Justin's Blog

The final Big Idea I talked about at our Annual Conference was our up and coming secure feedback system.

This might actually be more exciting to me than anyone else!

Over the years, we have prided ourselves in our exceptional customer support, and my goal has always been that our 500th customer should feel as special as our 50th.

At the same time, as we have so many users now, keeping track of all the issues and questions get harder and harder.

We have tried a number of systems over the years including Outlook, and Excel spreadsheets.  I always wants to find a product from 37 Signals to do the job and Sazzad thinks that anything can be done in JIRA.

However given the nature of our system and the need  to maintain HIPAA security, there was only one real solution, and that was to write something for ourselves.  We’ve now done this, and this will probably be the first of the big ideas you see come out in production.

We will now separate all feedbacks and support communication into one place where you will be able to keep track of all your previous questions and our answers.

From our end it will be much easier to collaborate and make sure that you get the right answer as soon as possible.

:: Justin ::

If you take a look at the schedule for the recent Provider Admin Conference in Fishkill, NY, you will see many sessions discussing things like Caseloads and Super Roles and such.  There really is an art to that, we have developed over the years incredible flexibility in defining user access and maintaining HIPAA compliance.

How ever if you are a large agency, a state, or multi-state agency and/or you are using lots of Therap modules, this can become a lot to remember and maintain.

Thinking back, when I started using Therap as a Program Director at Community Systems, Inc. in Torrington, Connecticut, I had to send a spreadsheet to Wai Nam with who I wanted as users and what I wanted them to be able to do.  And to the same any time I wanted to make a change!

Since then we have also come to work people and agencies in many more places and situations. We also have customers providing supports in every kind of environment and style you could imagine.

This has lead us to a place where things like programs and sites need to be much more flexible and data needs to be able to move as the individuals we support do (yet maintaining the historical data and security we all need).

So based on this, we are working toward our next generation of access control (I am afraid it doesn’t have a fancy name yet, but again, Therap Points could be on offer!)

We have several goals for the new system, but the most important for me are to make access control:

• Quicker
• Simpler
• Easier to implement
• Easier to user
• Easier to support
• More effective in real life situations
• More tools for cross-provider and multi-provider access

At Fishkill we showed off our initials designs to a great reception and we picked up tremendous ideas.  This will obviously be a huge transition for everyone that touches all of our application so you will hear a lot more (and get to try some things out) as we get closer to deployment.

:: Justin ::

Previous, I have talked about COIS, our Cross Provider Information Sharing functionality that I believe will revolutionize the developmental disability community.

However, if you are a state like Delaware, Montana, or North Dakota or a multi-state agency like Dungarvin, then you need a different, more hierarchical style of cross-provider access.

Since starting with state-wide access in the First State of Delaware a few years ago we have added more and more of this type of functionality and at Fishkill were able to discuss, brainstorm, and even demonstrate the next generation of what we are calling MAPS (though to be honest I would really like a better name, I just haven’t come up with one – there could be an undisclosed number of Therap points, if you come up wiith the name we choose!).

The biggest issue in state-wide systems is caseload management for folks like case managers.  As any provider knows these caseloads are changing all the time and are further complicated by admissions and discharges throughout the state.  We are developing a number of feature which will make this process much more effective for everyone involved.

There are also massive reporting questions across multiple agencies.  Those too we are addressing.

And for the user who needs to review data from multiple agencies, we have lined up some features in SComm, Notifications, and FirstPage that will blow your mind!

Finally, (well actually I am sure there will be much, much more, but anyway…), there is the intersection of MAPS and COIS.  Where individuals are served in a state where there information can be shared between providers and viewed and reported on by the state.  Now, THAT, is exciting!

:: Justin ::

As you can see, our robot (at least the beta one, this year we are building two so we have one to practice with after the other is shipped, and the production one doesn’t have its wheels on yet) is kicking nicely!

I is so exciting to see the student’s ideas turned into reality by some amazingly talented engineers.

:: Justin ::

Well, the conference is now over (and I hope to have a post reflecting on all the amazing things that went on, but I am still catching up!) and in fact we were back in Fishkill today debriefing.

One of the coolest things looking back is how right we were with our big ideas, as confirmed by the conference attendees.

COIS (Cross Provider Information Sharing) is a concept that we have been working with and thinking about since Therap started, and infact we have even implemented versions of it.  The problem up to now has been that although it worked technically, the solutions we had come up with did not work within the realities of employees from multiple agencies working on the same document and communicating directly with each other.

