Depot expertise provides cutting-edge medical technology to Warfighter

By Justin Eimers, TYADMarch 2, 2012

Personal digital assistant can be programmed to contain medical reference materials and patient records.
(Photo Credit: U.S. Army) VIEW ORIGINAL

Tobyhanna Army Depot: Expert personnel at Tobyhanna Army Depot have combined their skills with cutting-edge technology to provide the Warfighter battlefield-access to a military

medical information system. Since fiscal year 2009, the depot has fielded, repaired and programmed more than 10,500 handheld devices, and 5,600 laptops and mobile servers, which are part of the Medical Communications for Combat Casualty Care, MC4. MC4 is a comprehensive medical information system providing access to Soldiers' lifelong electronic medical records, streamlining medical logistics and enhancing situational awareness for Army medical forces.

The depot began its support of this mission in 2004. Finding the key to successfulproductivity of MC4 devices has been all about adapting to change while looking forward, says Stephen Laskowski, electronics technician in the Command, Control, Communications (C3)/Avionics Directorate. "Technology has changed a great deal from the programming perspective," Laskowski said. "We use to load electronic medical recording, EMR, software using floppy disks. Now, computers are booted from a CD and then imaged with a server." This process has dramatically cut the time for software integration. Prior to using a server, imaging 24 laptops took three hours to complete. Now, the same number of computers can be imaged simultaneously in 35 minutes.

The team also streamlined the handheld device programming process with the help of a memory card duplicator. TheThe depot has a memorandum of agreement with CECOM that is renewed annually. The depot has outperformed the agreement requirements year after year, increasing customer satisfaction, states Benjamin Pryor, deputy of logistics management for MC4 at Fort Detrick, Md. "Has Tobyhanna surpassed expectations? Yes, they have," said Pryor. "We provide the depot major software updates every six months to a year. Tobyhanna has done well in handling thischallenge." To date, technicians have fielded nearly 50,000 MC4 ruggedized laptops, servers, handheld devices and printers. Tobyhanna has ensured those mission critical

systems end up in the hands of deployed medical forces.

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