ONE Platform Migration Project — Contexture Employee Perspective

In this series, we will interview a diverse group of Contexture staff engaged in the unified platform migration project, gathering their insights on the update and the project’s internal and external significance.

The latest interviews will be highlighted at the start of the article, with the very first interview placed at the end.

Employee Interviews – ONE Platform Migration Project

Table of Contents

The final interview in our series is Contexture’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Melissa Kotrys.

As CEO, Melissa is responsible for overseeing Contexture’s strategic direction and operations, and in collaboration with the Contexture board of directors, sets the organization’s strategy and key goals. She publicly represents Contexture by serving on multiple healthcare boards and advisory councils — most notably on the Civitas Networks for Health Board of Directors — and building relationships with our participants, community partners and employees.

Melissa Kotrys, Chief Executive Officer

1. How do you, as the CEO, contribute to the ONE Platform project?

My contributions to ONE Platform are primarily related to strategy, oversight and communications. When CORHIO and Health Current formally affiliated, the affiliation’s primary objective was to align and combine the technical functionality and related infrastructure of both organizations to have a solid foundation upon which to continue expanding, maturing and improving the solutions we provide to our communities.  To that end, along with multiple other members of our executive leadership team, I participated in getting feedback from our community partners on various needs for the future and facilitated conversations with our Contexture Board of Directors to confirm the selection of our key technology partners.

I also regularly support the ONE Platform project by collaborating with our key technology vendors to ensure success in implementation, coordinating with our internal teams to track progress and communicating with our participants and community partners to share the new suite of ONE Platform solutions and the exciting new functionality that will be available on the new system.

2. How do you ensure that the ONE Platform migration project aligns with Contexture’s long-term goals and values, and what measures are in place to track overall project success?

Contexture, inclusive of our historical efforts at Health Current, CORHIO and Quality Health Network, has long had robust strategic planning structures to ensure that as a mission-driven, non-profit organization, we continue to align with the desired functionality of the organizations we serve.

As we developed our 2023–2025 three-year strategic plan, we identified multiple functions and solutions that the community desired. We incorporated many of those requests into the design of ONE Platform, and we have been implementing that functionality as part of the project. Our team regularly tracks robust measures, including the number and percentage of participants in various stages of implementation, progress against the overall implementation of various functions and regular report-outs to both our internal staff and our Board of Directors on progress.

We are so excited to get the platform live in 2025 so that all of our participants across Arizona and Colorado can enjoy the many innovative solutions, functions and benefits of the new system.

3. Can you share some key challenges and successes you have encountered during the ONE Platform migration project and how they have influenced your strategic vision for Contexture?

As with any comprehensive IT integration project, there are certainly challenges and successes. We were immensely proud to get all of our legacy Contexture electronic clinical quality measure functionality transitioned to Health Catalyst earlier this year, which was a major milestone and success. We have seen improved results with this new functionality and are excited to continue that important work. We have also seen successes in applying the Contexture Gold Standard for interfaces to all new connections being built. These standards will ensure that the data shared via the HIE is even more comprehensive, standardized and normalized in the coming years.

And of course, no major IT implementation comes without its challenges. Transitioning 2000+ organizations to a new and improved system requires time and attention from our participants, which we recognize is a challenge given the many priorities of today’s healthcare system. We appreciate the commitment and coordination of our participants as we get all organizations live on the new system and request your continued cooperation in the months ahead.

4. Why is this platform migration important to you?

Contexture’s mission is “advancing individual and community health and wellness through the delivery of actionable information and analysis.” As an organization, we are focused on this mission day in and day out. We want to ensure that we continue to be a leader in the interoperability space, which means continuously providing more advanced and seamless solutions to our participants.

The platform migration will realize many new benefits and will bring about the availability of new solutions by bringing together the best from all our affiliated entities.

5. What one thing will add the greatest value as a result of this platform migration?

It is definitely hard to pick just one thing about ONE Platform that will provide the greatest value to the communities we serve, but if I have to pick one, it would be the ability to have a unified, solid technology foundation upon which we can achieve so many new use cases that the community looks to us to provide.

The expanded solutions and comprehensive data available through ONE Platform will allow healthcare care organizations across Arizona and Colorado to continue serving individuals with the best care possible.

From new notifications and streamlined access to behavioral health data to more robust data reporting and analytics, I know that our communities across both states will see significantly increased value as a result of the ONE Platform implementation and go-live.

Next up in our series is Contexture’s Chief Strategy Officer (CSO), Kelly Joines

As CSO, Kelly is responsible for furthering the overall vision and mission of the company, focusing on conceptualizing and formulating strategic initiatives that further that mission and make sure that the day-to-day activities of the company support those initiatives.

