Connecting Health Information for Better Outcomes
Altarum has been helping public health programs integrate data for nearly 20 years. We understand the complexities of incorporating patient information from multiple sources while providing the tools and functionality to conduct data analysis and care coordination. We have hands-on experience developing Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR) solutions, collaborating with major electronic health record (EHR) vendors, and working closely with interoperability standards organizations.
Achieving seamless interoperability is key to improving the public health infrastructure and each organization faces unique challenges. Regardless of where you are on the interoperability spectrum—just beginning the journey or seeking to refine existing processes—Altarum can provide services and support.
Our Services Include:
Through the HL7 standards organization our subject matter experts and information scientists work together with IT implementers and public health programs to create standards to make the exchange of data possible between public health registries and healthcare settings. We are well versed in the creation of HL7 version 2, C-CDAs and FHIR specifications.
We conduct thorough “as-is” assessments, documenting existing workflows, IT infrastructure, staff skills, privacy, security and data governance protocols and develop a tailored Interoperability Roadmap to pave the way to meet your organizations’ interoperability goals.
We have decades of boots-on-the- ground experience implementing interoperability roadmaps. Agile scrum methodologies enable our team to efficiently set up and configure environments to receive, transform, and translate multiple message and document types for all public health domains—from vital records to cancer surveillance to newborn screening.
We have deep expertise with integration engines (Rhapsody, Mirth) and build custom tools for data validation and integrity. Our SMART-on-FHIR apps to ease the provider burden in reporting to public health.
Our interoperability analysts provide front-line technical assistance, coordinating efforts to recruit and communicate with hospitals, laboratories and other potential submitters and monitoring those in production. Our onboarding services include:
- Connectivity testing
- Message/file format testing
- Data quality assurance testing
Beyond providing onboarding support, we train and provide knowledge transfer sessions with public health surveillance and informatics teams to ensure public health programs are self-reliant and prepared for potential influxes of data.
Featured Work
Below are examples of our interoperability work. In addition to creating applications that support information exchange for disease surveillance and care coordination, we also led the development of a national standard for electronic birth defect reporting and provided end-to-end support for the exchange and processing of cancer case C-CDAs and laboratory pathology V2 HL7 messages.
Interoperability Solutions
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Laura Rappleye
Senior Director, Public Health Interoperability
Areas of Expertise- Interoperability Standards Development
- Public Health and Clinical Integration
- Health Information Exchange
Laura Rappleye has 20 years of experience planning and implementing health IT solutions in public health and clinical care settings. She specializes in advancing population health through integrating clinical and public health data sets. Laura has led the creation of standardized implementation guides and automated data quality assurance and validation tools for the state of Michigan. Laura serves as a co-chair for the Health Level Seven (HL7) Public Health Work Group.
Jim Kamp - MBA, MA
Director, Strategic Partnerships, Public Health Systems
Areas of Expertise- Public Health Interoperability
- Health IT Project Management
- Stakeholder Engagement and Outreach
Jim Kamp has more than 30 years of combined experience in IT program management, including for government health care agencies. He leads projects for the Vital Records and Health Statistics Division of the state of Michigan to improve electronic birth reporting and for Washington state to improve ELR processing of Covid-19 data. He builds partnerships needed to advance interoperability at all levels of government and serves in leadership roles in the Michigan and Midwest chapters of HIMSS. Jim holds an MBA from the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan.