Health IT Strategic Framework
Attachment 3
IV. Rural Health and Medically Underserved Target Architecture - "Blueprint" or "Road Map"
Key to understanding and developing approaches and information technology strategies for improving healthcare delivery in rural and medically underserved communities is having a "blueprint" or "roadmap." The blueprint defines the business of healthcare delivery in rural and medically underserved communities today and at some point in the future. It highlights where supporting information technologies are required and what data, security, and communication standards should be adopted. The blueprint also serves as a common point of reference from which national, regional, state, and local authorities and the private sector can develop a "bridge" or plan to get from today to the future. Likewise, it supports fundamentally sound information technology decisions by minimizing the potential for duplication of effort and reducing costly system changes as needs evolve.
The Federal CIO Council defines the blueprint as an enterprise architecture (EA), "a strategic information asset base, which defines the business mission, the information necessary to perform the mission, the technologies necessary to perform the mission, and the transitional processes for implementing new technologies in response to the changing mission needs." The key components of the EA are:
Accurate representation of the business environment, strategy, and critical success factors; Comprehensive documentation of business units and key processes; Views of the systems and data that support these processes; and A set of technology standards that define what technologies and products are approved for use within an organization, complemented by prescriptive, enterprise-wide guidelines on how to best apply these technology standards in creating business applications.
The Office of Management and Budget and the General Accounting Office have long advocated that effective use of an EA is a recognized hallmark of successful public and private organizations. DoD fully embraces the need for enterprise architecture(s) and is using them to modernize antiquated business processes and promote interoperability and information management. Relevant aspects of the DoD/Military Health System enterprise architecture can serve as a model for local or regional architecture efforts in communities and between private sector healthcare providers, and further the objectives of the National Health Information Infrastructure initiative.
An EA fosters interoperability, knowledge dissemination, enhances information security, collaboration of "best practices," and identification of healthcare information technology needs across the rural and medically underserved landscape.
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