Last week, Outpatient App went to San Antonio for the OPMED Symposium. This conference features Military Health System (MHS) leaders from across all sections of the DoD as well major technology vendor partners.
For this one, we were an Exhibitor Sponsor with a Booth setup next to Leidos. We demoed the latest features of the Military Health Automation system we’ve introduced in partnership with on-base medical groups and services members over the last three years.
Being in San Antonio was especially exciting, given our co-development partner Joint Base San Antonio (JBSA) was attending as well. Lt Col Chris Edens is the lead POC for our project with them (Virtual Health Provider Communications, VHM) and he joined several of the Demo sessions for other JBSA colleagues as well as DHA leaders and other bases too. Chris primarily works out of the Lackland / Wilford Hall Ambulatory location. Erin Winkler also from Lackland and LTC Chrissy O’Hara from BAMC also joined us as well.
We met with several other Installation Commanders, including two Command Surgeon Officers. Col Susan Moran from Pacific Air Forces visited with us as well as MAJ Nicole Evans from First Army HQ. Most everyone had questions about the Virtual Health System (VHM) and the PHA Scheduler Systems, both of which we were showing. We’re now expanding the Scheduling system to include Labs and Immunizations, in addition to PHA, and showed that as well.
Another hot topic was Occupational Health. We met with several Commanders and leaders interested in applying our system to track and manage Occ Health steps across military installations. This would apply not just to Active Duty, but also Civilian Employees (i.e. Fire Fighters). Interestingly, we have prototyped this solution and presented the concept for multiple groups, including JBSA. It is one of the most common requested features we receive and we’re actively working on a scenario to fund implementing the system. If you’re interested in this opportunity, please reach out.
In addition to MHS professionals, we also met with several prime contractors, vendor partners and potential partners. In addition to working through DHA and the on-base MTF’s, we’re finding pathways with bigger government vendors where we can be complimentary. We talk often with Leidos of course, and actively exploring how we can work together more effectively.
METC is the Medical and Educational Training campus at Joint Base San Antonio. Several members of their team asked about Outpatient App as an example of new innovative systems.
Apple had a team attending as well. While we work with their App Store team, it was a new revelation meeting their Gov Systems group. After some conversations, there’s definitely a follow up opportunity that could benefit many customer installations as well. It’s also notable how all the Big Tech companies are leaning in with government technology innovation. Some long standing, like Amazon (AWS) and Microsoft, but now with Oracle, Google, Apple, and others. The shift is noticeable from our perspective, most of our team came from these companies and only recently have they seriously focused here.
We also met with Oracle and the MHS Genesis team, preparing for when data connection steps are made available. No timetable we know as of yet, but at least identifying how to assist when the time comes.
United Health’s Optum division has Optum Serve to support Federal Health and met with a few there as well. Their CEO is (retired) General Patty Horoho, who I’ve communicated with previously and last week met Col Tamara Funari. Interesting small world sometimes as they’re closely connected with our JBSA partnership leaders too.
By collaborating across DoD and DHA, and even now with major technology vendors, we leverage the expertise of military health leadership. However, at the same time we’re small and nimble enough to quickly get around and iterate both on product and process. We help them by sharing what we learn, sometimes quicker than enterprise informs their own communities. At events like these, we demonstrate how we can quickly and efficiently make a difference in their environment.
Outpatient App provides a range of health tracking services, through digital automation technology, to drastically improve the efficiencies of the bases we serve. By streamlining and modernizing these processes, military personnel receive much better care and the medical professionals are much more efficient providing that care. Win Win Win!
