CHCS II's global launch set

The Defense Department plans to launch the global deployment of its next-generation Composite Health Care System (CHCS) II Nov. 21 at a press briefing at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md.

A DOD media advisory states that William Winkenwerder, assistant secretary of Defense for health affairs, will give detailed plans for the global release of CHCS II, which will serve 9.2 million active-duty and retired service personnel and their families. No additional information was provided.

DOD started developing CHCS II in 1997, and the Government Accountability Office has pegged the system’s cost at $1 billion. CHCS II will eventually serve as the standard military health record system at about 10 military hospitals and 500 clinics, providing clinicians with a graphical interface to a wide range of patient information.

CHCS II will replace the original CHCS, which used text and command line interfaces and was first fielded in the late 1980s.

Integic, part of Northrop Grumman Information Technology, is the prime contactor for CHCS II, which runs on an Oracle database housed at a mainframe processing center that the Defense Information Systems Agency operates. DOD does not disclose the center’s location for security reasons.