1Project Approach Overview

Owned by Shepherd, Rachel | APHL
Feb 23, 2024
3 min read

Note that page is still in development. The preliminary sharing of this information is intended to benefit the ETOR initial implementers in preparation for their implementations, with the understanding that some information may change as our development evolves.

In collaboration with CDC, APHL has technical assistance subject matter experts whose mission is to assist public health partners in implementing data exchange solutions. The ETOR team will provide expertise in project management, laboratory workflow, terminology support, technical architecture and systems integration.

This team will provide both on-site and remote hands-on support. They will adhere to a methodology that incorporates best-practices, efficiency and effective management, communication and coordination.

The key benefits of our approach are:

Reduces burden on over-allocated or unavailable resources.

Promotes on-time and on-scope implementations.

Minimizes uncertainty and risk.

Prepares your team for long-term sustainability.

Approach By Phase

 

Pre-Implementation

The pre-implementation phase will be focused on strategizing and preparing for the ETOR project, particularly in the areas of legal execution, staff allocation, and completion of a public health laboratory and healthcare organization profile.

The primary components of this phase include:

Completion of a profile with the Public Health Laboratory
Completion of a profile with the Healthcare Organization(s)
Identification and allocation of required project roles at all organizations (Creation of Contact List)
Identification of tests in scope (test catalogue)
Completion of legal agreements
Project schedule creation

Planning & Analysis

The planning and analysis phase will be focused on gathering data on the operational and technical processes of both the public health laboratory and the healthcare organization(s). This data will be analyzed to prepare for the intermediary configuration and support the organization in the design of the new operational and technical processes that will exist with ETOR.

The primary components of this phase include:

Project Kick-Off
Commitment to Project Schedule
Commitment to Project Charter
Initial Use of Project Control Measures (Communication, Issue/Risk/Change Managment, and Status Reporting)
Analysis, design and approval of test order and results workflows for selected test types
Analysis of data for selected test types (gap analysis)
Analysis of current technical environment
Integration/Connectivity planning
Provide healthcare organization test order message (via email)
Provide public health laboratory test result message (via email)
Collection of pre-ETOR metrics

Configuration

The configuration phase will establish the required transport and routing, message transformation and translation, terminology services, and monitoring for the unique public health laboratory and healthcare organization(s).

Note that initial configuration work will begin prior to the completion of Planning & Analysis.

The primary components of this phase include:

Mapping/Translation of healthcare data elements to the intermediary data elements
Mapping/Translation of the public health laboratory data elements to the intermediary data elements
Establishing connectivity
Creation of the intermediary test order and results messages
Configuration of monitoring tools

Validation

The validation phase will include the coordinated testing of the ETOR operational and technical processes. This phase will be supported by APHL but will require focus and coordination between APHL, the public health laboratory, and the healthcare organization.

The primary components of this phase include:

Validation of connectivity and data flow
Validation of successful test ordering for all scenarios associated with select test types
Validation of successful test resulting for all scenarios associated with select test types
Validation of expected error handling
Validation of monitoring tools
Validation of operational processes
Updates to intermediary configuration as needed
Training of staff in ongoing ETOR support and maintenance responsibilities
Approval for public health laboratory to proceed to production
Approval for healthcare organization(s) to proceed to production

Production

The production phase will include the “go-live” of ETOR and 1-2 weeks of on-site post-production implementation team support.

The primary components of this phase include:

ETOR Productive Use
Validation of productive operational and technical processes
Transition to AIMS Support team
Collection of post-implementation metrics (this may occur several months following productive use)