Vista application integrity control

Applicants who meet the requirements should send to Email address provided in the contact details:. Women and people with disabilities are encouraged to apply. Only short-listed candidates will be contacted. Closing Date: Dec VistA supports disconnected operations in two scenarios: temporary loss of connectivity and intentional operation is non-connected environments.

Continuity of operations during a network disconnect is provided by means of a local read-only database at each point of care. Read-only access to the database is given to clinicians and care providers via a web-based application thereby allowing them to review clinical data and make ongoing patient treatment decisions.

Once the network outage is resolved, clinicians must update records in the production database. Mobile Electronic Documentation MED provides staff in non-connected environments the ability to view a medical record, document, and place orders when connectivity is not possible; data is synchronized when connectivity is restored. When the MVI is again reachable, all identities and identifiers are reconciled and any anomalies are resolved.

Access to the VistA system and to the data it contains is controlled by both attribute-based and role-based security. Describe approach to languages, software, hardware, systems architecture and how this supports integration into DoD environment. VA uses commodity x systems running enterprise Linux and VMware. A combination of operating system OS , open source and custom utilities written in Perl and Bash provide normal operational features including system monitoring and alerts, backups, HA failover, and user load balancing.

User workload is distributed across multiple application clients running on virtual machines VM. This strategy allows zero-downtime migration of failed guests to alternate hosts via proprietary technologies. One site database is hosted per back end system although systems are sized to accommodate two sites in case of extreme failure conditions.

The OS monitors critical resource availability and provides seamless database service failover to other cluster members should a resource become compromised. Each cluster member uses three pairs of bonded, 1 Gbps NICs accessing redundant switches to accommodate segregated VLAN public, cluster and client network traffic.

However, most new application development is done in other languages, such as Java and JavaScript. M is also available and used by many non-VA VistA users. ECP is designed to accommodate non-interruption of user sessions during database failover scenarios. VistA operates on Windows, Linux, and OpenVMS platforms, and is scalable from a laptop single user to many thousands of users in a large facility.

These systems are Linux based x86 industry standard platforms, configured as a cluster depending on the scale of the facility the system supports. VA also recommends the installation of a parallel "hot" spare operating in a geographically remote data center to enable maximum availability.

VA currently streams live data to this "shadow" system to ensure no data loss in the event of a fail-over to the shadow. VA can readily provide a recommended configuration based on the size of facility to be supported. The MUMPS database resides on mirrored logical volumes with each mirror located on separate storage arrays. The storage arrays are part of a high performance, highly redundant 4 Gbps fiber-channel storage area network SAN.

Nightly database backups are performed using operating system snapshots and custom scripts while leveraging storage features such as snapclones and data deduplication. Given that VistA is not locked to a proprietary, vendor-specific hardware, operating system, or middleware platform, VistA instances may be kept running, migrating to new platforms as required, for the indefinite future, providing data accessibility to meet regulatory requirements.

Couple with a high availability and recoverable server, data center, and network design, the impacts of serious disruptions are localized and local operations may be quickly re-established. Databases are asynchronously replicated and synchronized at regular intervals such that a recovery point of seconds, and at most two minutes, is achieved. Linux clusters and applications servers are mirrored between primary and designated disaster recovery sites.

MVI is a federated identity solution that allows the use of multiple identifiers and enables VistA applications to exchange information using any identifier, including the EDIPI. In addition, MVI also provides a robust correlation service that allows for record location throughout the enterprise correlation-aware identity management solution. It is aligned with healthcare industry standards and is compliant with HL7 standard interface protocols including 2.

In particular, MVI complies with HL7 messaging for add, update, merge, link, unlink and also has a comprehensive IdM Toolkit that uses HL7 messaging to resolve duplicates, overlaps and overlays to ensure the integrity of the patient identity and identifiers and linkages. Describe approach to identity management and access control for individuals who have more than one role patient, provider, dependent, etc.

In this manner, VA provides support for both coarse and fine grain access controls enforceable from various points in the architecture.

For individuals who have multiple roles, the role or personal selection is tied to the authenticated session or queried through the distributed system by the application being accessed. User menus, keys, and file access are assigned and enforced on an individual user and role basis. Describe approach to single sign-on capability and the ability to extend it to products that might be added in the future.

The current approach for the VA IAM internal Single Sign-On is a desktop client and server components that support both legacy and new application development efforts. The key to the VA IAM SSOi solution is the flexibility to support both existing and new applications with varying degrees of integration to support the specific business need. Applications are integrated with the context manager in order to set the patient context; on the backend, the context manager integrates with the MVI to verify and validate the identity of the patient context and set all other relative identifiers i.

