By RANDY GRIFFITH
Computerized medical record systems being developed and tested in Johnstown will create jobs for a local partnership adapting them to military needs around the globe.
Northrop Grumman Corp., Conemaugh Health System and the Department of Defense will develop an electronic medical records program that will allow military, Veterans Affairs and civilian health providers to share information while protecting confidentiality, leaders said Monday.
“This initiative will allow doctors on the battlefield and doctors right here in Johnstown to collaborate to help our wounded warriors,” Northrop spokesman Bruce Walker said during a press conference.
The project will be part of Northrop Grumman’s operation at Greater Johnstown Technology Park when it opens later this year, adding another eight to 10 jobs to the company’s current local work force of about 50, Walker said.
“Depending on where we end up, we could double that by the first quarter of 2009,” Walker said.
Successful implementation at the federal level would bring the Johnstown total to at least 50 jobs.
The system allows doctors in Meyersdale and Miners medical centers to have instant access to charts or X-rays for procedures done in Memorial Medical Center.
The same concepts can apply to military and Veterans Administration hospitals.
“Miners could be the Army,” said Scott Becker, Conemaugh’s chief executive officer. “Meyersdale could be the Navy. We can now take what we’ve done on the civilian side and apply it to the military.”
The idea – developed in cooperation with Northrop Grumman – is to adapt Conemaugh’s electronic records success to the military, Becker said.
The system will keep track of wounded veterans after they leave the military hospitals and are discharged from service, Rep. John Murtha, D-Johnstown, said at the press conference.
“We estimate it’s going to cost $300 billion to $400 billion to take care of the service personnel coming back from this war,” Murtha said.
“We are going to make damn sure they are taken care of.”
Murtha secured $4 million in the Department of Defense budget to launch the development of this Military Interoperable Digital Hospital Testbed system.
Walker said the prototype must be adaptable – ready to link with future generations of computer hardware.
Security and confidentiality are key, Becker added, noting that Conemaugh’s system allows a primary care doctor to decide what information can be accessed by individual specialists.
“The exciting thing is: It’s working for us,” Becker said. “We are creating interoperability. That transparency is what Northrop Grumman is looking for. We are actually on the ground, doing it.”
Construction is under way on the $20 million Phase One tech-park building, which will be home to defense contractors Northrop Grumman and MTS Technologies.
Each will occupy one floor of the three-story building. An announcement of the final tenant may be coming this spring, Murtha said.
