CTA Presents: A Morning with Dr. Jadick

Falls Church, VA (August 8, 2008) – The CTA Health Solutions Division invited Dr. Richard Jadick, a Navy physician, to speak to a group of medical personnel at the TRICARE Management Acvitiy (TMA). This group included many senior-level executives such as Dr. Joseph Kelley, Clinical Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense (DASD) for Health Affairs and Colonel Claude Hines, Director for the Defense Health Information Management System. The audience also included military, government and contract staff from throughout the Skyline complex and nearby military medical support facilities.

Dr. Jadick is currently studying at the Medical College of Georgia toward the completion of a residency in urology. Prior to his residency, he volunteered to deploy to Iraq to serve as a battalion surgeon. There, he earned a Bronze Star with a “V” for valor for his service as a doctor during the Battle of Fallujah, which featured some of the worst street fighting seen by Americans since Vietnam. His new memoir, written with Thomas Hayden, is On Call in Hell: A Doctor’s Iraq War Story.

As a battalion surgeon, Dr. Jadick accompanied the First Battalion, Eighth Marine Regiment and led 54 Navy medical corpsmen. He and other doctors developed the concept of forward-aid stations to care for casualties on the front lines, instead of having to transport the wounded for miles to aid stations away from the fighting.

At the presentation, Dr. Jadick delivered a riveting story of his unit’s support of the Eighth Marine Regiment, as they provided cutting edge medical support on the front line of Fallujah. His story was supported by numerous pictures of his staff, patients and the area of Fallujah where they were holed up.

Dr. Jadick’s brief was very entertaining and shed light on what many of our wounded soldiers, sailors, marines and airmen experienced during deployment to Iraq during the war.

CTA Shows at the VA ITC Conference

Ft. Washington, MD (July 7, 2008) – Computer Technology Associates (CTA) Health Solutions Division, was pleased to attend the annual Veterans Affairs (VA) Information Technology Conference in Ft. Washington Maryland. With a solid reputation of providing healthcare technology consultants to both the Veterans Affairs and the Military Health communities, CTA staffed the booth with some of the best healthcare technology consultants in the industry. Many of the CTA employees engaged in technical discussions with members of the Veterans Affairs Information Technology staff. The CTA staff took the opportunity to pass out literature, demonstrating enterprise architecture and requirements gathering methodologies. The discussion of our methodologies was well received by many members of the VA staff with the hopes of seeing more at a later date.

CTA Attends the Annual HIMSS Conference

Orlando, FL (February 25, 2008) – Computer Technology Associates (CTA) attended the 2008 Health Information Managers Systems Society (HIMSS) conference. The annual HIMSS Conference is where physicians, nurses, HIT executives, pharmacists, vendors and healthcare IT professionals from around the world come together for a week that supports the technology changes of healthcare IT.

CTA attends this conference to gather information on the latest developments in healthcare IT and works to integrate these innovations for customers and/or CTA’s own work environment. This year CTA’s Health Solutions Division was represented at the conference by Steve Casey, Darrin Washington and Helen White. The team attended numerous seminars and education sessions with relevance to CTA’s customers and the services the Health Solutions Division provides. With 37,000 healthcare technology professionals in attendance, it is clear that HIMSS is the premiere organization for healthcare IT.

CTA Attends MHS Conference

Washington, DC (January 29, 2008) – Computer Technology Associates (CTA) participated in the State of the Military Health System Conference with a full exhibition display. The MHS conference is a forum for 3,000 military and civilian medical professionals to discuss the Military Health System’s current and future initiatives. Hosted by the Department of Defense Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs, the Deputy Director of TRICARE Management Activity (TMA) and the Surgeons General of the Armed Services, the conference convened in Washington, DC from January 29 - February 1, 2008. The conference focused on the Military Health System (MHS) Strategic Plan and aligns conference presentations with its associated goals and objectives. The audience was composed of MHS senior leaders, facility commanders, regional and area office staff, healthcare professionals, administrators and contractors worldwide, as well as federal and national agency partners. CTA was proud to staff the booth with healthcare professionals in support of MHS and VA customers.

CTA Attends Veterans Health Administration eHealth University Conference

Orlando, FL (August 21, 2007) – Computer Technology Associates (CTA) attended the Veterans Health Administration eHealth University (VeHU) conference in support of VHA customers. VeHU is Veterans Affairs’ major annual training conference that provides education on the Computerized Patient Record System (CPRS) and related clinical software (VistA) developed by the Veterans Health Administration. Each year, VeHU highlights innovations towards patient care through over 200 training classes on VHA’s clinical informatics products.

Announcements

Helen A. White Joins CTA

Helen A. White has brought a wealth of diverse clinical and operational health care experience to her new position at CTA.  As facilitator and project manager for several projects, CTA is benefiting from Helen’s extensive skills and experience in clinical and healthcare management in the public and private sectors.

At CTA, Helen is currently facilitating two initiatives: the joint DoD /VA data sharing case management solution for the wounded warrior initiatives , and development of a messaging service for an MHS enterprise wide “provider data” solution that includes determining the authoritative sources for key provider data elements across systems. Helen is also project manager for the VA’s requirements elicitation effort.

As a nurse, business founder, and executive, Helen has been involved in health care, policy, management, and operations. Helen has a proven track record in management and operations, including strategic planning, systems and business process analysis, operations management, procurement and distribution, credentialing and re-credentialing, human resources, reimbursements, and the development and implementation of case management systems. Helen’s practical experience has given her subject matter expertise in public health preparedness, technology in health care, Medicaid, managed care, patient care and behavioral health services.

Helen is excited to be able to use both her clinical and operational backgrounds in complex environments at CTA. CTA is giving her the opportunity to expand her knowledge and skills working with a diverse group of experts.

Dr. Philip Aspden Joins CTA
Brings International Health, Public Policy and Information Technology Experience

Dr. Philip Aspden has joined CTA to facilitate the revision of the major policy instruction fostering the delivery of quality health care across the DoD – “Military Health System Clinical Quality Assurance Program Regulation.”

With a well-rounded background in health care, information technology and technology-based economic development, Philip has worked throughout his career on implementing innovative technologies. He first became excited about the use of information technology in healthcare when implementing an early electronic medical record in a medical oncology unit at a London academic medical center. Most recently, Philip was one of the leaders in the quality work carried out by the Institute of Medicine, directing two major studies Patient Safety: Achieving a New Standard for Care and Preventing Medication Errors.

Coming to CTA allows Philip to apply his recent experience from the Institute of Medicine, his passion for the use of information technology to improve healthcare, and his diverse background in public policy. According to Philip, “CTA offers me exciting opportunities to implement innovative IT systems for improving health care quality.”

A native of England, Philip moved to the United States in the early ‘90’s with his American wife and children. With a PhD from Lancaster University in England, Philip has authored over 70 publications and major studies. He is also an adjunct professor at George Washington University, teaching a graduate-level course in medical informatics.