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| "Our relationship with TotalTec Systems has been phenomenal. Account exec Lloyd Stout was a great help in architecting the system — he was closely involved in this project every step of the way." — Jason Porter CIO,AMCI |
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Solutions
Protecting the Nation's Health
AMCI and Total Tec Partner to Provide a Next Generation Disease Surveillance System
When the Washington, D.C. Department of Health issued the Request for Proposal, Atlantic Management Center, Inc. (AMCI) had just three weeks to respond. The challenge? To design and deploy a disease surveillance system that would enable the department to collect and monitor real-time data from healthcare sources throughout the District, and report it to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC).
Funded by the Department of Homeland Security, the Washington Area Disease Surveillance System (WADSS) is the first system in the United States to monitor disease trends by both syndromes (groups of symptoms) and specific diagnoses. By combining syndromic and nonsyndromic surveillance, WADSS can reduce the impact of bioterrorism by helping public health personnel to quickly identify and track the progression of contagious diseases. WADSS is, in effect, an early response system, connecting first responders, hospitals and other healthcare providers over a secure wide area network to the D.C. Department of Health's epidemiologists. By replacing the current manual reporting system and providing greater patient confidentiality, WADSS represents the next generation of real-time, highly responsive public health technologies. Based in Falls Church, Virginia, AMCI has recently created leading edge immunization registries, bio-terrorism response systems, provider outreach programs, and disease reporting systems for the Illinois, Ohio and Tennessee departments of health. These projects are part of a CDC initiative to build a public health information network that would provide a framework for healthcare providers, public labs and health departments to easily share and access information.
The WADSS project required an adept, technologically savvy partner to design and deploy the hardware solution. Total Tec Systems, an HP systems integrator, had recently successfully upgraded AMCI's own IT environment. So one of AMCI's IT Directors Jim Griffiss, worked with Total Tec to architect high-performance systems capable of handling the complex algorithms and communications requirements of the comprehensive surveillance system.
After many meetings and brainstorming sessions with Jason Porter, AMCI's CIO and Mr. Griffiss, Total Tec account manager Lloyd Stout recommended a solution based on HP's multiprocessor servers running Linux. "The Itanium server, with its floating point processors and forward-looking Intel technology, delivers better than twice the performance of Sun's eight-processor system. Plus, fewer processors mean lower licensing fees," says Lloyd.
The District's health department has standardized on a Windows NT solution, but Total Tec and the AMCI team found that Linux on HP servers were much more robust and better suited to the mission-critical nature of the project. AMCI's Vice President of Technology Solutions and Chief Information Officer, Jason Porter, credits Total Tec with helping to make a compelling case to the customer. "Total Tec provided the necessary documentation and benchmark information. For example, they showed that the dual-node processing capability of the HP server provided exceptional capability to handle the anticipated high level of inbound and outbound traffic," says Mr. Porter. "We were also able to demonstrate to the health department that Linux was the way to go."
After winning the $2.1 million project, AMCI and Total Tec worked together, refining the hardware design, enhancing the applications, and performing extensive testing. The solution consists of a secure disaster tolerant production site just outside of Washington, D.C. and a backup site to be located at the Department of Health. Each site hosts a quad-processor DL560 database server running Linux, six dual-processor ProLiant DL360 application servers, and a StorageWorks DS2405 storage array with 1TB capacity.
The Washington Area Disease Surveillance System will, for the first time, provide epidemiologists with real-time access to healthcare and syndromic surveillance data from around the district, enabling them to more quickly evaluate whether there is a disease outbreak or biological event. The system will also help to identify bioterrorism incidents, such as anthrax, ricin, or other biological threats.
"There hasn't been a disease surveillance system with this complexity Ð using multiple electronic interfaces and reporting data in real time--built anywhere else in the U.S.," says Mr. Porter.
A key component of the system is Oracle Healthcare Transaction Base (HTB), an infrastructure software platform developed specifically for the healthcare industry. Including Oracle Application Server and Oracle Database, the HTB facilitates data management, terminology translation, workflow services, and messaging services. "Industry is constantly innovating public healthcare technology," explains Mr. Porter. "AMCI won this project because we believe that we understand the business process of healthcare and how to match technology with the goals of the health department's mission. Projects like WADDS, which draw on a range of advanced technologies, require putting together a strong team to quickly and professionally respond to the D.C. Department of Health. By partnering with companies like Total Tec and Oracle, we were able to provide a reliable and professional solution to help the department deliver a mission critical service."
When the Washington, D.C. Department of Health issued the Request for Proposal, Atlantic Management Center, Inc. (AMCI) had just three weeks to respond. The challenge? To design and deploy a disease surveillance system that would enable the department to collect and monitor real-time data from healthcare sources throughout the District, and report it to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC).
