Enabling Organizations to Effectively Share Health Information

While U.S. healthcare is highly regarded internationally, it faces some significant challenges. In the U.S., healthcare costs are 50 percent higher than those for any other industrialized country; medical errors cause serious complications and deaths; less than 65 percent of patients receive critical recommended care; millions of Americans are uninsured; and the aging population requires substantially more care.

Information technology has the promise to improve the cost, quality and safety of healthcare delivery for individuals and for community populations. Information technology is increasingly used to collect, store and share healthcare information and has become a critical component of healthcare delivery. For healthcare information to best support individual patients and the public health, it must be shared across diverse systems. Harmonization of the many standards currently employed by these systems is critical.

This harmonization is the thrust of a new collaboration which brings together standards expertise from ANSI and the healthcare information expertise of HIMSS. ATI, Booz-Allen-Hamilton and many other stakeholders from the technical and medical fields will participate in building a set of standards to enable effective sharing of healthcare information. Broad industry involvement will provide a distributed testbed for real-world deployment and analysis.

Providing Technology to Improve Care in Rural and Underserved Communities

ATI is providing a web-based application, developed by Joslin Diabetes Center, to enhance care team coordination and adherence to best clinical practices to help the patient more effectively manage diabetes. ATI is working with Joslin, CareSouth Carolina, the Office for the Advancement of Telehealth and Estenda Solutions on this effort. To integrate with existing systems, a standards-based interface extracts data from the CareSouth patient registry and medical management system.

ATI is providing technology to rural and minority patients to prevent diabetic retinopathy, the leading cause of adult-onset blindness. ATI is working with the Orangeburg Family Health Center and HealthCare Outreach to provide digital retinal imaging diagnostics to identify retinopathy early enough to prevent blindness. ATI plans work with other Community Health Centers (CHCs) on diabetes and other clinical applications. For example, ATI and Joslin are developing plans to deploy mobile technology to provide eye-care coverage for CHCs.

Accessibility is Assuring Federal Information and Services to People with Disabilities

The federal government is committed to providing accessible information and services to all citizens, and information technology is the access key for people with disabilities. The Buy Accessible Wizard tool was built to guide government technology purchasers to ensure the disabled can be equally engaged with government services and information. Product and service vendors use the Wizard to describe how their offerings meet Federal Section 508 requirements. The Internal Revenue Service has included the Wizard in their acquisition process for all purchases of electronic and information technology. Specifically, the instruction page for their Micropurchase 508 Determination form specifies the Wizard as the first method of performing the requisite market research.

“The Accessibility Forum provided the needed collaboration between the IT industry and disability advocacy groups ... ATI leadership has been invaluable in helping the General Services Administration build a diverse set of stakeholders into this effective body.” Mary J. Mitchell, Deputy Associate Administrator, Office of Technology Strategy, General Services Administration

“Integrating the Wizard into our 508 micro-purchase processes was key to a smooth implementation. This tool helped us responsibly balance the small dollar value of the purchases with the requirement to comply with Section 508.” TJ Cannady, IRS Information Resources Accessibility Program Manager/ IRS Section 508 Coordinator

“When we needed to rapidly pull together a team to meet a substantial customer requirement, we asked ATI to help. ATI delivered a high-quality result with a professional, responsive and creative attitude.” Steve Lieber, CEO, HIMSS