HHS OPA and Patagonia Health: Health IT Interoperability Thought Leadership

AEGIS is thrilled to be recently selected by HHS Office of Population Affairs (OPA) to leverage our Developers Integration Lab (DIL) and our passion for health IT interoperability to advance the OPA Family Planning Profile (FPP) at the 2015 IHE Connectathon and 2015 HIMSS Interoperability Showcase.

For this engagement, the AEGIS team is implementing the Form Processor actor of the FPP profile in the DIL, then working closely with leading EHR vendors as they develop Form Filler actor functionality and test that functionality in the DIL in preparation for the 2015 IHE Connectathon–and beyond. A core priority for our team is to maximize the the success rate of these Form Filler testers.

In addition to providing implementation guidance where needed (and we recognize that this is a smart bunch, so we will be honored to collaborate with their teams), we are adding a suite of bi-directional conformance and interoperability tests to the DIL, which will confirm the capabilities of FPP Form Filler testers well before the Connectathon event.

Jumping immediately at this opportunity to demonstrate Health IT thought leadership is the team at Patagonia Health.

Ashok Mathur, co-founder and CEO of Patagonia Health, notes “We are delighted to partner with the Office of Population Affairs. This OPA initiative is leveraging national healthcare IT infrastructure, triggered by a federal mandate of EHRs to provide better service to family planning grantees.” Mathur adds “We are a proactive company, and by participating in this Connectathon, we can help define the right standard adding value to end users.”

got Connectathon?

If you have ever participated in a Connectathon, you can begin to appreciate the forward thinking that the OPA team is demonstrating by investing in this level of preparation–and by Patagonia Health as the first team to commit to this initiative.

Product development is hard; feature roadmaps are consistently under assault from shifting market conditions and conflicting priorities.

Often, this results in Connectathon preparation being relegated to a few all-nighters just before catching the plane to the event. (And yes, that does imply what you are thinking about the resulting “environment” on the testing floor. It’s not pretty–especially if you have a keen sense of smell.)

OPA is avoid that pattern for their Family Planning Profile by not only encouraging participation by the vendors of their Title X network, but by sponsoring three teams–paying for IHE NA Connectathon registration fees and supporting the extensive preparation facilitated by the AEGIS team.

And it gets even better: OPA is also sponsoring the most successful team at the 2015 HIMSS Interoperability Showcase–including travel costs.

Thought Leadership in Action

It is not about the money, of course. Sponsorship happens to be a tangible way to express commitment, and the OPA team is smart enough to understand this, but their real genius is in the way they are using savvy grass-roots organizing techniques to rally their Title X network to “encourage” IHE vendors to participate in this profile testing effort. Vendors respond to the voice of their market, and–in the case of OPA’s community–this voice speaks loudly.

The AEGIS team is thrilled to be working with a client who understands this kind of intelligent leverage, and we are downright giddy that the OPA team under stands the power of the Developers Integration Lab (DIL), our always-available interoperability and conformance testing platform OPA is leveraging to drive the Family Planning Profile testing effort.

As great as we think it is that OPA is using the DIL to accelerate Connectathon preparation, we are downright giddy that the OPA team understands the need for the long view: The 2015 IHE NA Connectathon is an early step in the journey to mature and finalize the Family Planning IHE profile.

The OPA team understands the value of testing beyond any one event–the value of being able to test at any time, as often as desired, to validate continuos interoperability. As it turns out, this is exactly the mission of the DIL.

Thought leadership in action. Refreshing, isn’t it?