By Maureen McKinney

June 12, 2008 | Microsoft unveiled Thursday the second version of its Connected HHS Framework, which it hopes will connect disparate systems from programs within the agencies of the Department of Health and Human Services. The company also announced the formation of a 15-member alliance of industry partners that will adopt the framework and work with Microsoft and HHS, said Kevin Dolan, Microsoft’s alliance director for U.S. public sector health and human services.

“It’s common that there are multiple programs within the agencies that focus on health and human services,” Dolan said. “The data in those programs are disconnected and that doesn’t provide caseworkers with a full vision. It also doesn’t lead to coordinated care.”

For instance, caseworkers usually have access to client data only within their siloed systems, explained Dolan. The framework would ideally grant them access to information from other programs including child welfare, Medicaid, and even programs beyond HHS.

The framework can be looked at primarily as a service-oriented architecture that follows industry and federal enterprise standards, said Dolan. The purpose, he added, is to identify common business and technology functions required across these federal programs, and then provide them in a way that allows coordinated case management.

Version two is different from its fledgling predecessor because the latest framework incorporates new technologies and architecture, and also takes into greater account issues such as privacy. In addition, there has been much more focus placed on understanding individual programs’ governance and how to effectively navigate these differences, said Dolan.

The Medicaid Information Technology Architecture (MITA)—a framework intended to increase integration and facilitate data exchange—is only one example of many program changes that needed to be successfully accounted for, he said.

“The framework is not an actual solution,” said Dolan. “It’s a much more generic, roadmap approach with best practices and examples that any state can use. Microsoft also has a technological HHS platform, but the Connected HHS Framework is more a set of guidelines. Because of this and the fact that we work with legacy programs, there is no single solution or vendor required.”

According to Dolan, Microsoft has conducted several pilot projects utilizing the framework. In Alabama, for example, the state used a roadmap approach to connect systems within its department of health and human services, implementing a patient data hub and a master patient index. New York’s State Office for Children and Family Services has used similar architecture to simplify case work processes, coordinate care across programs, and identify at-risk children.

“Over the course of the upcoming year, we hope to expand our partner alliance and we plan to roll out more of the case studies and best practice examples,” Dolan said, who added that Microsoft’s progress on the framework would be highlighted at the IT Solutions Management for Human Services (ISM) conference in August.

Partners in the alliance have, for the most part, been market leaders in siloed legacy programs, said Dolan, and include Accenture, CGI, Visionware and Harmony Information Systems.

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