The Individual Longitudinal Exposure Record team of the Defense Health Agency's Solution Delivery Division was awarded the 2021 FedHealthIT Innovation Award May 19.

Robert Bell, deputy program manager of Surveillance and Readiness, and Devon Matthew, ILER project manager, will accept the award at the virtual 7th Annual FedHealthIT Innovation Awards ceremony June 22. The event recognizes individuals in the federal health technology and consulting community for driving innovation and results across the departments of Veterans Affairs and Health and Human Services, the Military Health System, and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

The ILER team's recognition is a result of their innovation in developing, managing, and maintaining the ILER system, a web-based application that provides the Department of Defense and VA the ability to link an individual to known exposure events to compile an exposure history to improve the efficiency, effectiveness, and quality of health care.

"The team released ILER version 1.1 in November 2020," said Matthew. "The release delivered high value capabilities and user features, including the ability to search by exposure, which provides information on what exposures happened and where."

ILER also provides DOD and VA clinicians, claims adjudicators, and benefits advisors the actionable data required to improve the care provided to service members and veterans. This effort provides epidemiologists, researchers, and policy makers greater awareness and insight into exposure events.

"Our development team expanded existing interfaces to present the completed Airborne Hazards and Open Burn Pit Registry questionnaires," said Matthew.

Bell said the team developed a system to create a complete record of occupational and environmental health exposures over a service member's career.

"This was accomplished by integrating exposure data, electronic health records, and other medical-encounter information for use by healthcare providers, researchers, and administrators," he said.

The efforts, he said, reduced the VA claims process from 1.5 years to 2 weeks.

"Our development team plans to optimize the system to continuously improve the ability to link individuals to potentially harmful physical, chemical, and biological exposures that occurred during their time in service," he concluded.