Provided by TouchPoint Solutions

Promedia is on a mission. The California-based technology developer is rolling out a nationwide network of access terminals to deliver government-sponsored health and benefits information to U.S. service veterans. Discover how Catapult provided the key to success.

Background

When it comes to multimedia kiosks, few developers can claim a track record of success like Promedia Multi-Sensory Technologies.

Based in California, Promedia specializes in developing and deploying easy-to-use multimedia kiosk applications for both the private and public sector organizations. Having pioneered several proprietary security and infrastructure technologies for hospitals, cities and government agencies in the U.S., Promedia was called upon to create and implement a network of self-service terminals to deliver information and services to American service veterans.

As the aging U.S. population sees an increasing number of retiring veterans, this project grew out of a need and a vision to deliver anytime, anywhere information and services to those who deserve and need them most. This vision was articulated in 1996 by the Secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and officially published in an August 1999 document by Office of Policy and Program Assistance titled "OneVA."

Problem: Healthcare reforms demand increase access to services

On October 16, 1998, Lawrence Bruce Lyon Sr., a 104-year-old Army veteran from Madison, W.Va., enrolled in the VA healthcare program at Huntington, W.Va., VA Medical Center. He was one of the first as well as one of the oldest veterans to enroll in the new VA health benefits program created under the Veterans' Healthcare Eligibility Act. Since enrollment officially began October 1, 1998, 3.9 million veterans have joined Lyon in participating in one of the most far-reaching changes affecting veterans' healthcare since the creation of the VA hospital system.

The law simplified eligibility rules and provided enrolled veterans access to a guaranteed healthcare package, but like any major change, it created apprehension and uncertainty among many veterans, as well as VA employees. VA planners knew that effective communication would be vital to the successful launch of this new program affecting millions of veterans.

"We virtually had to get the word out, accurately and consistently, to the nation's veterans and their families overnight," recalls the director of VHA Health Administration Service. "That meant using the mass media, as well as our own internal VA resources."

The Healthcare Eligibility Reform national call center, established soon after enrollment began, had fielded well over a quarter-million calls from veterans responding to questions and referring veterans to local enrollment contacts. The OneVA program was conceived to help alleviate this burden by creating a public system to ensure veterans' access to the latest materials and information regarding healthcare eligibility and enrollment procedures. Additionally, OneVA terminals were to educate veterans on health related issues, while providing basic information on Veteran's benefits, hospitals and patient services.

Each networked OneVA portal would not only provide information, but also collect information by allowing veterans to enroll in the VA health benefits program, and to update their patient records. Additionally, patients would be able to request prescription refills through the same centralized Web-based system. This project required Promedia to deploy and manage a coast-to-coast fleet of networked interactive terminals to allow for a constant flow of centralized and sensitive government-regulated information in public hospitals while ensuring minimal downtime and without compromising the security and integrity of collected data.

Challenge: Building and sustaining a national public services and information network

The main challenge was in implementing a solution that could actively control the flow of information and maintain complete security and client confidentiality while (simultaneously) accessing a centralized source.

Several critical issues needed to be addressed before Promedia could confidently propose a solution:

• Security and confidentiality. Confidential patient information would need to be safely stored on remote terminals and transmitted to a central system without risk of interception or theft.
• Scalability. The plan called for an initial test deployment in several locations before being expanded nationwide to encompass several hundred terminals. The ability to scale the network without disrupting existing service was crucial.
• Centralized network administration. A critical need was the ability to remotely manage a national network of terminals using a singular centralized system.
• Multi-level network management. Once deployed, the administration of the entire network would be delegated to select individuals, each responsible for their own, unique duties, from content management to remote monitoring and response.
• Easy application development and content revisions. As a long-term commitment, the OneVA initiative would see the regular introduction of new content and services. A solution would be needed to easily facilitate the creation and implementation of new services.
• Content distribution and delivery to remote locations. As new services and content were added to the application, these updates would need to be distributed and installed on remote devices with absolute minimal service interruption.
• Minimize up-front development costs, lower total cost of ownership. As a government program, budget considerations would factor heavily into the development of the OneVA network. The appropriate solution needed to confidently provide all of the necessary functionality, while minimizing implementation costs and maintaining low total cost of ownership.

