Photo By C.J. Lovelace | Jonathan Hallenberg and Liz Serra, who worked together on the recent relaunch of the...... read more read more
FORT DETRICK, Md. -- After several stopgap measures over the past year-plus, U.S. Army Medical Logistics Command has relaunched a valuable resource for operational Army units with medical materiel.
The Medical Materiel Information Portal, or MMIP, is a CAC-enabled site (https://mmip.army.mil) that serves as repository for equipment and unit assemblage information, as well as quality control messages and a DOD-wide ordering platform for flu, smallpox and anthrax vaccines under AMLC’s direct reporting unit, the U.S. Army Medical Materiel Agency.
The revamped website represents a complete infrastructure modernization from past iterations, which date back to before AMLC’s formation in 2019 as part of a larger Army restructuring that realigned sustainment under Army Materiel Command.
Prior to the development of the new site, information was hosted by other partner organizations and on SharePoint sites with limited features. Beginning in 2018, these capabilities were consolidated into the MMIP site, and evolved to support emerging requirements, such as the COVID-19 pandemic.
Then, in May 2023, MMIP was taken down to work on a modernized solution.
“We had to take it down to get the backend work completed and get the necessary approvals from our higher headquarters to relaunch,” said Liz Serra, deputy director of USAMMA’s Distribution Operations Center. “This is an important resource for the force, so we’re pleased it’s back up and running.”
AMLC kept supporting vaccine ordering and medical materiel quality control, or MMQC, message distribution on its public-facing website and business SharePoint sites, while work went on behind the scenes to transition the website and its information to a new cloud-based hosting service under AMC and U.S. Army Communications-Electronics Command, AMLC’s two higher headquarters.
Serra and Jonathan Hallenberg, a web application developer for AMLC’s G-6 team, worked together and with CECOM for the past year to bring the resource back online.
“We’ve modernized the infrastructure platform for all of this,” Hallenberg said. “The recertification process took the longest out of everything, but we were all learning as we went along with this. We worked hand-in-hand with CECOM to get our app included with their systems.”
AMLC’s creation followed the dissolution of the former Medical Research and Materiel Command. MRMC’s research and development elements split off to other commands, while the sustainment and MEDLOG portions moved under AMC.
Hallenberg said that, when the split happened, numerous people who previously supported the former MMIP moved to other commands and no longer supported MMIP.
“Those were all the people who were creating those publications -- those startup lists and things,” he said. “When the site went down, they had their own solution. They were posting all those things to their SharePoint site.”
A note at the top of the new MMIP site notifies visitors that any publications produced by the U.S. Army Medical Materiel Development Agency are no longer available through the new website. Further information on how to access equipment literature, startup and accessory lists, and functional descriptions can be found through AMLC’s website (https://www.amlc.army.mil).
For the vaccine ordering process, specifically, Serra said the relaunched MMIP is a very welcomed development as they gather requirements the 2025-26 flu season. The DOC supports the distribution of about 3 million doses of influenza vaccine annually throughout the Department of Defense.
“Last year, we had to do everything manually,” she said. “Having the portal back up makes our lives so much easier. The best part is that with flu season it gives visibility to the MTFs and service reps to see who submitted their requirements and who hasn’t.”
To access the vaccine ordering side of the site, new users will need to first register. But from there, everything can be entered into the database online.
Other improvements for the user experience include the ability to once again search and query the catalog and MMQC messages, making it easier and quicker to find information.
“It’s the same experience they had before … but the capability that they had not been able to do in the last year is back,” she said. “They can search. They can look for, as an example, just vaccine items. If they are looking for medical equipment that may have been recalled, they can do a search for that.
“When we were in the SharePoint, we didn’t have that capability. This made it hard for them to validate MMQC messages,” Serra added. “Now, they can. That’s the best part about it.”
Serra said there is still work to be done to bring back email notifications for new MMQC messages when they are posted, but that will be back online soon.
In addition to the user experience, the revamped MMIP also helps the Army medical materiel sustainment community at large. AMLC’s Integrated Logistics Support Center can easily access information on the portal that is now being integrated into the wider system of record, Global Combat Support System-Army.
“This helps not just Army, but all of our operational forces,” Serra said.
Headquartered at Fort Detrick, AMLC is the Army’s premier medical logistics organization and serves as Life Cycle Management Command for medical materiel.
| Date Taken: | 10.25.2024 |
| Date Posted: | 10.25.2024 09:58 |
| Story ID: | 483924 |
| Location: | FORT DETRICK, MARYLAND, US |
| Web Views: | 39 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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