Information Technology Management: Acquisition of the Armed Forces Health Longitudinal Technology Application

The Armed Forces Health Longitudinal Technology Application AHLTA is a medical and dental clinical information system that will generate and maintain a comprehensive, lifelong, computer-based patient record for every soldier, sailor, airman, and marine their family members and others entitled to DoD military health care. The AHLTA program is expected to support 9.2 million beneficiaries. As of September 30, 2005, there were 7.01 million patients with records on-line at 51 Medical Treatment Facilities. The initial program provides support capabilities in the outpatient arena. Currently, the Armed Forces Health Longitudinal Technology Application program management office is planning for the development of capabilities for inpatient care. The estimated cost of the entire program is just over 5 billion. Although the Armed Forces Health Longitudinal Technology Application program management office is using risk mitigation techniques such as risk management, lessons learned, and performance monitoring, the program remains at high risk because of the complexities of integrating commercial off-the-shelf software into the existing Armed Forces Health Longitudinal Technology Application program. The audit was announced on January 25, 2005, with the objective to review AHLTA budgeting, accounting, performance, and user satisfaction. In April 2005, the audit was re-scoped to evaluate program requirements, the related acquisition strategy, and system testing to determine whether the system was being implemented to meet cost, schedule, and performance requirements.