innovation in healthcare: transforming paper to an esubmissions soa

1 May 22-24, 2007

Washington Dulles HiltonThe Business Transformation Conference

David RR WebberLead Analyst NIH/ODIllumonus Group

Session Title:Innovation in Healthcare: Transforming Paper to an eSubmissions SOA

WelcomeWelcome

to Transformation and Innovation 2007 The Business Transformation Conference

2 May 22-24, 2007


Agenda

Project History / Background / Goals

Technology Approach

SOA Details

Open Source / Open Standards

Summary / Review

3 3 May 22-24, 2007


2007

Project History / Background / Goals

• Grants Community (healthcare research)

• NIH/OD eRA eReceipts

• Beyond Paper

4 May 22-24, 2007


Grants Community (health research)• Grants.gov portal created by Congress

• Central collection point for all government grants information

• Supplemental ability to submit grants via routing service

• Offers central forms facilities for Agencies

• Can authenticate applicants (complex!)

• Health research submissions major community ($4B annual funding)

5 May 22-24, 2007


Applicants - prefer a common viewThe typical grant applicants’ challenge

Juggling all the various different formats and procedures

6 May 22-24, 2007


Agency Delivery Services

Client Application

Forms

S2S

Services

Grants Management

Tools

Opportunity Repository

Public Grants Portal

Grants.gov

Certification,Verification

SubmissionHandler / Routing

PDF-based web browser deployment +extensible open tools

Open source transport web services andsecure B2G interfacing

Open source transport web services andsecure G2G interfacing

Exchange infrastructurewith XML and PDF content

SAML based sign-on and verification services

Web htmlportalservices

Web based menus and forms / XML-based configuration profiles

Adobe LiveCycle with download packages and web management forms

7 May 22-24, 2007


Beyond Paper - NIH Grants Management

• NIH issues billions of dollars in grant awards to investigators worldwide annually

• Receives 70,000+ research and training grant applications

• Handling 20,000,000+ pages of paper

• Goal - to electronically receive, verify and accept ALL Research/Research related Grant Applications (initially 80:20 rule, then all)

8 May 22-24, 2007


Grants Support Services Components• Submission of modular grants• Submission of full budget grants (no sub-projects or

consortia)• Validation results returned to Submitter system• Validation service before submission• Grant image generation by NIH• View and approve generated image for sign-off of

submission (web GUI)• Investigator Personal profile query and update• Status inquiries in grant workflow processing• Notification of peer review assignment

9 May 22-24, 2007


NIH Exchange - Design Goals• Automated registration of participants• Ability to self-certify exchange transactions• Version control and ability to approve partners• Centralized registry for participant management• Declared and shared business rule scripting• Integration through messaging services• Backend application integration services• Uses open public specifications and open source

10 May 22-24, 2007


NIH/OD eRA eReceipts• National Institutes of Health

– Electronic Receipts Administration• eReceipts Exchange:

– interface to Grants.gov– system-to-system support– “Commons” web application– Grants award tracking

• On the web at: – http://era.nih.gov– http://era.nih.gov/ElectronicReceipt/system.htm

11 May 22-24, 2007


CIO’s perception of SOA Today• Independent of underlying technology

• A general model for offering computing and information services in large, loosely coupled, highly distributed environment.

• The standardized and probably most widely associated implementation technology is web services

• But many look to implement SOA with their foundation technologies such as IBM MQ Series or Oracle A/S

12 May 22-24, 2007


Core eGovernment RequirementsBusiness Perspective – meeting goals / needs

Community of Practice – fostering open adoption

Management – formal oversight and methods

Accessibility – open platform, open system

Security – certify participants, non-intrusively

Agility – flexibility of interfaces, content, rules

Performance – scalability, cost, re-use, maintenance

13 May 22-24, 2007


Help Desk / Culture Transition

• Old paper based submission knowledge• New electronic forms submission

– Understand entry process– Manage verification sign-up– Link to existing Commons web forms– Supporting documents generation – Scanning and digital images– Reporting and tracking via email

14 14 May 22-24, 2007


2007

Technology Approach

• Document Handling - PDF• Submission Information - XML• Transports – https, WSDL, ebXML, SSL

– S2Sclient application

• Knowledge Mining support

15 May 22-24, 2007


Technology - Quick History• Notion of using Internet to securely

exchange digital business information–PDF started in 1991 by Adobe; 1993 launch

–XML started in 1997

–B2B work on XML/edi and ebXML

–ebXML specification – May 11th, 2001

–Web services – started 2001 as ‘quick fix’

