Thank you.
Mr. Chair, members of the Standing Committee on Veterans Affairs, thank you for the invitation to discuss elements of the Canadian Forces health system and our strong working relationship with Veterans Affairs Canada.
My name is Brock Heilman, and I'm the director of health informatics and chief information officer of the Canadian Forces health services group. My responsibility, insofar as the transition of CAF members to civilian life, is in the transmission of a service member's electronic health record to VAC once VAC requests the record. Our electronic health record, known as the Canadian Forces health information system, is available in our clinics as well as on deployed operations and aboard navy ships.
As you know, CFHIS is an important platform, enabling team-based care and integration of different departments into clinics, such as primary care, mental health, dental and physiotherapy. It also facilitates care to our highly mobile military population, as the health record is available regardless of which military clinic a member attends.
CFHIS is also a useful tool in sharing medical information with VAC. As you know, over the past couple of years, the CAF has worked very closely with VAC to create the technical, privacy and logistical conditions to allow VAC adjudicators direct access to CFHIS files for CAF personnel who have applied for VAC benefits.
We're in the process of implementing an initiative, the electronic health record project. This initiative will modernize our health record system while helping us provide clinicians with improved decision-making technology. It will ensure that an advanced analysis can be carried out throughout—