Background:

To ensure success of Armed Forces Health Longitudinal Technology Application (AHLTA), the Army Office of the Chief Medical Information Officer (OCMIO) created the Medical Command (MEDCOM) AHLTA Provider Satisfaction (MAPS) program, a set of business automation tools designed to improve accuracy and workflow for clinical professionals in their use of Electronic Medical Record (EMR) software applications. Intervise is supporting the Army Medical Department (AMEDD) by providing numerous MEDCOM MAPS software suite trainers.

Services Provided:

Intervise currently provides MAPS trainers utilizing a regional approach in support of Medical Treatment Facilities (MTF) both CONUS and OCONUS that provide crucial training to military healthcare professionals. The target training audience includes hospital management, military healthcare professionals (doctors, physician assistants, nurses, and technicians), business personnel, processing assistants and office assistants. MAPS tools include Nuance Dragon Medical, As-U-Type, MS PDF Pro, and OneNote.

Though training on the MAPS software suite is a critical aspect of this effort, another major focus of this program is continuous process improvement in support of the OCMIO at the clinical level. This is accomplished by assessing current business processes, documenting and recommending improved methods, developing macros and tools utilizing the MAPS software suite to improve workflow productivity, and creating training curriculum and assets to support best practices.

Outcome:

The Armed Forces Health Longitudinal Technology Application (AHLTA) currently supports 9.1 million personnel worldwide and has transformed the way the DoD practices medicine, particularly because it is reliable in remote environments and complies with security standards.

Supporting the most critical issues facing both military force deployment and sustainment distribution and commercial intermodal logistics.

Background:

The Strategic Mobility 21 (SM21) is the initial phase of the Joint Deployment and Distribution Support Platform (JDDSP) program. JDDSP is a multi-phase program designed to evaluate, develop, and implement solutions to challenges facing dual-use distribution networks: that is, transportation networks that are useful for military and commercial sectors. The program is focused on supporting the improvement of the military and commercial distribution processes and systems.

SM21 was designed to provide a first step for an integrated solution set to the most critical issues facing both military force deployment and sustainment distribution and commercial intermodal logistics. This integrated solution was designed to transform logistics networks through the introduction of information technology-based concepts and capabilities that tie together information and processes across organizations to promote total end-to-end visibility of shipment assets and the individual items inside the assets.

The SM21 system is actually a System-of-Systems. Different systems operated by different partners (and their respective data streams) were joined by the use of a Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) which enabled the individual systems to provide a unified feed to the user. However, the challenge was that each of these systems had its own organization and each organization had its own processes. In fact, the integration of systems was also an integration of organizations and processes. As a result, the System-of-Systems was also an Organization-of-Organizations and a Process-of-Processes. The variations in interpreting standards, data timings and general operations were as much of a challenge as the technology itself.

Services provided:

Intervise supported the Strategic Mobility 21 (SM21)/ Joint Deployment and Distribution Support Platform (JDDSP) effort by providing critical leadership and expertise in service-oriented architecture (SOA) design, system security and Semantic Web solutions.

Service Oriented Architecture (SOA):

Intervise designed an architecture that supports a System of Systems (SoS) and Software as a Service (Saas) and was designed to alleviate the problems of system and operating environment heterogeneity and interoperability, as well as the normal requirements volatility that exists in most operating systems. Intervise utilized JBoss, MySQL, JAAS, Lucene and Jena to consolidate data from various vendors and provided a controlled data source upon which data was reported to the ultimate user. Intervise established an architecture using the internet as a common service bus within a Service Oriented Architecture (SOA).

Communication Protocols:

In order to provide flexibility for connecting with the required systems, Intervise planned two styles of software architecture for communication across the web: REST – Representational State Transfer and SOAP – Simple Object Access Protocol.Representational State Transfer, or REST, allows for the transfer of data and interactions by the web application handling RESTful URL’s. Additionally, Intervise made directional XML communication available which allows data to pass between applications to be interpreted and displayed in any format needed by the end user.

Communication Security:

Intervise provided a wide range of security capabilities including cryptography (encryption), public key infrastructure, secure communication, authentication and access control. Specifically, Intervise utilized a Secure Socket Layer (SSL) to provide data that was encrypted by one side, then transmitted, and decrypted by the other side before processing.

Semantic Enabled Shipping Visibility:

Intervise extruded the EDI messaging problem down to developing an ontology for an EDI message. Next, Intervise identified Container, Events, EDI Messages, Statuses, Bill Of Lading, Conveyances and the relationships between all entities.

Project Outcome:

The SOA architecture provided the future capability of adding services and, therefore, increased the future value of the service. Because the system takes advantage of currently existing systems, the services that were provided were based on tried and true applications. As a result, the value of existing applications was effectively extended.

Background:

The Army Learning Management System (ALMS) is a Web-based information system that delivers training to Soldiers, manages training information, provides training collaboration, scheduling, and career planning capabilities in both resident and non-resident training environments. Additionally, the ALMS assists the Army trainers and training managers in conducting and managing the training of Soldiers and DA civilians throughout their Army careers. In addition to the training at DTFs, Army personnel can access training from anywhere they have access to a computer and the Internet with the development of the new ALMS, which is currently being fielded at TRADOC installations world-wide. In addition to the production system, a content test environment (CTE) provides users with the capability to test content before going live.

