Future-Proofing AI Through CX for Better Healthcare Solutions With REI Systems

Enhancing performance, readiness, and resilience for service members and their families is paramount for several reasons. First and foremost, optimized performance ensures military effectiveness, which is critical for national defense. Next, readiness that encompasses whole health, preparedness, and skill development ensures that service members have what they need for rapid response to evolving threats. Finally, building resilience to maintain their well-being is crucial for coping with the unique challenges faced by military service members and their families. Today, Kevin Kaiser, serving as Division Manager, Performance and Readiness at Leidos, takes a look at how improved performance, readiness, and resilience not only contributes to mission success, but also enhances the overall quality of life – reinforcing the military's capability to navigate dynamic scenarios while prioritizing the physical, mental, and emotional welfare of those dedicated to serving their nation.

Kevin Kaiser serves as Division Manager, Performance and Readiness at Leidos and has 30 years of experience managing and executing tasks on military health contracts in the areas of performance, readiness, and research involving more than 1,400 employees supporting dozens of programs across the United States and international locations. Kaiser graduated from UCLA in 1992 with a bachelor’s degree in biology and then earned a master’s degree in public health at San Diego State University in 1994, with a concentration in epidemiology and biostatistics.
 

Today we speak with Amanda Warfield.  Amanda currently leads the Optum Serve program integrity practice, overseeing support and integration of key IT capabilities and solutions for Federal agencies.

Amanda Warfield
Amanda manages a portfolio of projects supporting agencies across the Department of Health and Human Services, and the Department of Veterans Affairs, while supporting growth and strategic direction for the organization. She also spearheads Optum Serve’s internal research and development investments in cutting edge technologies and solutions designed to meet emerging federal needs. Her works includes fostering collaboration across Optum’s enterprise, identifying opportunities for private to public partnerships to solve problems. Amanda has worked with Federal government clients for more than a decade in designing and implementing approaches to tackle key challenges like fraud, waste, and abuse in federal programs. She holds a master’s degree in communication management and is certified in SAFe agile, and a certified Project Management Professional (PMP).


Optum Serve 
As the federal health services business of Optum and UnitedHealth Group, Optum Serve offers federal agencies the robust health IT solutions that have proven successful at one of the largest health care organizations in the world — UnitedHealth Group. Our unrivaled health care knowledge combined with our end-to-end technology allows us to be a unique and reliable partner.

The healthcare sector is ramping up activity regarding its implementation of AI technology. Recently, the American Hospital Association expressed support for a “sector-specific” approach to AI regulations to both mitigate patient risk and allow organizations to harness the potential of these technologies. The following week, the NSA launched the AI Security Center to lead AI security protocols, analyzing its effect on U.S. hospitals and health systems.

As healthcare organizations continue to adopt AI solutions into their operational workflows, it’s imperative that the benefits and risks are thoroughly analyzed, and proper security regulations are in place to protect patient data while providing the highest quality of care available. 

Judy Jiao, Chief Information Officer at National Government Services, an Elevance Health Company
Judy Jiao serves as the Chief Information Officer at National Government Services. She’s leading the organization through a digital transformation based on human-centered design, which is in alignment with the government’s path to modernization. With over 20 years of experience in the health care industry, she’s driven by her passion to help people improve their health conditions. Judy takes pride in providing the best business technology solutions possible to advance the effectiveness and quality of health care. 

National Government Services
For more than 50 years, National Government Services has been empowering federal healthcare agencies to improve lives and communities and deliver care to millions of Americans through outcome-driven innovation. The company helps bridge the technology gap to make IT an enabler of healthcare, not an obstacle to operations. Its core business areas include digital health, providing federal IT solutions and services for healthcare, and business process solutions. This includes its role as a Medicare contractor for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. 

Is AI gearing up to take over the world?  Today we talk with Art Villanueva the Chief AI/ML Technology Architect at Dell Federal Strategic Programs about the types of AI and what he sees for the future.


