DHA to Implement AI, ML for Military Health Care Enhancements

The Defense Health Agency is implementing artificial intelligence, machine learning and other emerging technologies to improve patient-centered health care delivery.

Lester Martinez-Lopez, assistant secretary of defense for health affairs, had said during the Defense Health Information Technology Symposium in August that the military health care sector needs to catch up with emerging technologies and lead in developing trustworthy AI solutions. He also noted that AI, ML and other emerging technologies can help health practitioners predict emergency room wait times, perform advanced medical diagnostics and improve health care significantly.

Other experts said during the event that AI and ML would reduce health care costs, increase readiness and optimize personnel performance, DVIDS reported.

Martinez-Lopez’s comments came weeks after Donald Johnson, assistant director for support and component acquisition at DHA, expressed interest in partnering with industry and academia in exploring AI innovations for military health care. Johnson said AI-enabled technologies would create databases and data repositories for health care-related predictive analytics.