DOD grant explores mining health records data

The Defense Department awarded a $100,000 grant to Teksouth Corp. to study ways that data in electronic health records could be structured to improve the analysis of disease and population health trends in the military.

Steve Wilsher, Teksouth’s chief executive officer, said the grant would help “define the next generation of business intelligence applied to health care management across the entire Defense Department," Healthcare IT News reported.

The Army’s Medical Research and Materiel Command at Fort Detrick, Md., awarded the Small Business Innovation Research grant. It covers initial research into the “automated knowledge structuring of medical charts data,” according to a DOD notice on the grant program.

The grant is part of an initiative to develop technologies "that save lives and promote healthy individuals, units and communities while improving both force morale and warfighting capabilities," the notice states.