Art Villanueva
Chief AI/ML Technology Architect
Dell Federal Strategic Programs
Dr. Art Villanueva is the Chief AI/ML Technology Architect for Dell Technologies’ Federal Strategic Programs where he advises, evangelizes, and molds Dell Federal’s posture in the rapidly evolving world of artificial intelligence.

Prior to Dell, Dr. Villanueva’s experience spanned multiple other industries. In the Defense sector, he served as Chief Architect for billion-dollar programs at Northrop Grumman. In the public transportation arena, he led systems engineering activities for large-scale city-wide transportation systems at Cubic. Dr. Villanueva was a successful entrepreneur, having co-founded two startups in the sustainable energy industry, one now publicly trading on NASDAQ.

Dr. Villanueva is an inventor, holding utility patents and publishing peer-reviewed papers. He holds a D.Eng. degree in Systems Engineering from Colorado State University, specializing in meta-algorithmics for natural language processing, an M.A.S. degree in Architecture-based Enterprise Systems Engineering from UCSD, and a B.S. degree in Applied Mathematics with a Specialization in Computing from UCLA.

Dell Technologies
Dell Technologies is a global technology leader, with a strong commitment to advancing artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) solutions both through internal research and development and strategic partnerships. Leveraging their extensive expertise in hardware, software, and services, Dell Technologies empowers organizations to harness the full potential of AI and ML to solve their most challenging use cases.
 
Dell offers a comprehensive portfolio of AI-ready infrastructure, including powerful servers and storage solutions designed to accelerate AI workloads. Dell also collaborates with leading AI partners, resulting in innovative and tailored solutions for various industries, from healthcare, energy, defense, and virtually any other industry.
 
Dell ensures that customers have access to cutting-edge AI technologies and expertise, enabling them to unlock new insights and drive digital transformation. Their commitment to AI ethics and responsible AI development underscores their dedication to delivering ethical and secure AI implementations in collaboration with their trusted partners.

The public focus of EHR modernization has been on configuring a commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) solution that blends all the requirements that are unique to the VA with a system that is widely used in the commercial sector. But equally or even more importantly, the VA needs to continue to invest in, maintain, and upgrade its current EHR – the Veterans Health Information System Technology Architecture (VistA).

Today we discuss these insights which are from a recent Federal News Network guest article authored by David Whitmer, FACHE, vice president for federal operations at DSS Inc. David also discusses how no matter what the outcome of the COTS solution, VistA will remain the vital backbone of VA operations.



David Whitmer, FACHE, Vice President for Federal Operations at DSS Inc.

Mr. Whitmer is the Vice President, Federal Operations at DSS Inc., and is a board-certified healthcare executive with 30 years of public health experience at the National Institutes of Health and the Veterans Health Administration, including 20 years in C-suite positions, and 10 years as member of the Senior Executive Service.

DSS Inc.
Document Storage Systems, Inc. (DSS) is a catalyst for health care innovation, keeping pace with evolving technologies as a solutions provider, systems integrator, and services contractor to the Department of Veterans Affairs. DSS is committed to assisting VA in its High Reliability Organization journey and delivering care quality for Veterans by meeting top initiatives, changing regulatory requirements, and implementing enhanced business transformation across VA enterprise.

As the federal government makes continuous strides toward modernizing health IT programs, such as the federal EHR program, healthcare organizations have become a prime target for cybercriminals given the incredible volume of sensitive data and digitized patient records.
 
At the same time, healthcare agencies must have the ability to share, access and analyze critical data to support projects focused on population health and patient journey or patient experience.
 
Today we talk to Mark Mellott, Executive VP of DOD and VA at iTech AG, to discuss: 

• The essential role cybersecurity strategies play in federal healthcare initiatives and why it's essential for sensitive topics/data. 
• Steps for overcoming barriers in the ability to share healthcare/patient data, such as adopting platform governance structures. 
• How healthcare agencies can effectively modernize without compromising security through a Zero Trust approach. 