Kelly Joines, Chief Strategy Officer

1. How does the CSO contribute to the ONE Platform project?

Foundationally, the CSO worked with our participants in 2022 to understand the opportunities and challenges that Contexture could address. This participant input became the heart of our 2023-2025 strategic plan. In that plan, we represent our participants’ need for a modern data platform that supports existing and future solutions, allowing for the flexibility to access and utilize the data to support specific and ever-changing requests.

My job is to ensure we continue supporting our participants and strategic initiatives by designing the ONE Platform architecture and associated solutions, pricing, contracts and policies. I am also responsible for ushering potential new work through an intake process to ensure it aligns with our mission and strategies while minimizing the impact of committed ONE Platform work. I often say that the hardest and most strategic skill of a CSO is saying, “no” or, “not now.”

2. When crafting the strategic plan for Contexture, what factors needed to be considered for ONE Platform and its implementation timeline?

We are in a unique situation right now with managing such a huge migration. It is not only the great work that the IT teams are doing for the physical migration, but it is also the important work that spans other teams in designing solutions, collateral, training, pricing, contracts and policies — not to mention all the processes necessary to support new ways of doing things!

This is a mammoth project, and we must get it right and get it done. With that in mind, the most crucial factors right now in crafting the strategic plan are finding the balance between getting all the ONE Platform work completed, being responsive to our participants and addressing our future needs. ONE Platform opens so many doors for new solutions, but we must ensure we allow the bandwidth to get it done right.

Another key factor is being creative and deliberate in how we promote our existing solutions in new ways. We have developed and partnered for flexible solutions and architecture that should be able to support new participant types and innovative programs without having to do significant new development.

3. How will ONE Platform enhance Contexture’s future strategic plans once the platform migration efforts are completed?

This excites me so much; I could write a full novel on this topic! HIE has come so far from its original context — it should more fairly be called Information Exchange (IE) instead of HIE. The two most exciting enhancements that ONE Platform can provide are:

– Allowing for all types of information exchanges – moving beyond traditional healthcare information into more robust social determinants of health (SDOH) exchange, advanced directives exchange and exchanges for very specific data needs and models such as public health exchange.

– Integrating traditional healthcare data with data identified in the exchange models above, as well as other data types like claims, to ensure we are well-positioned to provide data analytics/business intelligence solutions that help our participants see information in new and unique ways to help improve individual and population health.

When we created the 2023-2025 strategic plan and had ONE Platform in mind, we established a north star statement: Participants recognize the value of HIE and want Contexture data to be so comprehensive that they don’t question completeness and they don’t have to go anywhere else to get it.

This is the promise of ONE Platform!

4. Why is this platform migration important to you?

We have worked hard bringing three organizations together in the last few years, understanding that we would have one common platform to ensure important regionalization of our mission and to expand on what we can provide as an HIE — opportunities that our participants asked us to create. This platform migration is necessary for these goals and prepares us for future opportunities that nobody has even thought of yet!

5. What one thing will add the greatest value as a result of this platform migration?

The ability to combine disparate data on such a large scale will provide opportunities for data analytics/business intelligence that could literally move the needle on predictive analytics, precision medicine and population health — improving outcomes for individuals and communities. I think that is why we are all here, after all.

Next up in our series is Contexture’s Chief Revenue Officer (CRO), Matthew Isiogu

As CRO, Matthew spearheads organizational initiatives, working with his teams to craft innovative breakthroughs and strategic business approaches that utilize data and technology. These efforts are aimed at bolstering value-based care and promoting health equity, all while effectively managing costs for Contexture and participant organizations.

Matthew Isiogu, Chief Revenue Officer

1. How do the teams you oversee contribute to the successful implementation of the ONE Platform project?

Our Solution and Market Development team has translated our exciting technology platform upgrades into refreshed health information exchange (HIE) solutions with scalable pricing options for all participants, large and small. Our Marketing and Communications team ensures our community partners receive the most up-to-date news and information each step of the way. Our Business Development and Government Relations teams will sign new contracts with over 2,600 participants, including all major hospitals and health plans in Arizona and Colorado.

2. How will the ONE Platform project help control costs for participant organizations?

Contexture solutions provide immediate access to the most complete, highest quality and most useable patient data. Better data results in better care, with improved outcomes including lower costs. Our solutions automate data exchange for participants, consolidating and replacing multiple data feeds and manual processes in an industry where saving time saves money and lives.

