Transformative Modernization and Data on the Future Battlefield

In preparing for large-scale combat operations, the Military Health System must evaluate whether or not the data it collects are both collectable and usable in dynamic environments with large casualty counts. This requires a shift from active collection to passive collection, and a focus on leveraging data for decision-making rather than just record-keeping. Such changes require a movement toward transformative modernization, which involves a comprehensive overhaul of the data ecosystem to automatically collect actionable data and analyze them, rather than just digitize it, which simply improves the efficiency of data collection and documentation. This commentary seeks to contrast these approaches and the data requirements needed to move from data for documentation and even process improvement to data for real-time decision-making and continuous learning.