One example I often use is where an individual is hurt at day program and an incident report is generated.  Do they want to share that incident report with the residential agency?  (probably yes), as soon as it is written by a DSP (probably no), can both agencies comment directly on the same report (technically we could make it happen, but you don’t want it to).  I could go on for paragraphs with questions which either have an answer of “No Way!” or “It depends” and computers in general are not that good at “it depends”.

In this latest version of COIS we believe that we have most of the answers and we have an implementation path that will get us the rest of them safely as me move along.

Probably the biggest hurdle is actually identifying that the records of one individual in two providers are about the same person.  How do you do this when you can’t ask the other for a list of their individuals to pick from and you can’t give them a list of yours (both would be HIPAA violations and probably not good business practice).  We have a wonderful and elegant solution to this that we showed in Fishkill.

Once that link is there each agency can now choose which of their staff are allowed to send SComms over that link.  So if I have been given permission by my Provider Admin, I can send and receive care SComms about individuals in my caseload to users at the other agency who have access to the same individual and have been given permission to do so by their Provider Admin.

Phase one of the implementation will involve setting up the link and sending SComms.  After that we will start being able to attach Therap forms.

Having spoken to so many users about this and shown then a pre-alpha version, I am more excited than ever and think this will be a real game changer.

:: Justin ::

Wednesday was another tremendous day here in Fishkill!

I introduced a couple of new programs.  These are both designed so that we can use our marketing dollars in ways that will provide educational and training benefits to our customers.

You can check out the details of our Therap Points Program and sign up here.

If you are the kind of person who likes to make your own videos, why not check out our “My Therap Video” contest.

Much much more to come.

:: Justin ::

Here’s the presentation that T-Girl gave to start our Provider Admin Conference. The bits that may sound like they don’t quite run together are where I was having a conversation with her!

:: Justin ::

As I have written about before, We are involved in the pilot of a Health Information exchange with eHealth Connecticut.

This is the beginning of very cool and very exciting things.  At the same time it is very far from simple.

Think of the following example:

You are traveling out of state and are involved in an accident.  You are rushed to the local emergency room, as you are wheeled in, your doctor is able to retrieve your full medical history and provide you with the optimum treatment.  This is good.

The question is, what needs to happen to make this work?  Does that doctor basically need to have complete free access to every medical record in the country?  In the world?  What if your medical records include behavioral health or substance abuse issues?  How do you handle consent?  Can you withdraw consent?  Can you give partial consent?

These are really difficult questions, and that’s before you even get to the technical questions of how you make it happen.

As you know, Therap knows all about how to manage complicated access systems in real world situations.  We do it every day and we’re making it better all the time.

As we move forward, we’ll be at the forefront of developing systems to securely share your data with the other health professionals you work with.

Part of doing all this involves us being able to communicate with outside systems.  There are a number of emerging standards out there, and our reading of the landscape is that HL7 is the way to go.  Our goal as we develop more and more interfaces is to ensure that they all meet existing industry standards.  The will ensure that you have ongoing compatibility and we are making the best use of our programming resources.

:: Justin ::

What a great day! 200 people all in Fishkill all talking Therap in ten simultaneous sessions.

It all started with T-Girl strutting her stuff and bringing us up to date with all the great things that have happened since our last annual conference (I hope to have this up on YouTube soon)

Probably the most exciting thing for me was to be able to talk about our upcoming Big Ideas.  What is happening now, is rather than focusing on looking for a new module we are looking at bigger and wider issues.  This morning I talked about the following:

Health Information Exchanges and HL7 Interfaces

Cross Provider Information Sharing (COIS)

Multi-Access Provider System (MAPS)

Simplified Access Controls

Secure Feedback and Issue Tracking

When I get time I will give much more detail about what these involve.

:: Justin ::

One of those strange weekends (which we Scots have become rather good at given that we never actually win anything).

Hearts welcomed former club captain and cup-winning manager Jim Jefferies back as manger (this is generally perceived to be a good thing) and then promptly lost to St. Johnstone (Wendy who?).  Let’s hope he can work his magic by Tuesday’s League Cup Semi-Final.  Having said that though, I have fairly depressing memories of previous semi-finals against St. Mirren.

Meanwhile, down under, Andy Murray was failing in his attempt to win his first Grand Slam (given that he lost he’s Scottish, otherwise it would have been a dramatic British victory).  At 22 though he has plenty time and plenty majors in front of him. Despite rumours to the effect that he’s a he’s a Hibs supporter, I’ll be cheering him on.

Ach well, off to Fishkill

:: Justin ::