Funded by the Department of Homeland Security, the Washington Area Disease Surveillance System (WADSS) is the first system in the United States to monitor disease trends by both syndromes (groups of symptoms) and specific diagnoses. By combining syndromic and nonsyndromic surveillance, WADSS can reduce the impact of bioterrorism by helping public health personnel to quickly identify and track the progression of contagious diseases. WADSS is, in effect, an early response system, connecting first responders, hospitals and other healthcare providers over a secure wide area network to the D.C. Department of Health's epidemiologists. By replacing the current manual reporting system and providing greater patient confidentiality, WADSS represents the next generation of real-time, highly responsive public health technologies. Based in Falls Church, Virginia, AMCI has recently created leading edge immunization registries, bio-terrorism response systems, provider outreach programs, and disease reporting systems for the Illinois, Ohio and Tennessee departments of health. These projects are part of a CDC initiative to build a public health information network that would provide a framework for healthcare providers, public labs and health departments to easily share and access information.
The WADSS project required an adept, technologically savvy partner to design and deploy the hardware solution. Total Tec Systems, an HP systems integrator, had recently successfully upgraded AMCI's own IT environment. So one of AMCI's IT Directors Jim Griffiss, worked with Total Tec to architect high-performance systems capable of handling the complex algorithms and communications requirements of the comprehensive surveillance system.
After many meetings and brainstorming sessions with Jason Porter, AMCI's CIO and Mr. Griffiss, Total Tec account manager Lloyd Stout recommended a solution based on HP's multiprocessor servers running Linux. "The Itanium server, with its floating point processors and forward-looking Intel technology, delivers better than twice the performance of Sun's eight-processor system. Plus, fewer processors mean lower licensing fees," says Lloyd.
The District's health department has standardized on a Windows NT solution, but Total Tec and the AMCI team found that Linux on HP servers were much more robust and better suited to the mission-critical nature of the project. AMCI's Vice President of Technology Solutions and Chief Information Officer, Jason Porter, credits Total Tec with helping to make a compelling case to the customer. "Total Tec provided the necessary documentation and benchmark information. For example, they showed that the dual-node processing capability of the HP server provided exceptional capability to handle the anticipated high level of inbound and outbound traffic," says Mr. Porter. "We were also able to demonstrate to the health department that Linux was the way to go."
After winning the $2.1 million project, AMCI and Total Tec worked together, refining the hardware design, enhancing the applications, and performing extensive testing. The solution consists of a secure disaster tolerant production site just outside of Washington, D.C. and a backup site to be located at the Department of Health. Each site hosts a quad-processor DL560 database server running Linux, six dual-processor ProLiant DL360 application servers, and a StorageWorks DS2405 storage array with 1TB capacity.
The Washington Area Disease Surveillance System will, for the first time, provide epidemiologists with real-time access to healthcare and syndromic surveillance data from around the district, enabling them to more quickly evaluate whether there is a disease outbreak or biological event. The system will also help to identify bioterrorism incidents, such as anthrax, ricin, or other biological threats.
"There hasn't been a disease surveillance system with this complexity Ð using multiple electronic interfaces and reporting data in real time--built anywhere else in the U.S.," says Mr. Porter.
A key component of the system is Oracle Healthcare Transaction Base (HTB), an infrastructure software platform developed specifically for the healthcare industry. Including Oracle Application Server and Oracle Database, the HTB facilitates data management, terminology translation, workflow services, and messaging services. "Industry is constantly innovating public healthcare technology," explains Mr. Porter. "AMCI won this project because we believe that we understand the business process of healthcare and how to match technology with the goals of the health department's mission. Projects like WADDS, which draw on a range of advanced technologies, require putting together a strong team to quickly and professionally respond to the D.C. Department of Health. By partnering with companies like Total Tec and Oracle, we were able to provide a reliable and professional solution to help the department deliver a mission critical service."
| LINUX: An innovative, cost-effective platform |
| For many enterprises, Linux can offer powerful advantages. With its flexibility, scalability, and cost savings, open source Linux applications are now at the heart of many best-in-class organizations, performing as key business tools that deliver real economic value. An architect's dream, Linux is secure, adaptable, cost-effective, and offers the familiarity of UNIX. With no user licensing fees, Linux can be freely copied, is reliable and easy to administer, and its source code can be modified to fit your needs. Linux is powerful, too. In fact, HP and Oracle recently set a record-breaking Transaction Processing Council (TPC-C) benchmark of on a cluster of HP Integrity servers running Linux. Total Tec can help you successfully migrate applications to Linux and integrate them with the rest of your environment. By enabling your different platforms to work together efficiently, we can also help you consolidate your resources and achieve the best return on your IT investment. |
