Health

Translational Medicine: Translating Discoveries into Practice

Translational medicine is the translation of scientific discoveries into clinical practices. This "bench-to-bedside" flow of information connects researchers and clinicians. Translational medicine is a natural evolutionary progression from evidence-based medicine. It integrates input from the basic sciences, social sciences and political sciences to optimize care, and tailor it to the patient.

Bioinformatics: Advancing Biomedical Research and Discovery

Because of the success of SAIC's Cancer Biomedical Informatics Grid, (caBIG®), the National Cancer Institute (NCI), has launched several BIG health initiatives, and SAIC-developed technologies are at the heart of every one. caBIG facilitates data-sharing across the biomedical community, connecting medical researchers and enabling a scope of collaboration that was previously impossible. The program interconnects more than 50 cancer centers and has expanded into international biomedical communities in the UK, India and other countries.

Health Systems Data Sharing: Improving Care Through a Health Information Framework

Congress mandated that the Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs share real-time, computable clinical data and applications between their respective electronic health records (EHR) systems, AHLTA and VistA. SAIC has built a prototype health information framework that makes the two systems interoperable, allowing both departments to use the EHR systems they already have and comply with President Obama's vision of a single, Virtual Lifetime Electronic Record that follows servicemen and servicewomen from the day they enlist to the day they die. The prototype is being used at the Captain James A. Lovell Federal Health Care Center, which will be the first center that combines care for veterans and military personnel. The technology could also be adapted to help health information exchange organizations in the public and private sectors.

Mobile Health Data: Saving Lives Through Access to Health Records

For medical personnel providing immediate first aid at forward locations in theaters of war, it's crucial to have access to electronic health records, reference materials, as well as diagnostic and treatment decision support tools. SAIC's AHLTA-Mobile is the program of record for mobile medical documentation for the Department of Defense fielded in every theater of operations. This application runs on a handheld device and can pass medical data to the patient's electronic health record in the AHLTA-Theater system. The next version of the software will include a "finger friendly" interface, flexible sick call templates, and will help track blood inventories in theater.

Health Information Exchanges: Accelerating Situational Awareness

SAIC accelerates the near real-time detection of disease outbreaks with a solution that enables sharing of clinical care data among federal, state and local public health organizations and private health information exchange (HIE) organizations via the Nationwide Health Information Network (NHIN). The company leveraged 2.6 million electronic health records contained in the clinical data repository of Inland Northwest Health Services (INHS), an HIE operating in Washington State and Idaho. SAIC delivered and integrated key technologies for capturing and conforming INHS's clinical transaction data to the Healthcare Information Technology Standards Panel (HITSP) biosurveillance data and securely sent that data in near-real-time to all levels of public health via the NHIN gateway.

Epidemic Response: Covering the Entire Event Chain

SAIC technologies address the entire biosurveillance spectrum, from global situational awareness of current and emerging disease conditions, to planning and preparedness for high interest diseases such as H1N1 influenza, through response and recovery. SAIC has supported field surveillance for diseases of interest, such as avian flu, anthrax and plague, and its bio-detection systems have been used to determine swine flu in clinical samples. The company develops continuity of operations plans, training and exercise for a broad range of infectious diseases and other biological events. SAIC's mathematical modeling, risk assessment and other work covers all parts of the event chain — awareness, planning, preparedness, response and recovery.