Mark Mellott, Executive Vice President of Defense and Veteran Affairs 

Mark Mellott is the Executive Vice President of Defense and Veteran Affairs for iTech AG. He leverages his government, military, and health IT background to help defense agencies streamline operations and create impactful results through modern IT solutions.

Mark retired from the U.S. Army after more than 24 years of service. Additionally, Mark is a Senior Lecturer at Clemson University for the Master of Public Administration Program (MPA). He is published in peer-reviewed academic and professional journals and has presented his work at various conferences and consortia.

iTech AG

Founded in 2008, iTech AG is a technology consulting firm that helps federal, state, local, and private organizations streamline their operations to achieve better, faster, and more predictable results. Using a wide range of innovative solutions, the company modernizes customers’ systems and processes to help them unlock their true potential. iTech AG is the only 8(a) disadvantaged small business that is a ServiceNow Elite Partner, and were recently awarded 8(a) STARS III, a Government Wide Acquisition Contract (GWAC) vehicle with a $50 billion ceiling.

The DOD’s Defense Healthcare Management System Modernization program, known as DHMSM, is a technology and healthcare transformation project designed to standardize the delivery of healthcare for nearly 10 million service members and their families. DHMSM is a program management office under the Program Executive Office, Defense Healthcare Management Systems (PEO DHMS)

The MHS GENESIS electronic health record system, developed by PEO DHMS and the Leidos Partnership for Defense Health, is a commercial solution that connects inpatient and outpatient medical and dental information, from the point of injury to the military treatment facility, providing a single longitudinal record. DHMSM leads MHS GENESIS deployment.

PEO DHMS and LPDH have now successfully deployed MHS GENESIS to all primary DOD location in the Continual United States (CONUS). The team is now taking additional steps to deploy the system overseas through OCONUS waves in Europe and Asia by the end of 2023, as well as to a joint VA-DOD facility in early 2024.

I’m joined today by Col. Christina Sheets, DHMSM program manager, and Mr. Raymond Okeke, Senior Vice President, and LPDH program manager.

Col. Christina Sheets, DOD Healthcare System Modernization (DHMSM) Program Manager

Col. Christina Sheets of the United States Air Force serves as the program manager for the DOD Healthcare Management System Modernization (DHMSM) program management office. In this role, she provides acquisition leadership and management expertise for deploying the Department of Defense's electronic health record, MHS GENESIS. Col. Sheets is also a practicing dentist.

Raymond Okeke, Senior Vice President, and LPDH program manager at Leidos

Mr. Raymond Okeke currently leads and manages the Leidos Partnership for Defense Health (LPDH) to execute the $4.3B Defense Healthcare Management System Modernization (DHMSM) program. LPDH is a diverse team, with two dozen partner companies and ~5,000 employees dedicated to building, deploying and innovating the MHS GENESIS Electronic Health Record (EHR) system for the Department of Defense (DOD) and other Federal government agencies.

MHS GENESIS, with 60+ system interfaces and over 1,000 workflows, is arguably the world’s largest single, modern EHR system and is transforming the way the DOD provides military and veteran healthcare. Deployed to over 3,000 locations worldwide with more than 160,000 end-users, the system delivers and documents healthcare for nearly 7 million beneficiaries (9.6 million beneficiaries when fully deployed in 2024).

About DHMSM:
DHMSM leads DOD deployment and sustainment activities for MHS GENESIS, the federal sector’s modernized electronic health record. DHMSM is a program management office under Defense Healthcare Management Systems (DHMS); DHMS reports directly to the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment.

About Leidos:
Leidos is a Fortune 500® technology, engineering, and science solutions and services leader working to solve the world's toughest challenges in the defense, intelligence, civil and health markets. Leidos' 46,000 employees support vital missions for government and commercial customers. Headquartered in Reston, Va., Leidos reported annual revenues of approximately $14.4 billion for the fiscal year ended December 30, 2022. For more information, visit www.leidos.com. 

The Technology Modernization Fund (TMF) announced the latest round of CX investments, and as part of the current funding round, the VA has been awarded $7.4 million to help streamline veterans’ access to health care, disability benefits, and education by digitizing forms.