Project Description:

Intervise was responsible for testing web-based courseware packages (IMI, SCORM, html, videos, etc.) for use with the Army Learning Management System (ALMS). We developed and executed standardized test plans on courseware to ensure conformance with Advanced Distributed Learning (ADL) standards of SCORM and compliance with ALMS technical and playability criteria and document findings in test reports

Services Provided:

• Intervise leveraged automation tools, computer software utilities, and detailed procedural guidance to conduct testing on complex courseware (IMI, SCORM, html, videos, etc.) to ensure conformance to ADL standards and compliance with technical criteria.
• Conducted playability testing on complex courseware to ensure courseware played on hardware and software delivery platforms.
• Conducted playability testing to verify audio, video, animation, and simulations within courseware work properly, navigation controls function correctly, student examinations score correctly, and the courseware communicated appropriately with the target learning management system
• Developed detailed test plans tailored to each course or courseware.
• Verified playability problems encountered by testing courseware on alternate hardware/software systems, to ensure deficiencies are courseware induced.
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Background:

Today, U.S. military forces are engaged in conflicts around the world in support of the Global War on Terrorism, most prominently in Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) and Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF). Ongoing deployments, changing demographics, and other challenges exert considerable stress on military members, their families, leaders, clinicians, employers, and entire communities. Concern over these and other issues can adversely affect mission readiness. Further, these needs present a considerable challenge to the medical and support resources, along with the leadership response, to tackle these issues and concerns.

In 2007, there were multiple efforts, in the form of various task forces, commissions, and work groups, to address and assess the needs of our returning warriors and their families. Many of these efforts identified inadequate resources and a paucity of programs to address the needs of warriors with Psychological Health (PH) and Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) issues and warrior families.

In response to this, the DCoE established a 24/7 Outreach Center which provides a toll free number for service members and veterans and their families, caregivers, military leaders, clinicians, employers, researchers, educators, and community members who are seeking information on Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury healthcare information and resources as well as community resources.

Services Provided:

Intervise is supporting the prime contractor by providing consultants who serve as informational and referral points of contact for service members and veterans and their families, caregivers, military leaders, clinicians, employers, researchers, educators, and community members. Intervise consultants are trained and conversant in the various programs and resources currently afforded to military personnel and veterans so that they may assist patients in engaging and navigating the healthcare system and acquiring other benefits to which they are entitled. Consultants articulate care options in an effort to assist the patient in his/her decision making process. In addition, Intervise consultants counsel patients on the differences across and within mental health disciplines, the practice scope/levels of providers, and any relevant competencies or abilities of specific mental health practitioners.

Specifically, Intervise Consultants provide required levels of service to the caller and possess the following skills:

Outcome:

Under the leadership of Brigadier General Loree K. Sutton, Special Assistant to the Assistant Secretary of Defense (Health Affairs) Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury, the Defense Centers of Excellence leads a collaborative effort toward optimizing psychological health and traumatic brain injury (TBI) treatment for the Department of Defense (DoD). The DCoE establishes quality standards for: clinical care; education and training; prevention; patient, family and community outreach; and program excellence in support of the DCoE mission to maximize opportunities for warriors and families to thrive through a collaborative global network promoting resilience, recovery, and reintegration for PH and TBI.

EPA Common Framework:

Building an environmental ontology which can be leveraged to facilitate a user-friendly search for water or soil quality of specific locations.

Background:

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) holds large amounts of data across the organization in support of different areas of the agency. Some of this data is provided by third parties, and some of it is developed internally. These systems have no common framework for publishing a working report across multiples applications to derive usable information for knowledge management and decision support.

EPA sought to remove this obstacle for the purpose of developing a component by which the public can easily search for and access information about the air, water or soil quality of specific locations. To this end, Intervise designed and built an application to serve as a prototype for future development based around the creation of a complex ontology for defining appropriate classes to create usable data from these systems and to facilitate the ability to cross reference against outside forms of data.

Services provided:

Intervise began by building an environmental ontology which related facilities, chemicals, sensors and readings. Additionally, Intervise captured geography for the purpose of relationship tracking. Next, data provided by the EPA for facilities and chemicals was semantically enabled and location encoded. Because EPA does not currently track sensors or readings, Intervise located and utilized web services available from the United State Geological Survey (USGA) in order to complete this step. The semantically enabled data was then loaded into a general purpose semantic web processor for fact checking. Finally, Intervise created and implemented custom visualization screens based on EPA’s specific requirements and preferences. This was the only phase that required a minor programming effort. In the interest of efficiency and cost control, all other components were leveraged and left available for re-use in future development projects.

Specifically, Intervise gathered related data from relational databases and web services. Processing this data resulted in semantically enabled data or OWL instances. The resulting system is a fully SOAP/RESTful web service implementation with accredited multi-level security. Intervise facilitated machine-to-machine interaction between systems that previously did not communicate and implemented XPDL workflow engine in order to relate data.

Natural language processing requires an ontology that categorizes and relates data. This ontology must adhere to the OWL-2 EL++ specification to allow reasonable retrieval times from systems; therefore, Intervise provided a full OWL based EL++ ontology to support Facilities, Chemicals, Sensors and Readings. This ontology is instantiated and allows a variety of access mechanism including basic inferences, keywords and attribute searches.

Outcome:

As a result, these EPA systems can now facilitate a search across systems which will return more specific and relevant information and can be used to create a “Super Report” which cross-references information from all applicable systems and allows data to be visualized in numerous and customizable ways. The implementation of this technology provided a prototype which EPA can leverage in order to facilitate a user-friendly search for air, water or soil quality of specific locations.