3. How will the ONE Platform project enhance value-based care?

ONE Platform enables the next generation of HIE solutions that provide real-time patient data to all members of the care team across the value-based continuum, from an admitting facility, through discharge to a nursing facility, to follow-up by your primary care practice, and care coordination by a health plan case manager.

4. Why is this platform migration important to you?

ONE Platform is a giant step forward in modernizing Contexture’s infrastructure that will allow us to provide better, more cost-effective solutions, with enhanced data analytics that will meet the needs of our communities over the next ten years.

5. What one thing will add the greatest value as a result of this platform migration?

Our Arizona participants are most excited about the addition of medical image exchange on the new platform, providing click-through access to high-quality images and avoiding unnecessary and expensive duplication of procedures. Our Colorado participants are most excited about an even more complete PatientCare 360 portal, with data from both HL7 and now also Continuity of Care Document (CCD) data.

Next up in our series is Contexture’s Board of Directors member, April Rhodes.

April Rhodes MBA, LAMFT is the Chief Executive Officer at Spectrum Healthcare Group and leads Contexture’s Board of Directors by providing feedback on the organization’s initiatives as well as her perspectives as a leader of an integrated behavioral health provider on the best use cases for Contexture’s solutions.

April Rhodes, Contexture Board of Directors

1. How does the Contexture Board of Directors contribute to the successful implementation of the ONE Platform project?

The Contexture Board of Directors plays a pivotal role in the ONE Platform process by ensuring that the project aligns with our mission to enhance healthcare delivery across Arizona and Colorado. We provide strategic guidance, share insights from our diverse experiences, and work to ensure that the platform will truly meet the needs of our communities. Our involvement is focused on ensuring this initiative succeeds and sets a new standard for how health information is shared and used to improve patient care.

2. How will the ONE Platform project enhance Contexture’s abilities to support participants in all markets we serve?

The ONE Platform project will transform how we support healthcare providers across all markets. By unifying our systems, we’re creating a seamless exchange of health information that makes it easier for providers to access critical patient data — no matter where they are in Arizona or Colorado. This streamlined approach not only improves the efficiency of care delivery but also ensures that all of our participants can provide the highest quality care with the most up-to-date health information at their fingertips.

As a behavioral health provider, I’m particularly excited about the improvements that ONE Platform will provide for more integrated and seamless sharing of behavioral health information. The new general designation consent process in particular will ease the administrative burden of participants and will allow for information to be shared in alignment with all state and federal laws and regulations.

3. How will ONE Platform support the patients our participants serve?

ONE Platform will be a game changer for patients. It ensures that whether a patient visits a healthcare facility anywhere in Arizona or Colorado, their most recent medical records are immediately accessible to healthcare providers and other organizations that support the coordination of their care. This means quicker diagnoses, more accurate treatments, enhanced care coordination between disparate organizations and better overall health outcomes. Patients will no longer face delays due to missing information, and their care will be more coordinated, safe and effective.

4. What issues will the platform migration help solve for the healthcare workers who utilize Contexture’s HIE platform on a daily or weekly basis?

For healthcare workers, the migration to ONE Platform will solve the critical issue of fragmented data. It will allow them to access patient records swiftly and reliably, which reduces administrative burdens and the risk of errors. This means they can spend more time focused on patient care and less time chasing down records.

The improved user experience provided by ONE Platform will also make their interactions with the system more intuitive and efficient, leading to better patient care.

5. Why is this platform migration important to you?

This platform migration is important to me because it directly impacts patients’ quality of care. Having timely and accurate information is crucial to making the best clinical decisions. By moving to a unified platform, we’re ensuring that healthcare providers can access the most current patient data, no matter where they operate.

Additionally, this platform will set the foundation for higher quality and more robust data, allowing us to integrate data in new ways, which will lead to new solutions to support our patients and communities. This will make a real difference in how quickly and effectively patients are treated, which is the core of why I am so passionate about healthcare innovation.

6. What one thing will add the greatest value as a result of this platform migration?

The greatest value of this platform migration will be the ability to deliver timely, accurate and comprehensive patient information, including behavioral health information, directly to healthcare providers when they need it most.

This guarantees that care decisions are based on the most up-to-date data available, enhancing the quality of care and streamlining the entire process. By having a unified system, we eliminate barriers that previously slowed down or complicated access to essential health records, ultimately leading to better patient outcomes and more efficient care delivery.

Next up in our series is Contexture’s Vice President of Compliance and In-House Counsel, Micah Jones.

