Data, technology, people vital for warfighter health advantage, says Defense Health Agency director

DVIDS – News – Data, technology, people vital for warfighter health advantage, says Defense Health Agency director

Data, technology, people vital for warfighter health advantage, says Defense Health Agency director

UNITED STATES

08.13.2026

Story by Robert Hammer 

Defense Health Agency

Vice Adm. Darin K.hter-first vision for DHA at the 2026 Defense Health Information Technology Symposium Aug. 11 in New Orleans, Louisiana

“This is what we mean when we talk about a warfighter health advantage,”advanced health system in the world, and my interest is in taking actions every day that move us in that direction.”

“We have an obligation … to be on the front edge of medicine,” he emphasized

With the theme of “Combat Support: Ready, Resilient, Lethal,” the event focused on how DHA is “transforming data, technology, and people into decisive combat support advantage through innovation and modernization,” said Pat Flanders, DHA’s chief information officer, in his remarks. He stressed DHA is building a resilient digital health enterprise designed to enable readiness rather than simply support it

Transforming data is a ‘warfighting function’

ocused on delivering warfighter medical readiness worldwide aligns to his four strategic priorities

He called for a faster, more connected system that can turn health data into useful decisions to deliver joint warfighting capabilities. “Warfare is changing fast,” he said, with artificial intelligence, drones, unmanned aerial vehicles, and sensor saturation, “the character of warfare is shifting under our feet, and health IT isn’t on the sidelines of that shift — it’s part of it.”

“We have the data,” struggle is to translate it into knowledge to make timely decisions that give us an advantage. It’s sitting in silos … and data repositories, and not purpose-built to achieve outcomes.”

“We need to put it all together,” he urged. “We need to put this information into the hands of the providers, in the hands of medics and corpsmen … and every medical professional who touches a patient” to ensure medical warrior currency

DHA must capture, move, and protect data faster, and turn it into useful knowledge at the point of need,unction.”

“Our Office of Warfighter Health Advantage will serve as DHA’s lead for data-driven decision-making, performance optimization, and innovation,” said Rear Adm. Tracy Farrill, OWHA director during remarks Aug. 12. “We’ve assembled a corps of experts to include strategy, data and analytics, health informatics, and digital platforms with the goal of increased, cross-functional collaboration to ensure synergy across planning, development, and execution.”

DHA Chief Data and Analytics Officer Dr. Jesus Caban emphasized the significance of the people behind innovations who fuel warfighter readiness. “We can provide the best technology up there, the best models out there,” he said. “Technology alone will not transform DHA. The workforce is the one that will transform DHA.”

Proactive AI-enabled tools and testing are the future of healthcare

Caban recognized how AI can bring bold, forward-looking solutions to modern military medicine, stressing it should empower IT healthcare professionals and not replace decision-making

“The Department of War’s AI strategy is very clear — we will become an AI-first workforce across all domains,” he said. “But AI-first does not mean AI-only or AI-dependent … human accountability, clinical judgments, security, privacy, and mission continuity are preserved in every AI-enabled process, and mission-critical functions retain the human proficiency and fallback.”

Via envisioned a proactive healthcare system that uses technology to catch and prevent serious illnesses instead of only treating patients after a devastating diagnosis.

Tools like precision treatments, genetic testing, early detection assessments and tests, and the use of nanotech, he said, will be the standard of “the most advanced healthcare system of the future” all healthcare beneficiaries deserve

“That is the art of the possible, and it is within our grasp,” he said

Product and service acquisitions shape health outcomes

Via said DHA must change how it invests in technology by focusing less on products and more on results.

“We’re making changes in how we acquire products and services; and I want our industry partners to know that the specific IT solutions are secondary to the outcomes,” be operationalized.”

Emphasizing the urgency of technology adoption to meet all warfighters’ healthcare needs, DHA will be “soliciting commercial solution offerings with a more rapid process,”

“If we want to call ourselves the premier health system in the world, we need to back it up with integrated systems that are incomparable in using technology to gain a warfighter advantage,” said Via

And DHA’s digital systems must work without interruption, stressed Flanders: “When a wounded warrior is evacuated from a contested battlefield … our medical system, in that moment, can’t blink. They have to work. It’s a promise to the warfighter.”

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