BDR Solutions one of four to receive first awards for DIU, Defense Health Agency Digital Front Door Program

The Military Health System (MHS) faces critical challenges in sustaining medical force readiness and delivering high-quality care to its 9.5 million beneficiaries. Issues such as high-cost service utilization and workforce shortages, and outdated technology impact the system’s effectiveness and usability. To address these issues, the Defense Health Agency (DHA) is prioritizing healthcare access as a national security concern and committing to investments in patient-centered technologies to enhance care delivery and operational readiness.

In partnership with the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU), DHA is advancing a transformative solution— a “Digital Front Door” (DFD) —to serve as a state-of-the-art digital healthcare management tool. This proposed DFD solution will deliver a comprehensive suite of digital capabilities, emphasizing both patient and provider experience. The program seeks to integrate or replace existing systems, support a value-based, integrated healthcare model, and facilitate direct healthcare through telehealth and digital enhancements. The DFD Area of Interest (AOI) called for commercial solutions to address three primary lines of efforts: patient experience, equipping providers with supportive technologies, and enhancing data management capabilities.

More than 220 companies responded to DIU’s competitive AOI, showcasing the high demand and interest in advancing military healthcare technology. After a rigorous selection process, four companies were awarded prototype OT contracts:

• BDR Solutionswill prototype the defense health data fabric to acquire, enrich, and analyze MHS data from DFD patient- and provider-facing applications. BDR Solutions will integrate best-in-class data management capabilities including standards-based application programming interfaces (APIs), clinical ontologies, generative AI, and cloud computing.
• Bluestaq will prototype the defense health data fabric to enhance the usability of DHA’s existing health data repository, the MHS Information Portal or MIP. Bluestaq’s solution will ingest, index, and catalog MIP data, providing streamlined access, hybrid data storage, and integration capabilities for downstream DFD applications.
• Clearstep will prototype a smart routing engine to bring a trusted, clinically validated AI healthcare assistant to patients. Tricare members will have self-service access to the nation’s most prevalently adopted health system routing engine for symptom checking, virtual triage, care navigation, and call + voice automation tools to assist with healthcare decisions, smart access, guidance to the most appropriate MHS resources, and optimization of provider capacity across the MHS service lines.
• Ernst & Young will prototype a robust and scalable DFD application to create a seamless, integrated healthcare experience for patients and providers.  EY will work with the DHA team to create a technical strategy for native iOS and Android development, custom middleware and integration with both the MHS Information Platform and third-party solutions.  The solution will streamline access to health records, virtual care, provider discovery, and self-scheduling services.

DIU’s Digital Front Door initiative launched a 12-month prototyping effort in September, with all four awarded companies set to pilot their prototypes at DHA’s venture sites. These pilots will serve approximately 260,000 beneficiaries across five Military Treatment Facilities (MTFs).  Successful prototypes will have the opportunity to scale across the entire DHA enterprise, ultimately reaching 9.5 million beneficiaries at MTFs worldwide.

“The Military Health System has a unique mission, unlike any other health system in the world, and we need to modernize in support of this mission and the service members and their families supporting us around the world,” said U.S. Army Lieutenant General (Dr.) Telita Crosland, Director of the DHA. “I’m grateful for the work of DIU and our own team in developing an approach that allows us to rapidly pilot and then scale promising technology to better serve our beneficiaries.”

Commercial digital systems enable seamless interoperability between patient and provider files, enhancing communication and coordination of care. By integrating emerging capabilities and leveraging the latest advancements in healthcare technology, the DHA is positioning itself at the forefront of digital healthcare innovation. This holistic approach aims to build a more connected, efficient, and patient-centric healthcare system that meets the evolving needs of military beneficiaries.

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