Micah is responsible for managing the organization’s compliance and privacy programs as well as providing general legal advice to Contexture’s Chief Legal Officer (CLO), departments and staff.​

Micah Jones, Vice President of Compliance and In-House Counsel

1. How is the Legal department involved with the ONE Platform project?

As we transition to a unified technology platform, the Legal department leads the crafting of agreements and policies that maximize the ONE Platform’s capabilities at launch and in the future. Beyond developing these policies, we are responsible for drafting the Participation Agreements, Business Associate Agreements and HIE Policies.

We also provide critical guidance on system rules to ensure compliance with laws, including HIPAA, 42 CFR Part 2 and the Arizona HIO statute. Our proactive involvement ensures that the platform is legally sound and capable of supporting our mission.

2. How will ONE Platform enhance participants’ abilities to comply with industry standards and regulations related to health data?

We have long-standing and robust controls that ensure compliance with industry standards and regulations. To maintain and enhance these practices, we will build on our extensive experience with the ONE Platform. The platform will leverage sophisticated role-based access controls, ensuring that users can only access data as authorized.

Additionally, it will facilitate access to sensitive substance use disorder data for clinical users, supported by advanced consent management mechanisms that integrate Part 2 Consent Forms. This approach ensures compliance and strengthens data security and user accountability.

3. Will there be any major policy or contract changes that participants should be prepared for with the migration to ONE Platform?

Participants must sign new Participation Agreements and Statements of Work tailored for the ONE Platform. Despite introducing these new agreements, much of the existing framework will remain unchanged.

Participant obligations will largely stay the same, ensuring minimal disruption. Key policies, such as our Permitted Use Policies, will be maintained. Participants will continue to be responsible for maintaining a list of authorized users of the HIE, safeguarding HIE credentials and passwords and ensuring the submission of current and accurate member files.

4. Why is this platform upgrade important to you?

This upgrade represents a significant milestone, as the ONE Platform will unify Arizona and Colorado participants under a single HIE platform, consolidating contracts and policies.

Currently, managing two sets of agreements and policies complicates our compliance efforts. The new system will streamline these processes, enhancing our compliance posture and ensuring the integrity of the data entrusted to us.

This joining reflects our commitment to operational efficiency and excellence in service delivery.

5. What one thing will add the greatest value as a result of this platform migration?

Integrating data from Arizona and Colorado on the ONE Platform will unlock numerous opportunities for public health advancements, offering deeper insights and enhancing analytical capabilities.

This convergence could revolutionize how we utilize data, driving significant benefits for both states. The future use cases enabled by this platform migration could pave the way for groundbreaking public health and healthcare analytics innovations.

Next up in our series is Contexture’s Vice President of Government Affairs – AZ, Alex Demyan

Alex oversees our Government Relations team working in Arizona. They promote and advance Contexture through continued relationship building in the Arizona community and the halls of government, unifying the organization’s strategic initiatives and serving as the company’s central source of contact with government officials and community leaders.

Alex Demyan, Vice President of Government Affairs – AZ

1. How is Government Relations involved with the ONE Platform project?

The Government Relations team helps facilitate discussions around the ONE Platform migration between Contexture and government partners, associations and other key stakeholders. This includes conversations around the technical advancements and new products available on the new platform, cost implications and what partners can expect around the next steps.

2. How will ONE Platform enhance Contexture’s abilities within the halls of government?

The ability to provide accurate, real-time and protected health data is critical for any policymaker or public servant to make informed decisions. The ONE Platform migration will take Contexture’s ability to provide this kind of reliable data to the next level and help policymakers, public servants and constituents alike ensure their decisions are based on reliable data and ensure they are able to anticipate future community needs.

3. How can ONE Platform support Contexture’s relationships with community leaders?

Relationships with community leaders are essential to Contexture’s success as an organization. Public sentiment and perception help foster a critical mass of users, and maintaining this critical mass ultimately underpins the usability and value of the HIE.

Managing relationships with community leaders through the transition will be critical in maintaining the value of the HIE post-migration by ensuring all current users can transition successfully to the new platform. Once they are successfully transitioned, I anticipate community partners will have a higher level of satisfaction with the HIE due to an easier ability to access patient data through modalities that are most useful to a given stakeholder group.

4. How does ONE Platform help with unifying Contexture’s strategic initiatives?

While Contexture has always maintained accurate, protected data, the data behind many of the organization’s strategic initiatives has remained siloed within different systems. Combining this data is tremendously useful from a stakeholder and policymaker perspective, but doing so can be time, cost and labor-intensive. Migration to ONE Platform, combined with the organization’s work toward the modern data platform (MDP) poses an opportunity for easier and more straightforward data translatability.

This is true for the data that will be available in one place by bringing patients served in Arizona and Colorado under one data platform, but also poses amazing opportunities for combining social determinants of health (SDOH) data with clinical and/or claims data to monitor patient care and outcomes that have resulted from programs like CommunityCares or the Arizona Health Directives Registry (AzHDR).

