service Infrastructure Management Program Office: Director of deployment services Goodge has been in his current position about a year. Goodge became a civilian employee in 2003 after serving 10 years in the Navy.At 12, Mark Goodge was driving a three-wheeler through the countryside when he accidentally drove off a cliff. His arm was torn off, and he spent a week in the hospital while it was reattached. The hospital staff showed amazing compassion, he said, and it changed his life. “I’ve always felt like paying somebody back,” he added. He said the care he received determined the course of his career. Today, he is director of deployment services at the Tri-Service Infrastructure Management Program Office (TIMPO) — a job he has held since August 2006. TIMPO is a part of the Defense Department’s Military Health System, and Goodge manages the worldwide health information infrastructure that connects the military hospitals that treat wounded soldiers. Goodge’s ambition is to create a common communications structure to serve all the military services and enable them to share information even more efficiently. MHS operates more than 70 hospitals and 400 clinics worldwide. It is involved in almost every type of medical emergency imaginable, including air evacuations and shipboard and undersea medicine. MHS also responds to humanitarian and other medical crises. MHS’ communications infrastructure affects the speed with which medics can treat wounded service members. Information moves from the battlefield to the hospital ahead of a wounded warfighter’s arrival, Goodge said. When a helicopter delivers the patient, hospital workers are prepared because of the information they have already received. “I love being part of that,” Goodge said. Col. Davette Murray, TIMPO’s program manager, said the flow of information is crucial, and “at the heart of this mission is the director of deployment services.” Goodge is working with all the military services and several federal agencies to standardize military health care communications. Murray said Goodge quickly developed a global view of how military medical facilities operate and how they perform their joint mission of supporting military operations. Goodge’s work has had a direct impact on how the military uses information technology, and it is a model for other joint initiatives, Murray said. Goodge has worked in health care for much of his career, including 10 years in the Navy. He spent several years as chief technology officer at the National Naval Medical Center, where he created step-by-step process templates for fixing network problems. Since joining TIMPO, Goodge has deepened his perspective on military health care. He works closely with the Veterans Affairs Department’s Wounded Warrior Project to improve how the military and VA share medical information. In numerous ways, Goodge is paying back others for the compassionate care he received when he was 12.