European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - November 15, 1994, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Computerized care electronic linkup unites military medical system by Doyle Tillman Kaiserslautern Bureau military Medicine at Lan Stuhl regional medical Center Germany and throughout Central Europe is on the verge of exploding into the 21st Century with the composite health care system. The health management system is a catalyst for More efficient military health care in Belgium Germany and Italy. The new automated computer oriented program is expected to improve patient services. At the heart of the system mandated by Congress in 1992, Are computers that will link together three military hospitals arid approximately 35 clinics. With a computer clinical staff members from their offices will have patients medical histories at their fingertips. If All goes As planned the Days of prescription pads and Handwritten entries in medical records will be gone. It. Col. Rosemary Nelson As system project officer for Central Europe is in charge of getting the system on line. She cautioned that at first things could be a Little slow but eventually even the most Basic task will have been seeded up. Patients at Lan Stuhl will notice the change dec. 5, when medical clerks making appointments begin to ask whether patients Are enrolled in the system. Enrolment is easy. Patients simply answer some Basic personal background questions said Nelson. Is Ken George medical lab technician Leah Trevathon left and medical technologist Shelia Bullard examine computerized data in the Wurzburg army Hospital s chemistry Laboratory. When a patient makes an appointment a clerk will enter the information automatically sending it to the doctor s Calendar and other workload tracking charts. The entry should also key the records department to Forward the patient s medical records to the appropriate clinic. At the appointment clinical staffers despite having the actual medical record in the office will enter the care and prescribed treatment in a computer. Patient administration will periodically retrieve the data and enter the information in patient records. Some time in March or april Nelson s Aid when the doctor orders a prescription it will automatically be sent to the pharmacy. At the pharmacy some medicines will be automatically dispensed a prescription Label created and an entry noted in pharmacy records. The goal is to have the prescription ready for pickup when the patient arrives. That same automation will permit the staff at Lan Stuhl medical Center to order lab tests and a rays As Early As summer 1995. Like the pharmacy lab work and a Ray requests will generate a patient Label to Speed processing. The results verified by a medical expert of both will be almost immediately available to the clinical staff on the computer network. Chs employs two types of computer networks. The local area network will tie Lan Stuhl regional medical Center clinics and offices together. The larger wide area network will connect outlying hospitals and clinics to the main system being installed at Lan Stuhl. Being interconnected the system will allow the clinical staff at Lan Stuhl to request lab and radiology work before a patient Ever leaves his or her Home base. Likewise doctors and other care providers will be Able to share information and consultations prior to a patient s referral appointment. Patient confidentiality will be guarded. Nelson said there would be Levels of Access to records based on specific medical Job requirements. Nelson said because All systems Are not electronically linked to each other when patients move to another base their medical data will be printed and placed in the medical records. But some Day chs could do away with Bulky medical records Nelson said if standardized technology and data formatting is established. She said that future technology might even link military and private medical care facilities. Such a link already exists for the medical College of Georgia. In Central Europe air Force medical services at Ramstein Rhein main and Sembach air bases in Germany will join the Lan Stuhl regional network in March. Also in the immediate Lan Stuhl network will be the clinics at bad Kreuz Nach Baum older Derheim Kaiserslautern and Wiesbaden in Germany Brussels nato clinic and supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe in Mons Belgium and Livorno and Vicenza Italy. The Hospital at Heidelberg is expected to come on line with the regional network in april or May 1995. Afterwards the clinics at Babenhausen Budinger Butzbach Darmstadt Friedburg Hanau Mannheim Sandhofer and Vaihinger will also become part of the network. / selection of the clinics and hospitals being brought into the network was based on referral patterns. Those units that referred a lot of patients to Lan Stuhl were included Nelson said. Lan Stuhl s system is expected to be on line with patient administration appointment scheduling pharmacy lab radiology and the emergency room linked up by Early summer 1995. The system is already at work at least partially in Wurzburg Germany. The Hospital in Nurnberg was among the first to be automated As a 1988 test site for the system when the draw Down order arrived for Niernberg s Hospital Nelson said the decision was made at 7th medical come to ship the system North to Wurzburg. The Transfer of computer room equipment began in september 1993 and was completed around labor Day. The Wurzburg Hospital is about 25 percent on line with the automated system said Nelson the Hospital will have direct links to clinics at Augsburg Bamberg Grafe Wohr Hohenfels Hillesheim Katterbach Nurnberg and Vilseck. The Hospital will also be wired to clinics at Gie Belstadt Kitzinger and Schweinfurt she said but those clinics Are not expected to be on line until december. It is hoped that bad sibling will be on line around the end of the year. Pitburg and Spang Dahlem Abs and Geilenkirche have their own database and Are not expected to join the Lan Stuhl network. The air Force decided not to have these clinics join. Medical facilities in the United kingdom and Mediterranean Region will operate on separate chs networks. Both regions will have Independent databases. A researcher works with a subject to determine How much pan a person in a hypnotic state feels. Below hypnotism can be used to suppress the pain and fear associated with dental procedures. Not dentists an hypnotism close your eyes and open wide by Barbara Reye Deutsche Presse Agenter Magine a dentist doing unspeakable things to your Teeth with no aesthetic and you Don t even care. It s perfectly possible if you Are what hypnotists describe As suggestible that is capable of going into a trance that makes you ignore the Here and now and even the dreaded whine of a dentist s Drill. To Start the trance the dentist s voice comes in Over earphones inviting the patient to enter Ever deeper into a Happy fantasy world of no pain. Half of Sweden s dentists do it and a Small but growing band of German and austrian dentists Are training in hypnosis too. In Berlin Stuttgart and Vienna 500 dentists have Learned the skills of hypnosis according to the methods of american expert Milton Erickson. Hypnosis is a proven alternative for patients who Are allergic to regular aesthetic drugs and it can also be useful for especially frightened patients who sometimes need customized pain therapy. You get some people who have such a phobia towards dentists that they vomit from just seeing a dentist s nameplate said or. Albrecht Schmierer a dentist who has been practising hypnosis for years. Schmierer has t been Able to throw All his aesthetics away. Only about 10 percent of the population Are highly suggestible and capable of being put into a sleep state in which they feel no pain. With most people the hypnosis in t deep enough to exclude the pain although when a patient is in a trance he becomes too Lazy to react to it said Schmierer. The dentist therefore uses a Small dose of aesthetic to soothe this lesser sense of pain. The dose does t need to be nearly As great As it does for a Wakeful patient because painkillers work twice As Long under hypnosis As Normal. Although hypnosis in t a treatment that German health insurance funds will pay for it is becoming More popular in other branches of Medicine in Germany. Psychology professor Dirk Regensdorf of the University of tub Ingen successfully uses it to help Deal with phobias depression and psychiatric disorders of psychosomatic origin. Scripps Howard news service 20 the stars and stripes tuesday november 15. 1994 the stars and stripes 21