The Office of the National Coordinator awarded Vangent Inc. a $15.6 million contract to provide management services for the Federal
Health Architecture (FHA) program, a group of federal agencies working to expand methods of health information exchange.
Under the five-year contract, the systems integrator will help FHA add interoperability standards and services to the Connect tool set, standards and services for sharing health information over the Internet.
FHA developed Connect to set up health information exchange among federal health-related agencies as well as private sector providers. FHA last year released its Connect software to the open source community.
The firm's work will adhere to ONC's Standards and Interoperability (S&I) Framework, its comprehensive plan to determine future standards to be used in health information exchange.
As part of its work, Vangent will incorporate into Connect standards for NHIN Direct, a streamlined version of the standards and services of the nationwide health information network. NHIN Direct is geared toward simple "push" of health record exchanges between health care organizations.
Vangent has handled the FHA Program Management Office since its inception in 2004 and has been the program manager for the Connect
initiative since it began in 2006.
Vangent's health IT will also work with federal healthcare agencies, such as the Health and Human Services and Veterans Affairs departments, to increase adoption of Connect. Vangent will run FHA and CONNECT operations and finances, the firm announced.
