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Army Operations Manager Honored for Battlefield Medical IT Efforts
Ray Steen
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Loving, Operations Manager for the Army’s MC4 Program, frequently travels to SWA to train and support forward deployed medical units on how to best use IT systems to document patient care. (U.S. Army photo courtesy of MC4.) |
Ryan Loving, Operations Manager for the Army’s Medical Communications for Combat Casualty Care (MC4) Program, received the 2008 Federal Computer Week (FCW) Federal 100 Award for leading the expanded use of battlefield medical recording systems to the U.S. Air Force (USAF) in 2007. Loving’s efforts to expand and improve the use of MC4 systems throughout nine countries earned him the award, which recognizes individuals who were agents of change and contributed to the advancement of federal information technology (IT) initiatives.
“Loving’s efforts to advance the use of MC4 by the USAF and to introduce MC4 best business practices globally have been key to the DOD’s electronic medical recording initiative,” said LTC Edward Clayson, MC4 Commander and Product Manager. “We’re providing a proven, standardized means for digitally documenting patient care from which all combat support hospitals (CSHs) and USAF medical treatment facilities throughout the battlefield can benefit.”
In March 2007, Loving led a team of trainers and system administrators to remote medical treatment facilities in Southwest Asia (SWA) to integrate a new inpatient medical recording system for MC4. The new system allows inpatient medical records to reach a central repository whereby any medical professional in the world can access a patient’s medical history to ensure continuity of care.
We’re providing a proven, standardized means for digitally documenting patient care from which all CSHs and USAF medical treatment facilities throughout the battlefield can benefit. |
In October 2007, Loving and his team completed the largest training and equipping effort of digital medical recording systems to date. In 6 weeks, Loving and his technical support team trained 300 medical personnel in the 332nd Expeditionary Medical Support Group and equipped health care professionals at the USAF Theater Hospital in Balad, Iraq, with more than 200 ruggedized systems to aid them in electronically capturing patient records. The effort marked the completion of MC4 equipping all CSHs in SWA. The success of this mission has led the Army to equip at least a dozen more USAF hospitals in the combat zone in 2008.
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In October 2007, Loving and his team were instrumental in successfully completing the largest training and fielding effort in MC4 history. (U.S. Army photo courtesy of MC4.) |
Loving is MC4’s Operations Manager and is based at the program headquarters at Fort Detrick, MD. A former staff sergeant with the 396th CSH, Loving’s role as MC4’s Operations Manager is to provide hands-on planning and coordination alongside forward deployed units using the MC4 system. A frequent traveler to the combat zone, he leads a team of 50-plus MC4 trainers and support personnel scattered throughout CSHs and medical treatment facilities in SWA, Europe, and South Korea.
Loving was honored at a black-tie ceremony on March 24, 2008, in McLean, VA, where he received the 2008 FCW Federal 100 Award alongside top executives from government, industry, and academia who had the greatest impact on the government information systems community in 2007. Winners’ accomplishments were also featured in the March 24 print issue of FCW magazine.
MC4 integrates, fields, and supports a medical information management system for Army tactical medical forces, enabling a comprehensive, lifelong electronic medical record for all service members, and enhancing medical situational awareness for operational commanders. MC4 is under the oversight of the Army Program Executive Office Enterprise Information Systems at Fort Belvoir, VA.
For more information on MC4, visit www.mc4.army.mil.
RAY STEEN is the MC4 Public Affairs Officer. He has a B.S. in public relations and corporate media communications from James Madison University. Steen has more than 11 years of integrated marketing communications experience.
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