Today, we speak with Rita Breen of NGS on how IT modernization initiatives such as the digitization of government forms can drastically improve CX and EX at federal health agencies. However, to ensure such initiatives are successful and deliver maximum value for users, it’s imperative to utilize human-centered design (HCD) principles.

 Rita Breen, Agile and Human-Centered Design Practices Director at National Government Services, an Elevance Health Company
In her current position as the Agile and Human Centered Design Practices Director at National Government Services, Rita’s primary goal is to solve mission-critical challenges for federal health customers. She has nearly two decades of project management (PM) experience and has been a part of the National Government Services team since 2018. Rita supports the technical project management and human-centered design teams that drive a customer-centered approach to federal health solutions. She and her team focus on solving major pain points while bolstering quality and improving customer experiences. Rita is truly passionate about identifying the key needs of citizens, setting actionable metrics and striving to meet them with empathy and understanding.

National Government Services
For more than 50 years, National Government Services has been empowering federal healthcare agencies to improve lives and communities and deliver care to millions of Americans through outcome-driven innovation. The company helps bridge the technology gap to make IT an enabler of healthcare, not an obstacle to operations. Its core business areas include digital health, providing federal IT solutions and services for healthcare, and business process solutions. This includes its role as a Medicare contractor for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.

Adopting a CX-focused approach to AI in public health services is crucial for improving healthcare delivery in today's digital world. By harnessing the power of AI and focusing on user needs, government health agencies can drive innovation, improve results, and build a healthcare system that puts the well-being and satisfaction of people front and center. This podcast will help you understand ways to leverage CX when building AI solutions and vise versa and the outcomes achieved by integrating the two.


Rujuta Waknis
REI Director of Solution Engineering
Rujuta Waknis is the Director of Offerings at REI Systems, with over 20 years of experience creating technology products and innovative solutions in public sector domains such as grants management and acquisitions. She is an advocate for the improvement of systems through mindful technology transformation, human centered design, data driven-decision making and AI technology. She has successfully helped modernize numerous enterprise systems for federal agencies over her career. She holds a masters degree in systems engineering from Virginia Tech.

Amanda Thomas
REI Principal Customer Experience
Amanda Thomas is a Principal Customer Experience Designer at REI Systems with over 10 years of experience in product design and media production. Specializing in modernizing and optimizing complex systems, she aims to leverage emerging technologies such as AI and machine learning to enhance product outcomes. With a focus on creating intuitive user experiences, Amanda's expertise lies in transforming the way users interact with digital products.



REI Systems
REI Systems provides reliable, effective, and innovative technology solutions that advance federal, state, local, and nonprofit missions. Our technologists and consultants are passionate about solving complex challenges that impact millions of lives.
 
We take a Mindful Modernization® approach in delivering our application modernization, grants management systems, government data analytics, AI/ML, and advisory services. Mindful Modernization is the REI Way of delivering mission impact by aligning our government customers' strategic objectives to measurable outcomes through people, processes, and technology. Learn more at REIsystems.com.  

Today we speak with CDC project manager from GDIT Christi Hildebrant on the challenges of taking public health to the future and what she sees as the best paths forward.

Christi Hildebrandt, CDC Project Manager, GDIT 

In her 25 years within the IT consulting, Christi has served in a diverse set of roles across a range of industries. For more than 15 years, Christi worked within public health implementing IT projects and providing technical assistance for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and state, tribal, local, and territorial (STLT) public health. She has experience with software development and product management and has a strong understanding of data, database design, and the use of standards in software development and system integration. She cares deeply about the mission of public health and constantly strives to design and implement public health IT and process solutions that will provide for the greater good.

GDIT

General Dynamics Information Technology delivers the art of the possible to support the most complex government projects. GDIT is on the front lines of health innovation, leading the way with the technology, health systems and science that drive better health. As one of the largest systems integrators for the federal government, our 30,000 employees in 30 countries worldwide provide technical expertise and mission-critical support to ensure today is safe and tomorrow is smarter.