T.P. Caruso & Associates

Envisioning a digital infrastructure for a Learning Health System

Tag Archives: Consulting

The “How” Answer to the “Why-How-What” Question that All Businesses Must Ask Themselves

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Triggered by the book Start with Why by Simon Sinek few weeks ago, I wrote the blog titled Changing Healthcare One BITT™ at a Time about WHY the Biomedical Informatics Think Tank™ exists: to contribute to the building of a digital infrastructure that supports the Learning Health System as defined by the Institute of Medicine.  The question here is HOW the BITT™ will attain this objective:

  • BITTâ„¢ will produce content that reflects the expertise and creative ideas of its academic members, promoting their ability to contribute to a New Exchange Architecture (see Content Intentions);
  • BITTâ„¢ will create innovative solutions that provide novel approaches to health information management which insures personal health information privacy and allows ease of health information access by authorized individuals;
  • BITTâ„¢ will recruit the leading thinkers in academia as members to develop and test these innovative solutions, continuously driving the technology forward;
  • BITTâ„¢ will partner with the academic institutions of its members to leverage their exceptional intellectual manpower, advanced facilities, and close ties to medical centers who might pilot the innovative solutions;
  • BITTâ„¢ will partner with private institutions, both for-profit and not-for-profit, to find the most effective means of implementing these innovative solutions;
  • BITTâ„¢ will obtain funding through a wide array of vehicles and from both public and private sources, providing consulting to organizations that benefit from BITTâ„¢ expertise and resources, obtaining government grants and contracts for developing various innovative projects and pilots, spinning-off non-profits to support the infrastructure required to provide the innovative solutions, and investing in businesses that develop applications which use this infrastructure; and
  • BITTâ„¢ will reward independence of its workforce and partners who strive to establish attainable goals that transforms the health information management infrastructure.

If we implement BITTâ„¢ as proposed above, BITTâ„¢ will be successful because its members, academic and non-academic partners, employees, and sponsors will all benefit by advancing their careers or missions, and by unquestionably being part of a transformation of the modern health system.

Biomedical Informatics Think Tank™ and BITT™ are trademarks of Projectivity, Inc.  The Biomedical Informatics Think Tank™ is a division of Projectivity, Inc.

Filed under Biomedical IT, Think Tanks
Jun 19, 2011

Content Intentions: Why, Who, What, When, Where and How?

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What are my goals for creating content?

  • To make myself (T.P. Caruso or Tom Caruso or Thomas P. Caruso) and, by association, BITTâ„¢ (the Biomedical Informatics Think Tankâ„¢ and it’s members) a recognized thought leader in biomedical informatics;
  • To bring attention to the biomedical informatics thought leadership of other members of BITTâ„¢, and again, by association, to BITTâ„¢ itself;
  • To identify others with interests in solving the problems of a nationwide biomedical informatics infrastructure (NWBII, pronounced “new-bee”) that interest members of BITT and myself; and
  • To collaborate with others to solve these problems in which we have mutual interest.

Who is my audience?

  • Individuals in government, industry and academia who are interested in a NWBII; and
  • Potential sponsors of research and pilot projects to investigate alternative solutions to problems associated with building a NWBII.

Who am I?

  • Someone who has a wide range of technical knowledge and who, as a result, can work with a broad variety of subject matter experts on biomedical informatics problems;
  • Someone who can build, from the ground up at various levels of management, organizations that bring together teams of SMEs with other resources to work towards a research or pilot project objective;
  • Someone who understands how to partner with academics and their academic institutions to build strong interdisciplinary teams with a wide array of resources at their disposal; and
  • Someone who understands how to write winning proposals to the Federal government.

Who is the Biomedical Informatics Think Tankâ„¢ (BITTâ„¢)?

  • Subject matter experts in biomedical informatics (i.e. bioinformatics, biomedical research informatics, clinical informatics, and health informatics),  computer science, clinical medicine, and technology policy;
  • Individuals interested in participating in defining a NWBII; and
  • Individuals associated with other resources including space, equipment, experienced staff, and additional subject matter experts through their affiliations with academic institutions and associates.

When and how am I going to develop the content?

  • By blogging on a weekly basis about the efforts of BITTâ„¢;
  • By inviting blogs and webinars from members of the BITTâ„¢ who are interested in addressing specific problems related to the NWBII;
  • By preparing in collaboration with BITT members, white papers and even ebooks which address specific problems related to NWBII (see Universal Exchange Language Supports Comparative Effectiveness and Biomedical Research); and
  • By presenting in collaboration with BITT members, NWBII solution papers at least four times per year at various meetups, conferences attended by BITTâ„¢ members where there would be interest in the NWBII solutions proposed by the BITTâ„¢.

Where will I publish this content?

  • On Projectivity-BITT website when that becomes available, and until then, on TPCaruso.com;
  • In the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association;
  • In various publications of conferences including AMIA, HIMSS, and IEEE

How will I promote this content?

  • Via Twitter;
  • Via Facebook;
  • Via LinkedIn;
  • Via email subscriptions;
  • Via RSS feed from BITT site;
  • Via conference and meeting promotion opportunities; and
  • Via a promotion campaign to get recognition by media outlets.
Filed under Biomedical IT, CER, Government Contracting, New Exchange Architecture, Think Tanks
Mar 14, 2011

Consultants Corner – HIMSS National Capital Area Chapter Newsletter

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For this posting see the February 2011 HIMSS NCA Newsletter “Consultant’s Corner” posting.

