Helping the Department of Veterans Affairs Implement a Cost-Effective, Open-Source Appointment Scheduling Application that is Interoperable with Legacy Enterprise Applications and Data

November 11, 2013                                          VETERANS DAY

In 2013, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) announced a prize contest under the America COMPETES Reauthorization Act to encourage development of systems that help Veterans schedule appointments to receive outpatient and ambulatory care from the VHA.  The contest was opened up to the Health Information Technology (HIT) industry, effectively encouraging a collaborative approach with industry and VA, using open standards in an open-community development initiative.  The benefits resulting from the VA casting a wide-net across industry were enormous and resulted in creating an open-source solution.  As an additional outcome of the contest, the VA sought to obtain information to reduce the risks inherent in procurement and deployment of a replacement Medical Scheduling Platform (MSP).

The VA uses MSP, a component in its VistA electronic health record (EHR) system, to bring patients, clinicians and other resources together so health care can be delivered.  The MSP also captures data that allows VA to measure, manage and improve access to care, quality of care, operating efficiency and operating and capital resources.  The VA intended to replace the current MSP with a standards-based, modular, extensible, scalable, and certified as compliant with the production version of VistA, now held by the Open Source Electronic Health Record Agent (OSEHRA).  The replacement product will deliver privacy, security, data integrity, patient accessibility, interoperability and other services required by federal law, regulations and VA policy.

As a key member of the Hewlett-Packard (HP) Open Source Community Team Submission, Edmond Scientific provided the architecture and integration support between VistA and open source scheduling applications.  This included enhancements to legacy VistA Scheduling through integration with other VistA packages requiring support, thereby reducing implementation risks.  The solution contained a scheduling Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) to establish an authoritative service for cross-facility scheduling complexity, optimization and with enterprise considerations taken into account,  Integration to Commercial off the Shelf (COTS) and Open Source Software (OSS) products provided the functionality, such as a scheduling engine and Enterprise Service Bus (ESB).  The open source business rules engine provides an adaptive, supportive, and flexible approach for managing complexity of business logic and workflow associated with medical appointment scheduling.   The solution also included open Application Programming Interfaces (API) for the SOA services to minimize the impact of cross-package dependencies within and beyond VistA, eliminating direct dependencies.

VA anticipates that compatibility with Open Source VistA will be among the requirements in any subsequent procurement of a replacement for the MSP.  Demonstration of open source compatibility in this contest was taken into consideration in the rating of proposals in any subsequent procurement.

Edmond’s Practice Director Tony Mallia states of his work on the award-winning contest submission “We contributed the rapid development of an integration architecture based on industry standards which was supported by open source implementations.  This in turn could be used for the pilot. The integration architecture defined the collaboration between the subsystem teams to achieve the user stories.  Our submission was focused on VA’s long-term need and less so on the contest criteria, but explored some of the most difficult challenges.”

On Veterans Day, November 11^th, 2013, Edmond Scientific President and CEO John Pitale, himself a Desert Storm combat veteran, will participate in the activities surrounding the HP Team donation.  The $520,000 in prize money from this contest is being fully donated to the following Veterans Service Organization (VSO):  $350,000 to Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA), $150,000 to the Disabled American Veterans (DAV) Association, and $10,000 each to both Fischer House and the Paralyzed Veterans of America (PVA).

ABOUT EDMOND SCIENTIFIC COMPANY

Edmond Scientific Company (www.edmondsci.com ) is an engineering and professional services company that delivers cost-effective solutions designed to address the unique information protection and information sharing needs of our Healthcare, Public Sector and Commercial sector clients.  Edmond brings to your organization the architectural governance, integration engineering, application development, and expertise needed to provide secure, interoperable information solutions.

As a leading researcher and validator of security and information standards in information exchange, we also help organizations navigate and effectively implement interoperable solutions to provide secure information access that bridges incompatible protocols and standards, thus avoiding the costly impact of compliance and non-interoperability on your application development and business performance.

VETERANS DAY                                                                                                        November 11, 2013                  

As part of Veterans Week, Edmond Scientific Company will travel to New York for the ceremonies surrounding their donation of prize money awarded as 3^rd Place winner in the “VA Scheduling Contest.   Other activities on the lineup for Edmond Scientific include a tour of the 9/11 Memorial, attendance at the IAVA Gala, and meeting the recipients of their donation, several Veterans Service Organizations (VSO).

Edmond Scientific President and CEO John Pitale, himself a Desert Storm combat veteran, travelled into the city to participate in the ceremonies.   He was in good company, as a member of the HP Open Source Community, who were awarded the $520,000 in prize money.  This prize for excellence is being fully donated to the following VSOs:  $350,000 to Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA), $150,000 to the Disabled American Veterans (DAV) Association, and $10,000 each to both Fischer House and the Paralyzed Veterans of America (PVA).

After the personally-guided VIP tour of the 9/11 Memorial built on Ground Zero, Edmond Scientific will attend The IAVA Heroes Gala, the premier event of Veterans Week in New York.  Jon Stewart, the host of “The Daily Show” will be honored with the 2013 IAVA Civilian Service Award for his steadfast commitment to the veteran community, providing extensive coverage to the VA disability claims backlog and shining a spotlight on veterans and their struggles waiting for decisions on their claims.  Additionally, IAVA will honor former U.S. Army Staff Sergeant and Medal of Honor recipient Salvatore Giunta with the 2013 IAVA Veterans Leadership Award for his remarkable service to our country.