Solution: A Catapult-powered distributed managed network

After investigating several kiosk-related software products, Promedia confidently selected TouchPoint's Catapult platform as the enabling technology to architect, implement and support the OneVA initiative. As a foundation for the implementation and administration of enterprise-sized distributed managed networks, Catapult was robust, scalable, proven, and more cost-effective by comparison. Catapult would be the solution to ensure the vision behind the OneVA network would materialize, on time, and on budget.

Skilled in digital media production and multimedia interface design, Promedia utilized the CatapultRAD to create the OneVA application. A rapid application development tool, CatapultRAD enabled Promedia to build and test the OneVA application interface quickly and effortlessly. CatapultRAD's integrated, drag-and-drop development environment proved the ideal tool for Promedia. Leveraging their existing in-house capabilities, Promedia designed a rich and intuitive touch-operated user interface for the OneVA kiosks that could also be extended to provide the same services via the Worldwide Web.

Equipped with CatapultDMD, the Windows-based interactive terminals were shipped to locations across 10 states. Once deployed, Promedia employed the CatapultSVR administration system to access, configure and manage each individual terminal remotely. This included syndicating the newly developed OneVA application across the network of terminals, and the subsequent monitoring of each device to ensure all hardware systems were functioning as expected.

The Web-accessible CatapultSVR system provided Promedia centralized access to all OneVA kiosks while avoiding the need for costly hardware investment. As the bulk of the budget would be spent purchasing and deploying the touch-screen OneVA terminals, Catapult was able to maximize remaining funds by reducing the cost of development and decreasing long-term maintenance costs through its remote management abilities. This specialized feature also means that Catapult is seamlessly integrated with any administrator's network, thus further reducing project costs.

CatapultSVR's unique role-based administration system allowed Promedia to set up numerous administrative access levels for multiple users to actively manage different aspects of the geographically dispersed network of OneVA terminals. The restriction of access to hospital administrators and delegation of administrative duties via CatapultSVR ensured accurate management and total confidentiality, making the data collected accessible only to authorized individuals. For instance, pharmacists receiving prescription refill requests from the OneVA system could not also see confidential patient information.

The CatpultDMD secure client device environment further ensured patient confidentiality by disabling access to local operating systems and data. The stability and self-healing abilities of CatapultDMD enabled non-stop terminal operation, making for an optimized, efficient flow of information while reducing maintenance costs. Failure-free terminals virtually guarantee access to OneVA services by veterans and patients.

A foundation for the future

Enthusiastic about Catapult's flexibility and scalability, Promedia has been able to effortlessly deploy and manage new kiosks as the OneVA network continues to expand. The RAD interface has proven itself an ideal development tool, enabling Promedia to fine-tune content and improve the OneVA application without having to spend a lot of time learning how to manipulate the tool.

CatapultSVR's reporting and analysis module delivers a constant flow of statistics on device and application usage to provide Veterans Affairs facilities with relevant and valuable feedback that can be used to improve the effectiveness of the OneVA network. CatapultDMD continues to provide complete device security and round-the-clock operation, while the anytime, anywhere remote management abilities of the CatapultSVR system ensure effective administration of the growing network. Now a fully fledged authorized Catapult solutions provider, Promedia continues to rely on Catapult as its preferred time- and cost-reducing development platform for all interactive kiosk projects. Catapult has empowered Promedia to continue to capitalize on market opportunities related to this solution.

For more information
Promedia Multi-Sensory Technologies
Luis Loarca
luis@promedia.com
http://www.prowiz.com/
http://www.prowiz.com/onevaanimation.html
http://www.touchpointsolutions.com

TouchPoint Solutions Inc.
Rob Howard
rhoward@touchpointsolutions.com
905-629-6663