The Department of Defense has begun electronically transmitting digital medical images of critically injured soldiers who are transferred from Walter Reed Army Medical Center and National Naval Medical Center Bethesda in Maryland to the Veterans Affairs Polytrauma Center in Tampa, Fla.
 
Before, the agencies were copying images from a PACS to CD which were hand-carried from one facility to the other.
 
Automation of this process reduces the risk of data loss, eliminates the burden of responsibility for delivery of imaging data from the patient or family and allows providers at the VA to better prepare for the arrival of the patient at the Polytrauma Center.
 
The plan is now to add Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas, to the sites electronically transferring images and make this service available to the remaining three V.A. polytrauma locations in the near future.