–WSDL and XSD developed by W3C

• Web services used by Amazon and eBay

• Marketing of SOA emerges

16 May 22-24, 2007


PDF attachments

http connection

Grants.govIntake &

Processing

Applicant Grants.gov

Asych Messaging

22223333

Client Side Validation

Agency Rules

Federal Rules

Federal Credential

Agency Credential

Structure / Data

PDF attachments

XML formsUpload

1111

XML data

Grants.govIntake &

Processing

Staged Exchanges5555

Agency Rules

4444

Document Handling – PDF / XML

Grants.gov

17 May 22-24, 2007


PDF attachments

PDF Form images

Grants.govIntake &

Processing Agency Downstream

Systems

Applicant Grants.gov

Asych Messaging

3333Delivery Packaging

1111

PDF attachments

XML data

6666Delivery

ZIP package

SOAPpackage

Grants.govIntake &

Processing

Asych Messaging

Agency Downstream

Systems

Separate

Staged

Delivery

Indirect feedback

XML data

XML responseDirect feedbackStaged Exchanges

PDF Form imagesGeneration

5555

8888

9999

7777

Agency

Packaging / Delivery

18 May 22-24, 2007


Knowledge Mining Support• Extract of text from PDF(s)• Selection of data from XML• Import to knowledge mining tools (commercial)• Reporting and querying by NIH staff• Ability to import profiles into KM tools of

reviewers and researchers• Knowledge mining potential for healthcare

research:– Leveraging Knowledge for Modern Science Management

Monday, February 06, 2006– http://videocast.nih.gov/ram/km020606.ram

19 19 May 22-24, 2007


2007

SOA Details• Partner Management - CPA

• External Information Services

• Internal Delivery Exchanges

• Security Considerations

• Toward Registry Facilitation

• Acceptance Testing and Version Control

20 May 22-24, 2007


What exactly is SOA?• SOA still very much dependent on the

focus of the advocate

• Some commonly accepted wisdoms– Using internet TCP/IP based exchanges– Both “real time” and “batch” services– Need registry to manage content / services– Robust Security and Authentication– Partner profiles - MoU, roles, context– Rule based business information handling– Business process formalization

21 May 22-24, 2007


Operational Requirements• Outward facing messaging systems• Formal agreement profiles for business participants• Business process workflow definitions • Information exchange rules• Registry to hold agreements, definitions, scripts / (provides common point of reference for partners to ensure consistent operational practices)• Internal integration routing and dispatch methods• User interfacing for entry/control with quick sign-up

22 May 22-24, 2007


1. Memorandum of Understanding Business Analyst

• Meeting of the Minds• Business Goals• Define Scope• Rough Timeline• Creation / Best Practice Wizard

CPA – Collaboration Profile Agreement

2. Collaboration Protocol Agreements Operations Managers

• Precise Choreography• Automated• Messaging Parameters• Profiles and Templates for creation• Runtime XML instances• Configure partner setup

3. On-line RegistrySystems Administrators • Manage operational use• Provide automation access

23 May 22-24, 2007


Rules

Applications Workflow and

State Management

Presentation, Control and Reporting Services

Grants.gov

Content Management

Document Management

Application Tracking

Integrated front-end system for applicants and

partners

Shared data repository of key information

Web formssystem

Web formssystem

OracleDatabase

OracleDatabase

ExchangeServices

ExchangeServices

XML

Document

Handling

Document

Handling

RegistryRegistry

RegistryServices

RegistryServices

Security & Privacy

Customer Management

Pluggable Status

Tracking

Pluggable Status

Tracking

ExternalParties

ExternalParties

MessageExchanges

XML

1111

2222

3333

4444

5555

6666

Rules

Open Standards, Open Platform, Open Source

SubmissionDelivery

SubmissionDelivery

Asynch (pull delivery)Status update notices

Applicants

B2BDelivery

B2BDelivery

Full S2S Delivery Services –• Push• Query/Response• Pull

XML

eReceipts Workflow Overview

7777

8888

Knowledge Mining

24 May 22-24, 2007


S2SclientInstalled

S2Sclient Application Integration

NIHeReceiptsExchange

Transaction Handlers

ebXML

CPA

Partner configurations

XML

Oracle

ProcessingRules

references transactions

Internet

Partner’s Grant Tracking System

XMLXML

NIH Grants Systems

PartnerSetup Forms

ValidationServices

Rules

CPA

•Notices•Queries•Results•Errors•Updates

25 May 22-24, 2007


Research

Cues /

Triggers Applicant

Profiles

ExchangeServices

ExchangeServices

Grants.gov

S2S exchanges

Other

Pluggable Status Tracking

Pluggable

Interfacing

Su

bm

issio

ns /

Exch

an

ges

Data

Persistence

Agent

Content

Validation

Agent

Neutral Data Handling Layer

Script

ScriptPDF

Handling

Services

Script

Script

Script

Script

Delivery

Queue

Dispatch

Queue

Registry ServicesRegistry Services

Dispatch

Agent

Script

KBase

HandlingPartner

Profiles

Semantic

Hierarchies

Interfacing

KBase ServicesKBase Services

Knowledge

Tools

1111

2222

3333 4444

5555

6666

Web

bro

wser

/

Web

serv

ices

SOA Conceptual Architecture

26 May 22-24, 2007


Leveraging Open Standards• Combining best-of-breed solution with both

ebXML and Web services working together• Open source solution components to allow

