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 Spotlight on the Health Assessment Review Tool (HART) Phase 2B
In 2007, PSI began the enhancement of the Health Assessment Review Tool (HART) for the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense (OASD). The HART Project facilitates the efficient and timely capture and analysis of self-reported health information which impacts beneficiaries across the Military Health System (MHS). We met with Don Lipp, PSI's HART Program Manager, to get some background into this vital mission.
1. What sort of health information does PSI provide through the HART Project?
PSI provides reports to the MHS which include health indicator data on military personnel including physical activity, overweight and obesity, tobacco and substance abuse, responsible sexual behavior, mental health, injury and violence, environmental quality, immunization, and/or access to healthcare. These reports are accessible to DoD Population Health Analysts, MHS Providers, MHS Authorized Medical Support Staff, and to a select group of DoD Commanders and their staff. The HART Project addresses health data at the level of the individual, yet also provides a system that is able to reach across the entire DoD.
2. What is the overall objective of the HART Project and what benefits does it provide to the MHS?
The objective of the HART Project is to enhance current functionality to allow access of the HART Questionnaires through the MHS Portal (currently TRICARE Online (TOL)); for the storage of HART findings data in the Central Data Repository (CDR); and for the ability to create static and ad hoc population health reports from data stored in the Central Data Mart (CDM).
Service members access the various health data input tools via TOL and are guided through a questionnaire that collects data ranging from general health information, to individual readiness, to pre- or post-Deployment health. The captured data is then stored within the CDR to be extracted, transformed, and loaded (ETL) into the CDM. From the health information data stored within the CDM, PSI generates both static and ad hoc population health reports on the status of troops.
Providers, commanders, and surveillance personnel benefit from the HART Project through the accessibility of increased knowledge into the metrics that impact America's military force. Benefits of the project include:
- Support of Force Health Protection by contributing to a fit and healthy military force
- Support of the delivery of preventative services and healthcare to all service members and beneficiaries
- Improvement of healthcare outcomes
- Enhancement of the MHS regional and facility population health programs
3. How does the HART Project protect the privacy of service members in making this health information accessible?
The HART data is provided in tiered levels to ensure that access to information is commensurate with official "need to know" guidelines based on the access granted for each unique user population. All reports are protected in accordance with current Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and Personal Health Information (PHI) security guidelines.
4. How many PSI employees are currently working on the HART Project and what duties do they perform?
The HART Project includes 18 full-time staff from PSI and teammate ASM who provide milestone driven, full lifecycle development support to the MHS. The Functional and Technical Support Teams demonstrate our ability to work effectively with the various stakeholders to identify and document the specific functional and technical requirements of the HART Project. Then, using these baseline requirements, they are able to develop approved design specifications and begin the development, testing, and implementation of the solution.
The Team's adherence to CMMI methods for development and quality assurance tasks - from unit testing through user acceptance - ensures that the solutions will be of the highest quality.
5. What challenges has PSI overcome since the inception of the HART Project?
Since each Service has its own medical system and therefore its own unique perspective on how things should be done, it has been a challenge to develop effective relationships to reach consensus across the end-user community.
In addition - even within the MHS itself - the HART Project requires that we coordinate with multiple Program Offices, including the Resource Information Technology Program Office (RITPO); the Executive Information and Decision Support (EIDS) Program Office; the Clinical Information Technology Program Office (CITPO); and the Defense Medical Surveillance System (DMSS), which is managed by the Army Medical Surveillance Agency (AMSA) and located at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center (WRAMC). PSI has worked diligently to successfully meet these challenges.
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