Disclaimer

Joint Regional Anesthesia and Analgesia Tracking System (JRAATS)

During Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom (OEF and OIF), many service members have been severely wounded. Pain management for the severely wounded warriors has been a challenge; however, the military pain medicine community has introduced a variety of new technologies to manage wounded warrior pain. These technologies include, but are not limited to, continuous peripheral nerve block, epidurals, patient controlled analgesia and ketamine infusions.

This technology has revolutionized pain management of the wounded warriors. All of the new modalities require close management and continuous provider communication at all times, whether the patient is in a hospital bed or being transported to another hospital. In the past, this was accomplished through the Regional Anesthesia Tracking System (RATS) using the Internet. This pain communication system has now been upgraded to the Joint Regional Anesthesia and Analgesia Tracking System (JRAATS) and incorporated into the Theater Medical Data Store (TMDS).

Theater Medical Data Store serves as the authoritative Theater database for collecting, distributing and viewing service members' pertinent medical information. It provides one central location for healthcare providers to view Theater medical data. Only authorized Defense Department and Veterans Affairs health care providers can access TMDS. To become a registered user, see the Theater Medical Data Store Guide.

TMDS views and tracks ill or injured patients as they move through the Theater levels of care, Sustaining Base military treatment facilities and those shared with the Department of Veterans Affairs. Now that pain medicine has been incorporated into this system, healthcare providers have a powerful communication tool to assist with warrior pain management throughout the care continuum.

The Defense and Veterans Pain Management Initiative sponsors the effort.

Here are two tools to use when exploring this new system:

• JRAATS Online —This video offers step-by-step instructions on using the system’s pain module.
• Theater Medical Data Store Guide —This document describes how to access the TMDS.