5. Why is this platform upgrade important to you?

Effective decision-making, whether at an individual, community or societal level, must be fundamentally based on reliable data.

This is no truer than it is in healthcare, when providers are making decisions around an individual’s course of care, when community leaders are making decisions around how to allocate community resources and when policymakers are deciding what policies to enact from a coverage perspective. This ONE Platform migration will ensure timely, accurate data delivery to healthcare providers and will allow streamline aggregate-level reporting that can help inform closer to real-time responses.

6. What one thing will add the greatest value as a result of this platform migration?

The relationships forged and fortified during the migration process hold immense value for Contexture, both in the immediate future and over the long term. The time and energy that teams across the organization are putting into answering participants’ questions, walking them through new usability of the platform and ultimately ensuring their needs are met is not only the right thing to do, but it is the right approach. It allows Contexture to better understand the needs and pressures that our community partners are faced with regularly and what we can do to help meet those needs.

Next up in our series is Contexture’s Vice President of Business Development, Alaina Desnoyers.

Alaina oversees the Business Development team responsible for the strategic force behind expanding Contexture’s market reach, revenue streams and overall growth through participant relationship-building, innovation and support.

Alaina Desnoyers, Vice President of Business Development

1. What is Business Development’s role in implementing ONE Platform?

The Business Development team has a few different responsibilities as it relates to ONE Platform, all revolving around Contexture’s participants. My team ensures that every solution we provide surpasses participants’ needs and specific use cases across our Arizona and Colorado markets. We also engage with participants regarding their current solutions to prepare them for migration. Understanding that our participants are busy caring for patients, we make sure they are promptly informed about upcoming deadlines and changes, ensuring all teams are well-prepared to transition to ONE Platform.

2. How will ONE Platform enhance participants’ experiences and relationships with Contexture, especially as it relates to your Business Development team?

We will soon offer a variety of new solutions tailored to address specific use cases for our participants. Instead of simply informing participants that data is available in our portal, we can now deliver the results directly into their systems. Our team will be actively engaging with the community to educate participants about these new solutions and help them choose the best options for themselves and their patients.

3. How can ONE Platform help participants expand and better utilize the data available to them?

Contexture’s solutions are customizable to meet the specific needs of participants. For instance, if you need to know whether your patient has recently had lab tests for diabetes, we can provide this information in various formats and solution types. Unlike in the past, where data was only accessible through our portal, we now offer flexible options to best suit your use case.

4. Why is this platform upgrade important to you?

The platform upgrade shows that Contexture is growing to meet the needs of our participants. We’re looking towards the future with this new platform to continue the growth and provide data when, where and how our participants need it.

5. What one thing will add the greatest value as a result of this platform migration?

The greatest value of the platform migration will be that we can tell our participants, “Yes.”

Yes, we have the health data you need, and we can deliver it directly to you through reports, notifications, or results. Historically, Contexture had some limitations, but with ONE Platform, we are eliminating these barriers and offering more solutions and configurations to meet the needs of our participants.

Next up in our series is Contexture’s Vice President of Project Management Office, Janeece Lawrence. 

Janeece oversees the Project Manager teams responsible for the implementation of Contexture’s core products and services and development of organizational software. Janeece Lawrence, Vice President, Project Management Office 

Janeece Lawrence, Vice President of Project Management Office

1. What is the Project Management Office’s role in implementing ONE Platform? 

The PMO is responsible for implementing Arizona participants onto ONE Platform and managing the internal software development projects built within our internal infrastructure. Our implementations by the numbers consists of: 

• Connecting up to 440 participants who need ONE Platform access in order to send their clinical data via HL7 interface or CCD interface.  
   
• Migrating up to 445 participants to ONE Platform for implementation of our Notifications product. 
   
• Migrating up to 476 participants to our new Direct Secure Mail vendor platform. 
   
• Onboarding up to 20,391 users who need access to our new PC360 portal.  
   
• Overseeing 16 internal product development projects that will be managed in parallel to migrating participants to ONE Platform. These projects require various degrees of re-architecture as a result of ONE Platform. 
   
• Migrating historical Colorado and Arizona data (2016 to current) from NextGen to ONE Platform. 

2. How will ONE Platform enhance the user experience? 

As part of the ONE Platform project, one of our initiatives was to define the HIE Gold Standard to support data integrity and ensure effective interoperability. Onboarding Contexture participants to ONE Platform will establish a baseline HIE standard for all inbound HL7 and CCD interfaces, which reduces disparities between data sources for our participants who receive data from the HIE.

