VHA Trivia Prepared for the Internet2 Spring Member Meeting Crystal City, VA April, 2004 Ken Rubin, EDS VHA Health Information Architect

VHA Profile Volume –Software portfolio: >140 applications –Outpatient Visits: 47,323,015 Access points and affiliations –135 nursing homes –163 medical centers –817 outpatient clinics –104 out of 125 medical schools Inter-Organizational Concerns –180,000 VHA employees –85,000 health professionals trained annually 15k MDs, 30k nurses, and 1000 IT staff –Chief Health Information Architects: 1

Business Takeaways The importance of scale cannot be overstated – “Everyday” solutions do not scale to support our enterprise Implementation of a system is not limited to software development –Training burden is huge –Administrative approach must allow for federation and distribution –Response time/user performance is of utmost importance

Architectural Takeaways Architecture is pervasive Need exists to support every conceivable platform Technology can and will continue to change Budget is very limited – system longevity approaches or exceeds 20 years Data longevity must exceed 75 years Our future is hinged upon common services Authoritative sources are of paramount importance