Individual VA hospitals have been trying to mine such information for some time and have periodically worked with one other hospital doing the same, he said.

While major health care companies have long been at work on proprietary medical informatics software, the VA initiative has "adopted principles that favor, where possible, using open source software," Samore said. "That means these different components are organized in such a way that they are modular and can be shared."

Once the system has been developed and tested, researchers anticipate they will be able to find "novel associations" for disease and treatment that never would have been apparent previously.

"It might help us better identify the family and hereditary basis of disease or learn more about which treatment is better," he said.

Veterans have a disposition toward some types of medical problems, including PTSD, and researchers will conduct two multiyear applied studies to address both methicillin-resistant staph (known as MRSA) and PTSD, Samore said.

Because the research, and the initiative itself, are designed to provide better care for vets, it's vital to solicit opinions and priorities from veterans groups about what their priorities are, he said, adding researchers will ask national veterans groups for input.

"The concept is participatory research, that it should provide direct benefits to those who participate and they should have some involvement," Samore said.

E-MAIL: carrie@desnews.com