InterSystems is showcasing two VA programs at the HIMSS annual conference, aimed at streamlining health information sharing and improving veterans’ healthcare journeys. The Veterans Data Integration and Federation Enterprise Platform aggregates and normalizes clinical data from VA’s electronic medical record systems, reducing the need for clinicians to search for medical information from multiple sources. Meanwhile, the Community Care Referral and Authorization program generates timely referrals and authorizations for veterans receiving care in the community, cutting wait times for referrals from over a month to just under a week.
The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) serves the healthcare needs of American veterans across the country. As with any healthcare system, providing high-quality care to patients is a complex task. This task is particularly challenging for the VA because of the unique healthcare needs of veterans and the dispersed nature of their medical records.
To address these challenges, InterSystems, Cognosante, and VetsEZ have collaborated to improve veterans’ healthcare journeys by streamlining health information sharing. They have developed solutions that help providers obtain a full picture of a patient’s health history and enable veterans to access critical care. In this article, we will explore some of the initiatives that InterSystems and its partners have developed for the VA.
Enterprise License and Support Agreement
The VA has contracted directly with InterSystems on the new Enterprise License and Support Agreement. This agreement enables the VA to quickly build needed solutions without incurring additional software license costs. This initiative has helped the VA create more cost-effective solutions while improving the delivery of care to veterans.
Expanding Program Support to Improve Healthcare Access for Veterans
While many VA integration partners are using the InterSystems license, two VA initiatives will be presented at HIMSS which provide examples of the successful use of InterSystems technology at VA.
Veterans Data Integration and Federation Enterprise Platform (VDIF EP)
The Veterans Data Integration and Federation Enterprise Platform (VDIF EP) is a service-oriented, cloud-hosted middleware that is used by VA clinicians and administrative staff, as well as providers outside VA. VDIF produces a federated and longitudinal health record by aggregating and normalizing clinical data from VA’s existing electronic medical record systems. In doing so, it reduces the need for clinicians to hunt for medical information from multiple sources – enabling them to focus on caring for the veteran in front of them.
VDIF aggregates and normalizes data from 130 different electronic medical record instances to support providers in 172 VA medical centers and more than 1,000 outpatient clinics. The electronic medical record VDIF collects from VA’s Veterans Health Information Systems and Technology Architecture (VistA) system additionally becomes part of the Consolidated Clinical Document Architecture (CCDA). The CCDA is shared with over 230 private external healthcare systems as part of a Veteran Health Administration (VHA) Veteran Health Information Exchange (VHIE) program, improving veteran care outside VA.
One of the exciting capabilities that VA’s VDIF program recently introduced is API Manager. API Manager enables access to VistA data without requiring knowledge of VistA, RPCs, or InterSystems HealthShare, thus enabling rapid application development and reducing costs and timelines. API Manager automatically generates code to access VistA data, including JavaScript, Python, Ruby, and Curl shell commands. It leverages the standard Open API format that is familiar to developers. This initial release contains a developer portal, an API catalog, a sandbox environment, and an API gateway/load balancer. Additional releases will add support for FHIR R4, additional APIs, and enhanced developer self-service capabilities, resulting in a full self-service implementation that enables access to VistA data without requiring knowledge of an underlying system.
VDIF Fast Health Interoperability Resources (FHIR) teams recently released VA Adverse Event Reporting System (ADERS) v1.0 into production. A key product for VDIF, it demonstrated the first use of VA’s R4 FHIR service in production and expanded VA’s interoperability with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Built on the services provided in the InterSystems license, this release utilizes a push model workflow to send veteran COVID-19 immunization adverse reactions to the FDA for further analysis. VHA/VHIE stakeholders and senior executives expressed high praise for the team for delivering this important capability.
