The Individual Longitudinal Exposure Record
You will be hearing more about the Individual Longitudinal Exposure Record (ILER), and it will be an important part of your medical history. It is an individual, electronic record of exposures designed in collaboration between VA and the Department of Defense (DoD) for each service member and future Veteran. This record will begin with entry into military service and span across an entire military career.
ILER will contain:
- Time of deployments
- Locations and events during deployments
- All-hazard occupational data
- Environmental hazards that were known or found later
- Any monitoring performed in the area(s)
- Medical encounter information (e.g., diagnosis, treatment, and laboratory data)
- Medical concerns that should be addressed regarding possible exposures
ILER will be available to VA and DoD healthcare providers; epidemiologists and researchers; and VA disability evaluation and benefits determinations specialists. It will be used to improve internal processes and will not be available for individual access.
ILER will deliver capability and improvements in the following categories:
- Health Care - Improve the quality of information needed to facilitate quality, exposure-related health care.
- Benefits - Improve disability claim functions, increasing the accuracy and decreasing processing time of claims and benefits determinations. It will relieve the Veteran from “burden of proof” disability evaluations and benefits determinations.
- Collaborations - Increase transparency between VA, DoD, Congress, beneficiaries, and other stakeholders (such as Veterans Service Organizations).
- Research - Provide a foundation for prospectively following exposed cohorts for long-term or latent health effects that could be attributable to exposures.
- Registries - Integrate the environmental health registries, including the Agent Orange Registry, Gulf War Registry, Airborne Hazards and Open Burn Pit Registry, Ionizing Radiation Registry, Toxic Embedded Fragment Surveillance Center, and Depleted Uranium Follow-Up Program.
ILER will first be delivered as a pilot with initial operational capabilities in Fall 2019. After successful completion, ILER will be developed to achieve full operational capability.
The goal, as always, is improved care of Veterans.
