Clinical Information Systems
ICF International develops clinical information systems to stringent
data quality requirements, managing quality control and quality assurance
through multiple review processes. Clinical information systems support hospital, laboratory, and other healthcare
provider settings in which access to accurate and timely information is critical
to patient treatment. ICF also tests and confirms that data retrieval
is faster than baseline response time requirements. One of the key components
of clinical information systems development is adherence to privacy initiatives
involving Personally Identifiable Information (PII). The system maintains
and secures patient records from unauthorized access or duplication, with
identifying information only available to those directly responsible for
a patient's care.
ICF develops critical systems capable of maintaining performance despite
integrated component failures, accidents, or malicious actions. Clinical
information systems need to be reliable and fully usable during catastrophic
events, when accurate and timely patient information must be available to
healthcare providers. ICF conducts testing and benchmarking under adverse
conditions, provides reliable system hosting from geographically divergent
locations, and supports preparation and system response to threats in specific
regions and settings.
Selected Projects in Clinical Information Management Systems Development
Center for Substance Abuse Treatment, Digital Access to Medication
ICF supported the Digital Access to Medication (D-ATM) project of the Center for Substance Abuse Treatment (CSAT) at the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). CSAT's mission is to expand the availability of effective treatment and recovery services for persons with alcohol and drug problems. CSAT oversees the Opioid Treatment Programs (OTPs) for the 250,000 patients receiving treatment for opioid addictions. Following the events of September 11, 2001, CSAT realized the need for a secure, centralized response system to ensure uninterrupted service to patients in the event of a disaster or during other service interruptions such as power failures.
ICF's health informatics expertise in clinical information systems development facilitated the design, deployment, and maintenance of D-ATM, a secure system that provided a method for patients to gain uninterrupted access to their personal medical records, primarily through finger-scanning technology. D-ATM consolidated all patient dosing information related to Methadone and Buprenorphine into fully redundant central databases. ICF built D-ATM to meet the patient privacy protections mandated by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and the Code of Federal Regulations 42, Part 2, as well as its stakeholders' most stringent confidentiality requirements. Once developed, D-ATM was deployed to 20 OTPs for a limited pilot trial.
