AHLTA Definition Contest Update

Last month I kicked off a contest for the best definition of AHLTA, the Defense Department's electronic health record system that used to stand for the Armed Forces Health Longitudinal Technology Application.

As loyal What's fans know, it turned out that in a bureaucratic assault on the English language, the Clinical Information Technology Program Office at the Military Health Service declared AHLTA to be a proper noun in 2006.

But this year, Rep. Vic Snyder, D-Ark., a member of the House Armed Services Committee, said at a hearing that AHLTA the noun "does not convey what it means" and added that he knew it meant the Armed Forces Health Longitudinal Technology Application system.

Folks in What'sland definitely believe AHLTA should be an acronym, but not the one favored by Snyder. Readers submitted some really good substitutes for the contest, which ended on June 5.

Other folks - seemingly shy of the torrent of publicity that will go to the award winner - decided to submit their AHLTA acronyms anonymously and outside the contest rules. Here's a few of the funnier noncontest AHLTA acronyms:

• Army Has Lost Touch Again
• A Huge Loss of Time and Assets
• A Hyper Link to Agony
• A Hope Less Technology Application

I do have an official winner, which I will announce on Wednesday. Since AHLTA is widely viewed as a lemon of an application, the winner will receive either the fixings for lemonade or a glass at Johnny's Half Shell on North Capitol Street near Union Station, which serves an award winning lemonade.

And, as a special bonus, Tom Shoop, editor of Government Executive, has promised to provide the AHLTA Definition Contest winner with a limited edition, 40th anniversary GovExec T-shirt with cover photos of presidents Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama.

This is a real keeper, and I bet a lot of people now wish they had entered the contest.