There are also participants located in both Arizona and Colorado who are maintaining multiple interface connections. ONE Platform will allow them to reduce that number by connecting to a single platform. If patients are treated in both Arizona and Colorado, Contexture’s PC360 Portal, Notification, Result Delivery and Consolidated Care Summaries products will include data from encounters across both states.  

3. How can data-sender participants best prepare for their integration to ONE Platform?  

We are implementing with participants now in order to give us enough time to connect interfaces and validate them. As a result, we are asking participants to maintain their current connection to NextGen so their data can be viewable in the HDH Portal and available for Notification reports. This means they will have a bifurcated feed into ONE Platform and NextGen until we officially cutover in Q2 of 2025. We need participants to secure their networking and/or EHR vendor resources who can support in establishing a VPN and/or webservice connection for CCD and HL7 delivery.

We also need participants who send data to Contexture to respond to the 4-week sprint schedule survey that was sent out on April 3, 2024. Within this survey, participants can select an implementation date; if the survey was not received, please contact an Engagement Solutions Manager to get scheduled for implementation. The PMO is managing 28 participants over a 4-week sprint schedule, with sprint dates available now through Q1 of 2025.

For participants who access the portal, receive ED and Inpatient Notification Reports and/or receive Consolidated Care Summaries, we will begin those implementations in Q1 of 2025 when the majority of those who send us data are connected to our production environment.
 

4. Why is this platform upgrade important to you? 

I’m a data geek and live by the premise, ‘the more data, the better.’ ONE Platform will enable participants to send more of the patient’s clinical record than they were able to previously.

Contexture has the capacity to accept all clinically relevant note types, all clinically and demographically relevant encounter updates, and radiologic imaging links to the participant’s PACS so both the report and image are available to the HIE community. ONE Platform removes any volume concerns and therefore removes any limitations previously placed on participants in terms of what data they send to the HIE. The more the HIE mirrors their EHR, the more the HIE can be the conduit for data sharing and exchange. This all reduces the burden and financial costs to participants of maintaining their own electronic point-to-point interfaces.

I’m also excited that we will now have a more complete patient record for those patients who have been treated and/or immunized in both Colorado and Arizona.  

5. What one thing will add the greatest value as a result of this platform migration?  

The best-in-class customer support. With all of our resources dedicated to ONE Platform, monitoring interfaces and ensuring data is coming in and going out as expected will be maintained at a level our participants can rely on.  

 

Next up in our series is Contexture’s Vice President of Data Management, Lauren Girard.

Lauren leads Contexture’s initiatives for data management including data infrastructure, governance, quality assurance, reporting, visualization and population health improvement efforts including data quality improvement activities.

Lauren Girard, Vice President of Data Management

1. What detailed analytics from ONE Platform do you think will benefit participants the most?

Through Contexture’s various initiatives and feedback from stakeholders and participants, we understand the complex reporting requirements for the various federal, state and other value-based programs. ONE Platform provides us with the opportunity to incorporate current program reporting requirements and anticipate future reporting requirements as we monitor new regulations and expectations for our stakeholders. The most valuable data that can be offered is actionable and trusted data, knowing that you have the most recent lab, procedure or note that will be able to inform and improve a patient’s health at the point of care.

2. How will ONE Platform enhance efforts to address social determinants of health (SDOH) in the communities Contexture serves?

Social needs data is becoming increasingly important to our participant workflows and a priority for key stakeholders to address individual needs and health inequities. Social needs data is complex, and Contexture is working to support an infrastructure including data governance of the SDOH data elements. Contexture currently offers solutions for the various SDOH state reporting requirements. In Colorado, there are the Hospital Transformation Program notifications that support positive social needs screenings. In Arizona, we provide access to CommunityCares which helps meet the reporting requirements of Targeted Investment 2.0. The ONE Platform will support enhancements to these products and services, ensuring a comprehensive view of the individual’s medical and social needs and improving overall population health efforts.

3. How can ONE Platform support data needs for public health?

Through our recent experience with the COVID-19 pandemic, Contexture supported public health state agencies in supplying critical data needed to support a response. Without a Health Information Exchange (HIE) or HDU, public health agencies often lack access to timely clinical data sources to analyze and respond adequately. Drawing from the lessons learned over the last several years, we are working to have data elements segmented and available for reporting so that the data is more actionable and valuable through ONE Platform.

4. Why is this platform upgrade important to you?

As Contexture continues to evolve with the greater healthcare market, we understand the need to improve our capacity to manage and utilize data through a Health Data Utility (HDU) model. As an HDU, Contexture seeks to reduce data fragmentation and build a comprehensive view to support patient care that benefits the community. The platform upgrade helps to advance our technology and reporting capabilities, which support population health, quality improvement, care coordination, patient safety and more.

