(JNS) Weeks before the Hamas massacre on Oct. 7, 2023, a quiet revolution took place in the Medical Corps of the Israel Defense Forces. A new system, known as CPR GO, entered operational use to address a critical issue facing military doctors and medics in the field: a lack of information or the ability to document new patient information digitally.

For decades, a battalion doctor treating a wounded soldier deep in enemy territory operated in a certain fog, lacking access to the soldier’s medical history, allergies, or sensitivities. Furthermore, the treatment given in the field, sometimes under fire, was documented on scraps of paper that could easily be lost in the chaos of evacuation, leaving the next line of caregivers at the hospital blind to what treatments had already been administered.

The deployment of CPR (Computerized Patient Record) GO changed this reality just in time for one of the most intensive ground operations in IDF history.

Lieutenant Dr. L (full name withheld), the Battalion Surgeon of the 53rd Battalion in the 188th Armored Brigade, the system became a lifeline during months of high-intensity combat. Dr. L, 27, entered his role just a year ago after completing the IDF’s academic track.

“The system allowed me to provide a response, literally, inside combat zones, something for a situation in which I had absolutely no organized infrastructure beforehand,” Dr. L told JNS.

“If we talk about before the war, what I was prepared for was: I have a clinic, an office with a computer, and there I manage my entire medical routine,” he said. “We were thrown into a different reality. The system really enabled me to give a medical response,” said Dr. L.

This meant that even routine medical care—such as a soldier requiring the battalion physician to enter data, issue referrals, order tests and prescribe medication—could be handled digitally in a combat zone, rather than relying on critical information recorded on paper.

Prior to the introduction of CPR GO, there was documentation and no continuity of care, he recalled. “Now I have a platform where I can enter what I need, vitals, or any element of my examination.”

Dr. L emphasized the operational environment in which this technology is utilized. It is not used in a sterile office, but “really in the field, in some protected spot inside the battlefield, a temporary outpost,” he said. “I sit there with the soldier, under field conditions that are the most extreme you can imagine, with a flashlight at night, in the dark, on an improvised bed, with a combat medic helping me take vitals.”

The impact on patient safety is immediate. Dr. L noted that the system allowed him to see relevant medical history, boosting treatment.

He cited the importance of the system for soldiers wounded in operational activity who are not in need of immediate, urgent evacuation.

“This isn’t for the world of urgent evacuation by helicopter… but a soldier who was injured in some way, and I now have the opportunity to take him, examine him, and make a full documentation of these things immediately,” he said.

This ensures that when the wounded soldier eventually leaves the field to receive further treatment within Israel’s borders, the data travels with them. “It will be much easier to interface with the [next] caregiver… the information exists and is accessible.”

Dr. L also highlighted a less discussed aspect of the war: the “routine” sickness that occurs even during combat. “Soldiers also have illnesses that aren’t related to fighting,” he noted.

Behind this operational capability stands the Shachar Unit, an elite technological software development unit within the IDF’s Computer Service Directorate. Lieutenant A, 22, serves as a Team Head in the Medical Section of the unit.

Shachar’s goal, she told JNS, is to develop systems and applications for the IDF’s day-to-day routine, “and of course to prepare for competence in wartime.”

She explained that CPR GO was developed to solve the lack of a “field file” for doctors. “Until then, there was no organized system where one could enter encounters, view historical data – essentially to hold a meeting like you are facing a doctor in his office, but in conditions that are a bit more limiting,” she said.

The development process was rapid. “It happened in May 2022,” Lieutenant A recalled. “We had a very accelerated development process of two weeks, really from 0 to 100.”

Her team characterized the product, met with “customers” (medical personnel), and released a Proof of Concept (POC).

“We brought in a lot of medics to give opinions on the product… and essentially after October 7, we understood that there is a winning product here that needs to be given an even wider response,” she said.

Following the outbreak of the war, the unit entered another round of accelerated development to distribute the tool to as many medical personnel as possible.

Security was a primary concern given that the system runs on networks accessible via mobile devices. “Its goal is to be unclassified [in terms of hardware access] … Therefore, the medical data is saved in a very compartmentalized manner, with secrecy and privacy at the highest standards,” she said, citing both the IDF’s Cyber Defense Directorate standards and civilian medical standards.

The user interface was tailored to the cognitive load of a combat doctor. “We really sat with users to validate the requirements – what do they see first in an encounter? What is important to know regarding sensitivities or special things about the soldier?” she said. “That is the first thing that appears when entering the system.”