Filed under Government Contracting
Feb 3, 2011

Getting the Biomedical Informatics Think Tank off the Ground

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My partner and I are quite excited about the progress we have made with our Biomedical Informatics Think Tank (BITT[TM]). We are in a teaming agreement on an CIO-SP3 Unrestricted team and also a CIO-SP3 SB (Restricted) team. In actuality, this is the easy part. Turning awards into real task orders for the BITT will be much more challenging. More likely for us is that an effort to develop specific opportunities with our contacts in government.

We’re talking with potential partners who would assist us in developing opportunities if we have the relationships. We’re putting BITT participants on advisory boards where they can gain insight into problems we could be pursuing. We’re building awareness of BITT in the government by networking and meeting with our government contacts, and doing little things, like having questions and making comments at every event we attend which we can precede with “I’m _____ building a Biomedical Informatics Think Tank”. You can imagine what type of seeds this statement might create, especially when they hear about BITT again and again over the next year. We also have activity on Twitter and LinkedIn, to increase our visibility. Furthermore, I’ve changed my business cards with the tag “managing think tanks in health, biomedical and Pharma IT.”

We’re also planning our first all hands teleconference. To plan this, I first had a phone call with two of the participants who seem most interested in helping with the governance and organization of BITT. As a result of this conversation, I have a “straw man” agenda and we’ve schedule a teleconference with four of my closest associates to help finalize the agenda. Scheduling this meeting has not been easy. The “straw man” agenda includes three components:

  1. A general discussion about what participants think that they will get from their efforts personally, and as a group. This information would be useful for an eventual proposal about the vision and mission of BITT.
  2. A discussion about the type of work that BITT participants want, as well as the size and timeframes of projects that BITT might be able to deliver, considering the availability of participants and their interest in participating in BITT. How should we structure a proposal? What’s in it for us personally? And as a group?
  3. Finally, brainstorm among alternative problem contexts of specific projects that BITT could be pursuing, hoping that contacts could also be identified who we would be pursuing with the help of our partners.

Watch for my Consultant’s Column in the HIMSS National Capital Area Newsletter. I’m also expecting to write something soon about project management methodologies using Sharepoint as the basis for a PMIS.

Filed under Biomedical IT, Government Contracting, Think Tanks
Dec 13, 2010

Moving ahead with Creating a Think Tank

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My efforts to create a Biomedical Informatics Grid (BIG) Think Tank has attracted twelve academics who have agreed to be included in the list of people we are calling “participants” in the think tank. I’m not ready to share names of these individuals, but I will eventually when the time seems right. We are collecting CVs and expertise area checklists from these individuals for sharing with prime contractors who might be interested in working with the BIG Think Tank.

The time involved in reaching and then selling each of the people who I want to join the BIG Think Tank has been my most challenging work recently; however, once the individual understands that the initial commitment is limited to sending a CV, a completed checklist of expertise areas, and a letter of commitment for which a template is provided, the individual has usually agreed to participate. The letter of commitment clearly defines that participation involves an option to participate in contract proposals, not a requirement to participate. One person I recently contacted about a think tank said they had “nothing to lose. Except for a minimal amount of time upfront until a real opportunity for a contract presents itself, there really is nothing to lose.

Only two people, who didn’t even think they had the time to talk on the phone about the commitment level for participation, decided that they would not participate because they felt “over committed. I found that rather odd, because many of the others, to whom I spoke, also were had major commitments of time to existing projects, but they nonetheless decided to participate at this stage. I am happy to accept their decision, since eventually I will hope for participation in specific projects that will require a significant commitment of time. These individuals may well have been over committed for years in the future.

Participants have the option to be involved in any other think tanks, and they can serve as consultant or their affiliates can be subcontractors on any other contract. This is not an exclusive arrangement, but by bringing together a full set of experts across a wide variety of expertise areas, the think tank will be able to pursue opportunities that each individual will not be able to pursue by themselves, at least not as easily.

I am committed to making this a major opportunity for the participants, building an organization around their support as equity stakeholders, consultants, and subcontractors through their affiliate organizations (i.e. companies, non-profits, or academic institutions). The initial relationship is only enough to get us a position in which we can develop opportunities. Once the initial participants are identified, we will meet via teleconference to appoint a small team who will develop and propose a governance structure. Once a contract opportunity is clear, we will finalize the governance structure and create more formal relationships with the participants and their affiliated organizations. The first contract opportunity will involve firm letters of commitment and teaming agreements with those participants and their affiliated organizations who will be included in the particular proposal. When an award is made, formal consulting agreements and subcontracts will be finalized prior to completing the contract agreement with the funding agency.

Operations for the organization would need to be supported out of contract fees. I am excited about the possibilities not only for this first BIG Think Tank, but for other think tanks that might develop in sustainable energy, economics, communications, computer security, etc. It is the opportunity associated with a wide variety of these think tanks that should attract investment capital into an organization that would manage these individual think tanks. Equity investment would move these opportunities forward, starting with the BITT. Equity would not only be required to put together the legal structure and create relationships with the participants and their affiliated organizations, but it would also support the marketing of these resources to primes for building contract relationships that generate funding. If you have any interest in our activities, questions or suggestions, please feel free to contact me at tcaruso2@gmail.com.

Filed under Biomedical IT, Government Contracting, Think Tanks
Oct 31, 2010

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