My career started in supporting quality initiatives and case management where the then triple aim became passion. The triple aim has evolved to the ‘quintuple aim’ seeking to improve patient outcomes, improve patient satisfaction, reduce total cost of care, improve provider satisfaction and provide equitable access to healthcare. The quintuple aim is not only important to me professionally but personally as well. Our new data opportunities with the platform upgrade mean that my clinicians can support improvement to my friends, family and my own healthcare.

5. What one thing will add the greatest value as a result of this platform migration?

The platform migration is allowing Contexture to utilize emerging data standards and technology to build a new infrastructure that supports additional reporting and use cases. By working to expand our data sets through the addition of disparate data and improving our data aggregation through advanced identity management and data governance, Contexture’s data will tell a story that supports and drives quality improvements to support overall population health for our communities.

Next up in our series is Contexture’s Vice President of Integration Myriah Vandre. Myriah oversees the Integration team that supports Contexture and its technologies by building, testing and deploying Core Product interfaces, developing and defining internal specifications that are backed by HL7 Standards, protecting and mitigating negative impacts on Contexture’s environments and acting as the subject matter experts on all of the data that enters the HIE environment.

Myriah Vandre, Vice President of Integration

1. What is the Integration team’s role in implementing ONE Platform?

The Integration Team’s role is to onboard and implement all Colorado and Arizona participant interfaces to ONE Platform which includes all inbound HL7 and CCD data and migrating Alerts for Arizona participants to ONE Platform’s Notification service. Integration tasks include establishing connectivity between participants and HCI (VPN, web services, SFTP/DSM), OID branching, Domain/Taxonomy/Verato Source set-up, PreAnalysis of HL7 senders, interface spec and configuration reviews, UAT, bug issue identification and resolution, deployment of interfaces to production and transition to operations.

2. How will ONE platform improve data being sent to the Contexture environment?

Contexture will ingest and parse data elements that have not been contributed to the health information exchange (HIE) historically and will allow us to add new data to the HIE. Through a significant effort of the Data Governance Committee, we established the HL7 Gold Standard and code sets to ensure HL7 standards are applied to interfaces and allow for consistent and improved normalization across a myriad of HL7 contributors with differing electronic health records (EHRs).

3. What is one challenge that the integration team can help participants overcome when migration to ONE Platform begins?

The Integration Team’s collective years of HIE integration experience will ensure participants’ new interfaces are built with quality and adhere to HL7 standards. For those who are differential adjusted payment (DAP) participants, we will be able to evaluate the inbound data as we onboard them and have an opportunity to remedy any data quality issues, setting them up for successful DAP reporting measures. For data recipients, Contexture will be able to deliver data content in a standard format whereby we normalize code sets to HL7 standards and ensure data is sent in standard HL7 fields.

4. Why is this platform upgrade important to you?

The platform upgrade is important to me because it provides an opportunity to enhance our HIE portal and provide new features to participants who have been accessing the same portal for over 10 years. I’m even more excited to have all Contexture participants on the same platform which will allow the Integration Team to utilize the same interface engines and systems and reduce the number of systems we support daily.

5. What one thing will add the greatest value as a result of this platform migration?

The input all Contexture teams have contributed to ensure that our data needs are met now and in the future, and that data needs will be appropriately scoped to be supported by ONE Platform will be the greatest value-add. As standards change, and participants and vendors evolve to enhance and expand the data they contribute, Contexture will be better prepared with a foundation to ingest and support clinical data as needs arise upfront, rather than having to go back and modify our interfaces and products to include additional segments individually. A big thank you to all the teams who contributed input to ensure we captured as many use cases as possible.

Next up in the series is Contexture’s Director of Quality and Payment Programs Megan Reilly. Megan oversees Contexture’s Quality Improvement (QI) team that supports healthcare organizations with Practice Transformation and Technical Assistance, provides guidance on advanced payment models and clinical coding and helps providers navigate new regulations in healthcare and changes in clinical guidelines and compliance. 

Megan Reilly, Director of Quality and Payment Programs

1. How will ONE Platform help improve participants’ healthcare data quality and care delivery? 

ONE Platform will require participants to send specific data elements and code sets to support data analytics and actionable clinical data insights. Analytics can support the identification of gaps in care, enhance care coordination, support achieving population health goals, understand and address health disparities and predict patient outcomes; this will all support high-value, high-quality care. The actionable clinical data insights that drive from the analytics allow providers to make visible improvements to their quality initiatives. 