Former U.S. Army Staff Sergeant Sal Giunta was introduced by President Barack Obama as being “as humble as he is courageous” when he was presented with our nation’s highest military decoration – the Congressional Medal of Honor – for his heroic actions during combat in the Korengal Valley of Afghanistan.  His courage and leadership while under extreme enemy fire were integral to the team’s survival and led to his selection of being the first living recipient of the Medal of Honor since the Vietnam War. A true American hero and the author of Living with Honor (Fall 2012), Giunta inspires audiences with his story of unwavering courage.

ABOUT EDMOND SCIENTIFIC COMPANY

Edmond Scientific Company (www.edmondsci.com ) is an engineering and professional services company that delivers cost-effective solutions designed to address the unique information protection and information sharing needs of our Healthcare, Public Sector and Commercial sector clients.  Edmond brings to your organization the architectural governance, integration engineering, application development, and expertise needed to provide secure, interoperable information solutions.

As a leading researcher and validator of security and information standards in information exchange, we also help organizations navigate and effectively implement interoperable solutions to provide secure information access that bridges incompatible protocols and standards, thus avoiding the costly impact of compliance and non-interoperability on your application development and business performance.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKHUdiLcC0w

EDMOND SCIENTIFIC COMPANY Presents Veterans Administration Contest Submission at OSEHRA Summit

Developers Charged with Creating Open Source Solution for the VA Challenge.gov Contest for Scheduling  

In 2012, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) challenged software developers to create new systems that schedule appointments in VA’s nationwide health system. This challenge was presented through a Medical Appointment Scheduling System (MASS) Contest, hosted on the site Challenge.gov, with the VA awarding as many as three prizes for the creation of an open-source and open API-based system to replace components of VA’s 25-year-old scheduling software in its VistA electronic health system.

Edmond Scientific Company sat on the Hewlett Packard team of developers, spending 4 months developing the Patient Scheduling Solution and Demonstration for the HP contest submission.  An Edmond spokesperson says “Patient Scheduling was considered not to be a standalone application and considerable cost would be in the integration  of the network services interfaces.  This integration was also critical to the success of our solution. CalDev was selected as the protocol because it consists of a set of new methods, in addition to WebDAV, for use in HTTP.  In accordance with the contest parameters, specifications as standards helped our team understand the functionality in working towards an Open Source solution.”

The MASS Contest was driven by VA’s decision to transition its VistA electronic health system into an openly architected product and to challenge developers to offer standards-based, modular components that can be extended and modified much more easily than customized products. Proprietary, commercial systems are eligible for prizes, but all entries in the contest will be required to have open connections, or APIs.

The VA plans to announce winners on or about September 30, 2013. Contestants, in order to be judged, will contribute the open APIs and any open source content in their entries to the Open Source Electronic Health Record Agent (OSEHRA). As the custodial agent for an open source community of VistA developers and users, OSEHRA plays a central role in the distribution and certification of VistA and VistA-related software.  VA will use the results of the contest to design final specification for an appointment scheduling system to be deployed nationally.

Submissions will be judged on the following criterion:

Entrants’ test scripts and product demonstration

Open Source Compatibility

Open Source Content

ABOUT EDMOND SCIENTIFIC COMPANY

Edmond Scientific Company (www.edmondsci.com ) is a professional services firm that creates innovative business solutions, and is a leader in the management, development and implementation of enterprise data security and privacy, data quality and integrity, data intelligence and analytics, and access control, to provide secure, interoperable solutions in the federal and commercial markets.

Edmond Scientific Company (ESC), was recently awarded the Standards & Interoperability (S&I) Office “General Standards” contract to support VHA participation in Standards Development Organizations and Open Health Tools, and in coordinating across VA stakeholders to ensure that S&I architectural requirements and elements are included early in the design and development of new VA health IT systems. The Edmond Team provides subject matter expertise, policy expertise and strategic guidance, and technical leadership in the focus areas, which includes the areas of International Standards Development and Review, technical support, standards development, architecture support, and modeling and tooling to support standards development and the integration of standards into system design.

An Edmond spokesperson states: “This win is attributed in part to the excellent performance within other VA contracts we hold; the critical factor ESC’s ability to develop a distinctive approach and effective solution, and the team we bring to provide depth of field. This award represents a significant achievement for ESC and solidifies the company’s track record of steady, sustained growth in this core area.”

The S&I Office General Standards Team covers the continuum from the advancement of standards through Standards Development Organizations (SDOs) such as American National Standards Institute (ANSI)/ANSI Accredited Standards Committee X12 (ASC X12), ANSI International Committee for Information Technology Standards (INCITS), Health Level Seven (HL7), Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise (IHE), International Standards Organization (ISO), National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Systems (OASIS), Object Management Group (OMG), National Council for Prescription Drug Programs (NCPDP), and World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). The SDO also works with standards related organizations (SRO) through communicating clear requirements and tracking of the implementation of standards within VA and other Federal partners.

ABOUT EDMOND SCIENTIFIC COMPANY

Edmond Scientific Company (www.edmondsci.com ) is a professional services firm that creates innovative business solutions, and is a leader in the management, development and implementation of enterprise data security and privacy, data quality and integrity, data intelligence and analytics, and access control, to provide secure, interoperable solutions in the federal and commercial markets.

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