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Bill Rudman, AHIMA FoundationDavid Westfall, AHIMA

Proposal for OHT – Virtual Lab (VLAB)

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VLAB was a response to our academic partners request for practical experience training that supported the educational objectives during the 2 or 4 year programs.

AHIMA’s Virtual Lab (VLAB) is a neutral environment for Health Information Management (HIM) applications. The applications are the same applications that are available in hospitals and other health care facilities world wide.

It currently supports 7 vendors and is used by 10,000 students each year

AHIMA Virtual Lab (VLAB) History

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Current VLAB Challenges• AHIMA’s present VLAB (Version 1) key challenges:

– Non platform based– Scalability Issues– Difficult to quickly add/enhance applications– Lack of integration of applications– Unable to deliver Internationally– Lack of any significant reporting capabilities– Not designed to support continuing education or corporate

needs

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VLAB “Version 2” • Centralized Platform Solution; easy to support multiple vendors• Scalable• North American and Internationally focus• Applications Easily Added

– Application Programming Interface (API) based• Applications integrated

– “AHIMA Hospital”• Future Proof• Strong Reporting Functionality• Easy to add

– Users (Various Types)– Countries and regions

• Easy to deliver and maintain

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The vision of VLAB is to provide a platform for applications in healthcare that can be provided to individuals looking to gain practical experience in real world applications. In essence, we want to provide healthcare workers a “virtual AHIMA hospital” that allows the individual to be exposed to a realistic healthcare experience from the perspective of the information that flows through a healthcare system.

AHIMA VLAB Vision

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Value of VLAB Version 2• User Value

– Continue to provide an environment where healthcare students can receive appropriate practical experience

– Provide a wider range of today’s HIM applications as well as support the ability to easily add tomorrows applications

• Appropriately integrate applications

– Environment that is easy to use and navigate and provides the ability to support all of the students need in an integrated fashion

– Be able to support all user environments• International users and environments• Corporate users and environments• Individual users

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Value of VLAB Version 2• Application Providers

– Continue to provide an environment where application providers can have their applications marketed to present and future users

– Provide an environment where application providers can gain information around how their applications are being used

• Advanced reporting capabilities to provide real world user feedback on application performance and design

– Provide an environment where application providers can gain information around how their applications work in conjunction with other healthcare applications

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Value of VLAB Version 2• The Healthcare Industry

– Provide a vehicle that supports and enhances industry education for all participants

– Provide a vehicle that will help the public good– Provide a platform for experimentation and

research into new designs and features– Research vehicle to collect and test

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Value of VLAB Version 2• Open Health Tools

– Provide an environment where OHT can validate and showcase it’s products and architectures in a neutral environment

– Provide an environment where application integration can be tested and validated in a consistent and long standing beta environment

– Provide a showcase where application providers can display their products in a neutral environment