2. How will ONE Platform assist current and future participants in meeting any of the current or upcoming federal and state programs? 

ONE Platform can assist in current and future federal or state programs by supporting participants with electronic clinical quality measures (eCQMs). ONE Platform will utilize continuity of care documents to calculate numerator, denominator, exclusions and exceptions based on the eCQM value set requirements. Participation in ONE Platform’s eCQMs will allow participants to obtain their performance data, helping to identify and address gaps in care such as a patient who misses their breast cancer screening or a child who is not compliant with their vaccines. Identifying and addressing care gaps will increase quality measure performance and improve the community’s health and wellness. 

3. What is the Quality Improvement team’s role in implementing ONE Platform?

The QI team is working with participants on the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System (AHCCCS) Differential Adjusted Payment Program (DAP), supporting the successful completion of DAP milestones during new implementations to ONE Platform. For participants with data quality milestones, the QI team will work with data senders and vendors to improve the quality of data being ingested into the health information exchange (HIE). Improved data quality and standardization allows for additional reporting capabilities, data insights and analytics. In addition, the QI team is supporting Colorado’s Medicaid Alternative Payment Model (APM) Participants in the transition to ONE Platform’s eCQMs. The QI team is working closely with KPI Ninja/Health Catalyst to complete data validation for each selected APM Measure and to compare each site, identifying and correcting any differences in performance rates. 

4. What QI program(s) will be most impacted by ONE Platform and how can Contexture participants prepare?

The AHCCCS DAP participants can expect Contract Year End (CYE) 2025 milestones related to ONE Platform integration activities. Participant-assigned Quality Improvement Advisors will be working with participants on building Quality Improvement plans for data quality initiatives, and the entire QI team is available to answer any questions to support reaching all DAP milestones.  

Colorado participants who are electronically submitting data for the APM through the Department of Healthcare Policy and Financing (HCPF) for eCQMS will transition to ONE Platform’s eCQMs. The Quality Improvement Team will work very closely with participants to provide real-time access to their data, data validation, data mapping, and ongoing workflow analysis to ensure the transition is seamless. 

5. Why is this platform upgrade important to you?

Participants will have real-time, high-quality, actionable data and information with ONE Platform’s focus on data quality and reporting functionality. This will allow for improved patient experience, better outcomes, lower costs, improved clinical well-being due to decreased administrative burden and equitable healthcare, achieving the Quintuple aim.   

6. What one thing will add the greatest value as a result of this platform migration? 

ONE Platform’s ability to transform health data into actionable information. Providing actionable information and supporting participants in the utilization of the data will contribute to a successful value-based healthcare system and improved, equitable healthcare in our communities.  

First up is our Chief Information Officer (CIO) Deanna Towne. Deanna oversees Contexture’s team of information technology professionals, as well as the development of new products to meet the needs of the Colorado and Arizona healthcare communities. She also oversees all IT systems required to support Contextures’ objectives and goals, as well as leads the digital transformation of the organization.

Deanna Towne, Chief Information Officer

1. What will be the greatest benefit to Contexture’s HIE Participants once ONE Platform is fully implemented?
   

   ONE Platform will bring together data from all existing HIE connections into a single view of the patient within our provider portal. As a result, the patient data will be available regardless of which state the patient resides, helping to give the most comprehensive view of patient information.

2. How will ONE Platform benefit Contexture and its workflows?
   

   The Contexture team has been busy supporting multiple HIE platforms to ensure the highest level of service and quality for our participants. The ONE Platform migration will allow the Contexture team to focus on a single, integrated approach to service and product delivery, resulting in greater customer service and improved technology support.
   

3. How will the ONE Platform update impact HIE Participant workflows?
   

   ONE Platform seeks to make data available in a variety of delivery methods to help get as much actionable information out to the community as possible. The goal is to always make information as effortless as possible to receive, either through push approaches or through easy-to-access and all-inclusive portals. Contexture will continue to promote HIE adoption and utilization through tools — such as single sign-on — to help keep providers as close to their preferred workflow as possible.
   

4. Why is this HIE platform upgrade important to you?
   

   As an HIE, providing accurate, timely and understandable information to our community is our most important task. ONE Platform pulls together disparate platforms and data to build a single platform for all HIE services, meaning our participants get cleaner, more reliable and complete information.
   

5. What one thing will add the greatest value as a result of this migration?
   

   The ONE Platform migration is allowing improved standardization of both inbound and outbound data, as well as a dedicated focus on data quality. These two critical items will result in improved data insights and analytics and, ultimately, help to meet the HIE mission of improving community health and wellness for the 30 million+ patients we serve.