unrestricted integration by partners• Foundation of ebXML formal interchange

model• Leveraging loose coupling of web services

27 May 22-24, 2007


Role of Registry in the Service Lifecycle

Staging Registry

Service Provision

Publish

Discover Consume

Version

Service Consumption

OperateDeploy

Specify

Certify

Plan

Production Registry

Service Management

Publish planned Services

Certify in Approval Process

Register Versions and Redirect

Publish Via Staging Registry

Dynamic Run-time Discovery

Feedback QoS

Asset Management Tools

Developer Tools

Asset Management Tools

Developer Tools

Discover Services

Registry becomes “System of Record” for Service Lifecycle

28 28 May 22-24, 2007


2007Open Source / Open Standards• XML handling

• PDF and supporting tools

• Open platform needs

• Open source transport foundations• Rule based approach – (JBoss Rules/OASIS CAM)

• Technology integration resolution

29 May 22-24, 2007


Open Source Components Used• XML handling – Java XMLBeans (BEA)• PDF handling – iText function library• Transport –

– Apache SOAP – freebXML Hermes v1.1– “S2Sclient” developed – grants application B2B applicance

• Rules engines –– JBOSS Rules (DROOLS) (Java rules interface conformant)– CAM (OASIS)– Both have Eclipse editors for easy rule entry

• Application Servers –– Tomcat OSS / Oracle App Server (not OSS)

• Database persistence– DerbyDB – embedded in S2Sclient

30 30 May 22-24, 2007


2007

Summary / Review• Becoming Center of Excellence

• Supporting Agency Re-Use

• Next Steps – – Business Processes – (BPSS)

– Knowledge Mining extending– Rule based handling – (JBoss Rules / CAM / PDF)

– S2Sclient - “ebXML B2B Appliance”

31 May 22-24, 2007


Lessons Learned• Providing self-service facilities is key to rapid

adoption• Infrastructure exists today off-the-shelf to

create pre-built templates for industry domains

• Using open specifications allows integration into wide range of environments

• Open source solutions allows partners to readily obtain technology

• Use of partner id concept to manage partners and versioning interchanges

32 May 22-24, 2007


Challenges / Opportunities Today

• Exposing synchronous and asynchronous interfacing to control content access

• Open source solution components to allow unrestricted integration by partners

• Leveraging loose coupling of web services• Combining best-of-breed solution with both

ebXML and Web services working together as formal model

• Industry best-practices and lessons learned (who has solved similar needs?)

33 May 22-24, 2007


Beyond Grants Applications• The ability to interface quickly and easily to

external parties with limited resources is not just a grants applications need

• Secure reliable verifiable common communications infrastructure based on open public specifications

• Other potential applicable areas:– HHS - Cancer Research Centers– CDC – Emergency Alerting systems– NSF – National Science Foundation grants– Navy – Medical Services coordination– FEMA – Emergency supply chain delivery– DHS – Intra-agency information sharing– EPA – External regulatory reporting

34 May 22-24, 2007


Thank YouThank You

David RR WebberLead Analyst, NIH/ODIllumonus Group

Contact Information:drrwebber@ acm.org

35 May 22-24, 2007


Acronym SoupWSDL – web service description language

SOAP – simple object access protocol

ebXML – e-Business XML

REST – Representational State Transfer – http-based exchanges

XSD – XML Schema (structure / layout) Definition

XML – eXtensible Markup Language

W3C – World Wide Web consortium

B2B – business to business

MoU – Memorandum of Understanding

CPA – Collaboration Protocol Agreement (see also CPPA)

TCP/IP – internet communications syntax

36 May 22-24, 2007


Project and Technology Resources

NIH eRA Project site – http://era.nih.gov

NIH Grants site - http://

era.nih.gov/ElectronicReceipt/

Commons online site – https://

commons.era.nih.gov/commons/

Grants.gov online site – http://

www.grants.gov/GetStarted

37 May 22-24, 2007


Technology Resources

• www.oasis-open.org

• www.ebxml.org

• www.freebXML.org

• www.ebxmlforum.org

• www.apache.org