Larry Albert This is Me

 Web References

1. 1. www.it.northropgrumman.com

   www.it.northropgrumman.com/ser - [Cached]

   Published on: 3/1/2007   Last Visited: 3/1/2007

   Larry Albert, Division Director, Clinical Information Systems

2. 2. ToWEHR Offensiven

   www.fortherecordmag.com/archiv - [Cached]

   Published on: 2/20/2006   Last Visited: 4/4/2007

   "We believe we have created something really special here," says Larry Albert, division manager for clinical information systems at Northrop Grumman, the primary integrator and developer of AHLTA, the military's clinical IT system.
   ...
   "By the end of this calendar year, it should be available at all DoD facilities," Albert says. When it is done, the MHS will have a single database of detailed health information on all 9 million enrollees. "We're still loading data," Albert says.
   
   Some acute care functionality has already been built and is available at "in-theater" healthcare facilities for troops deployed to Iraq. Albert says Northrop will soon meet with Pentagon officials to determine how to implement inpatient systems, and he expects the technology to be in place by 2007.
   
   The rollout has become so labor-intensive and costly in part because of the amount of integration.
   ...
   AHLTA really is new, Albert says, because it represents a change in IT strategy. While the first-generation CHCS was "facility-centric," the new EHR is more focused on the patient, according to Albert.
   
   "It leverages the capabilities of the old system and provides a backup during the transition," Albert continues. "Once fully deployed, there will be a primary and a backup system." In addition to a full copy of the entire installation at a remote location, the plan is supported by numerous geographically dispersed partial backups for security purposes.
   
   Albert also says the "granularity" of the data is impressive. For one thing, the MHS is prepopulating AHLTA with up to 25 years of historical data from the old system. "Standardizing the data so it means the same thing across hospitals and health systems is an exceptionally complex task," says Eilenfield.
   
   AHLTA captures clinical notes in a standardized vocabulary, namely MEDCIN, but can translate to and from other clinical nomenclatures. Northrop Grumman has built a reference "service bureau" that normalizes disparate ontologies to Snomed CT.
   
   "By utilizing a structured vocabulary, we unlocked a wealth of data that could be mined for various epidemiological and population health reasons," Albert says.
   ...
   "I now have the ability to capture data in PKC and use it in MEDCIN," Albert says.
   
   "Where the power in electronic health records is, is in clinical decision support, and to do that, you are going to need computable data," Albert says, explaining the need to collect such rich patient histories.
   ...
   According to Albert, the DoD is "very interested" in and "actively exploring" links with private-sector healthcare organizations. He says physicians outside the military regularly see military beneficiaries in nonmilitary settings. "There are a lot of benefits, even when we send someone out for a consult," Albert says.