Projects
Transforming our nation's health system requires action on many fronts. MITRE's Center for Transforming Health team works on behalf of agencies and organizations throughout the federal government, both in the civil and military arenas. Some of our programs draw on our deep well of experience in systems engineering; others leverage our knowledge of organizational change and systems acquisition. In addition, we conduct corporate research projects to investigate possible solutions to broad problems in healthcare information technology, such as the development of better electronic health records.
MITRE's Center for Transforming Health has a diverse work program. Just a few of our recent and ongoing projects include: the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, JME&T, Project LAIKA, and the FDA IT Acquisition.
Fast-Tracking Veterans' Benefits
The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs' (VA) ability to deliver a wide range of services depends in large measure on maximizing the best use of technology. MITRE is now helping VA enhance its systems through a new partnership designed to meet the department's growing needs.
The volume of benefits provided by the Department of Veterans Affairs is vast, and the budgetary and logistical issues equally complex. In fiscal year 2008 alone, VA provided $38.9 billion in compensation and pensions to more than 3.7 million veterans and family members. To strengthen VA's capacity to serve its constituency, on February 8 the department selected MITRE to manage its first federally funded research and development center (FFRDC), in a co-sponsorship agreement with the Internal Revenue Service.
The FFRDC relationship allows VA to leverage MITRE's unique ability to help the government solve major systems challenges. For example, we provided advisory and technical assistance to FLITE, a program to supply VA with an integrated financial and asset management system. FLITE will deliver cross-cutting common services to facilitate information integration across business lines. MITRE addressed many oversight concerns to improve program management capabilities.
Today FLITE is viewed as one of VA's best-managed efforts as it enters its execution phase to support the department's central office, 57 regional claims offices, and 900-plus medical facilities and cemeteries. We also partnered with VA to provide the overarching strategy, governance, and expertise necessary to define, acquire, and implement a solution to transition VA to a paperless claims processing system. This will act as a force multiplier by reducing time spent collecting and routing paper documents, allowing for a greater focus on decision-making.
Such steps are only the beginning. As our work with VA evolves, we foresee many ways to apply our skills in systems engineering, acquisition, and program management to enhance benefits delivery to our nation's veterans.
Joint Medical Education and Training Transformation (JME&T) Program
MITRE serves as chief architect and systems engineer for this precedent-setting endeavor, which involves the blending of five different military medical training facilities into a single, large campus. The new facility is part of the military's long-term plan to transform its medical education practices by leveraging the benefits of joint training. The groundbreaking ceremony took place in July 2008.
Project LAIKA: A Partnership for Electronic Health Records Testing
MITRE has partnered with the not-for-profit Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology (CCHIT) to build a ground-breaking testing resource for evaluating the compliance of electronic health records and networks with interoperability certification criteria. The tool, known as "LAIKA," is an open source software testing framework, distributed via open source licenses, which will assist development of new electronic health systems.
Assisting the FDA with the Largest IT Acquisition in Its History
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has the enormous task of keeping our food and drug supplies safe. In 2008, the agency needed to award a massive, multi-year contract for its projected 10-year information technology systems overhaul. FDA staff turned to MITRE to analyze and evaluate 39 proposals, helping them to make the decisions that led to the successful award of the contract to 10 different companies.
For more information on how MITRE can help your government organization, please Contact Us.
|
