Alan Fontes is an architect, but he doesn\u2019t design houses.<\/p>\n
Or skyscrapers. Or office buildings.<\/p>\n
He designs solutions.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been a solutions architect for over 20 years,\u201d he says, \u201cbuilding data analytics and information management solutions around what we used to call \u2018data warehouses,\u2019 and designing the technologies that turn data into information and insight that we can deliver to users to make information-based decisions.\u201d<\/p>\n
Developing innovative information solutions is the bread-and-butter of the group Fontes established and leads \u2013 the UConn School of Nursing, Analytics and Information Management Solutions, or AIMS \u2013 and the technologies that Fontes and his team are currently building are not only helping to change how health information is accessed and used, they\u2019re also part of the phased effort to reopen government and business operations in the state of Connecticut during the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe goal of AIMS has been to leverage the power and value of data and make it accessible to those who need it, and then use that accessible data to make decisions about how to effectively and efficiently provide services,\u201d says School of Nursing Dean Deborah Chyun. \u201cWhile our focus up until this year has been primarily on health information, the tools that AIMS has developed have practical applications that go far beyond health care, as is clearly the case with CDAS and Reopen Connecticut.\u201d<\/p>\n
CDAS \u2013 the Core Data Analytic Solution \u2013 is an advanced technological solution designed and developed by AIMS for the Connecticut Office of Health Strategy (OHS), as a component of the state\u2019s Health Information Exchange (HIE).<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is the most advanced innovative solution that I\u2019ve architected,\u201d says Fontes. \u201cWe leverage leading advances in technology systems and tools, and push the innovation envelope on how they can be used.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cCDAS is critical to health care analytics across Connecticut. It is unique, valuable and inextricable to this agency\u2019s work to evaluate the performance of Connecticut\u2019s health care system, and develop better health care delivery and payment options,\u201d says OHS Executive Director Victoria Veltri. \u201cOHS is proud of its partnership with UConn AIMS on CDAS, and I\u2019m personally glad to see its innovative architecture is being deployed here. I am relying on information from the UConn AIMS and the CDAS architecture for work on everything from health care affordability to the health information exchange to social determinant analyses. There are any number of possibilities; the homegrown nature of CDAS is just the beginning of the success to be celebrated.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fontes says: \u201cCDAS is built for rapid response and rapid deployment to meet the needs of stakeholders within Connecticut. It can pull in health care data \u2013 from health care insurance claims to clinical data from electronic health or medical records through Connie, the state\u2019s HIE. CDAS organizes this data \u2013 and builds out analytics to help decision-makers understand what\u2019s going on and the outcomes, so that they can decide how to set policies or establish and manage programs. It\u2019s all centered on quality and improvement in health delivery and services.\u201d<\/p>\n
While CDAS helps fill Connecticut\u2019s health needs, that\u2019s not nearly all it can do.<\/p>\n
For the state\u2019s COVID-19 reopening effort, that necessary data crosses multiple departments and both public and private stakeholders are captured, such as COVID tests, hospitals\u2019 COVID patient counts, and data relating to utilization, unemployment, public health, correction and education.<\/p>\n
Fontes and his team, though, were up for the important challenge of not only providing the analytics solution, but for turning around accessible dashboards for the Governor\u2019s Reopen CT team within a few weeks.<\/p>\n
\u201cWithin a day, the team was able to configure and open a CDAS environment,\u201d Fontes says. \u201cWithin a couple of weeks, they had automated the intake of data files from data sources, such as the state\u2019s Open Data Portal, and process them as they arrived to get the most current information out.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAs the state prepared for reopening, the state wanted to make sure that senior leadership had an eye on key metrics that could be pulled together and viewed on a single platform,\u201d said Scott Gaul, Connecticut\u2019s Chief Data Officer. \u201cWe reached out to Alan at UConn AIMS, anticipating that we needed something that would be sufficient to handle the long-term impact and expansion of the data and the need for rapid real-time information. With UConn AIMS and CDAS, we now have this capability within the state, as it enabled us to pull in different data sources and turn that around faster with a wider range of tools and more improved security.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mark Raymond, the state\u2019s Chief Information Officer, has a bird’s-eye view of state technology, and says, \u201cIn this instance, combining aggregate data from multiple sources where decision making falls outside one individual agency allowed the state to make a better decision on where we are. UConn AIMS moved with swiftness and demonstrated how CDAS could be utilized. What is impressive that they were able to pull this together in such a short period of time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Since standing up the system in early May, Fontes and his project team \u2013 which includes three AIMS staff members in addition to Fontes \u2013 have continued to refine the functions and the user interface while working with agencies and stakeholders to further automate data intake.<\/p>\n
\u201cWorking with the CDAS team was a great way of enabling us to do more than what we are currently equipped to do,\u201d Gaul says. \u201cThe CDAS team has really stepped in and pulled that data from a variety of different sources quickly, deftly, and managed to keep it safe and secure.\u201d<\/p>\n
While its speedy implementation came at a time of immediate and critical need, the application of CDAS to broader state government functions provides a tool that could potentially be expanded and utilized long after the coronavirus threat has subsided \u2013 helping to bring agency data together across the state and providing policymakers and other stakeholders with analytics to aid in making information-based decisions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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