Describe data strategy, including storage, persistence, data model, architecture, security, distribution, transformation, and presentation; and how you will provide standardized and normalized data sharing between the DoD and VA using with the 3M HDD. The VistA data model is open and in the open source community. This accelerates our ability to meet Meaningful Use Stage 2 standards. Patient records can be designated as sensitive; access to such records triggers a warning message alerting the user that they are about to access a sensitive record, if the user proceeds with the access, the system creates an audit record that records puts the requesting user on a list to be checked by the facility ISO.

Access via VistA is via role-based menu trees with sensitive options locked with security keys to grant permissions to personnel by minimum necessary standards. The hi2 program has adopted the Virtual Patient Record VPR approach to create temporary data caches that are highly indexed, standardized, and optimized for a defined need.

Individual VistA instances update regional data warehouses; the regional data stores are aggregated in the CDW. Data is normalized in the CDW and the warehouse is optimized for analytic use; this database design facilitates the development and support of multiple data marts that can be developed quickly to meet the needs of the end users.

While patient data can be shared via electronic exchange of Blue Button or continuity of care documents, perhaps via eHealth Exchange, a database-level sharing of data is far superior. Describe your data management approach to address scale, data format structured, unstructured, multi-media, and extensibility , consistency, quality and quality management, redundancy, availability, patient safety, and operational performance objectives.

VistA handles a wide range of document types. In addition to storing and managing radiology images, MRIs, and other clinical images, the VistA Imaging system handles video, graphics, audio, and scanned images.

Current VA activities that address data architecture and storage e. Describe your data management approach to include the use of legacy data and data stores, and how data will be managed across system components e. No export, import, or explicit exchange of data between system components such as Pharmacy, Lab, etc.

This level of integration allows workflow, orders, and decision support to operate with a complete view of patient data, decreasing opportunities for errors that may impact quality of care and patient safety.

In the first phase, legacy data resides in CDR and is extracted and displayed with VistA data using the Janus user interface. Once loaded, the legacy data is available to any interconnected VistA system and is thus available throughout the DoD network and the VA network providing appropriate network connectivity and MVI integration is implemented.

Describe the ability of your EHRS to support data operations offline if appropriate , to include data availability, replication of data between servers, resynchronization of data, automatic conflict resolution for concurrency issues, and modification of the data. How would you account for data volume and performance requirements?

Patient data that is stored in multiple locations, or patient data that must be accessed from a remote location, can be located via the MVI, which has a record of the sites at which patients receive care. It is transparent to the clinician whether the patient data is coming solely from VistA, solely from the CDR, or some combination of the two. It is possible and desirable to load patient data into VistA instances where patients actually receive care.

When this data migration is completed, all data is stored in VistA systems and VistA can be used as the sole clinician-facing system. Describe your approach to addressing continued support of legacy systems during the migration of data. Once DoD facilities are up and running with VistA, it is not necessary to maintain support of legacy systems. Since VistA can be brought up at each site independently, each legacy system can be shut down independently when the local facility is comfortable that the VistA instance is fully operational and that staff are ready.

There is no need to coordinate a network-wide switchover. If you've already registered, sign in. Otherwise, register and sign in.

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Education Sector. Microsoft Localization. I'll get into that a little later. The most important step you can take during the development of a standard user application is to test it while running as a standard user.

One of the most common reasons an application fails in production is because the developers never tested it as a standard user. Remember to do this. The next most important step is deciding where to save your application binaries and per-user configuration data. Sometimes, as when you're storing high scores for a game, you need to maintain system-wide state and allow users to write to it. Here you can create a directory specific to your application and allow users to write to it.

Just remember, other users can tamper with this file. My honest advice about writing applications that require administrator privileges is: don't do it! Unless you're absolutely certain that your application requires elevated privileges, just write your application to use the standard user token.

There are very few APIs that must be called by administrators. Of course, there are circumstances where you might need to use administrator privileges, like during installation or when you're maintaining cross-session state, which generally means your application is implemented as a service. UAC doesn't apply to services; there are other security settings available for Windows services that I'll discuss later.

If your application implements a security model on the local machine, you'd also need administrator privileges. This would require administrator privileges. Installing applications typically requires administrator privileges, usually because application binaries are written to the Program Files directory, which is read-only for standard users. This means that any application that writes binaries to this location will need to be marked as requiring administrator privileges.

They can be specified in two ways: to be per-user or per-machine installations, which would only prompt the user for administrator privileges when necessary. While installation to the Program Files directory will result in an elevation prompt being shown to users, there are definitely benefits to putting the application's binaries there.

Installing in that directory requires the user to be an administrator so a standard user in an enterprise or a Parental Controls user couldn't arbitrarily install the application.

Also, your application will share one set of binaries across the machine and they will be protected from tampering by a standard user. This will make it easier to determine the state and version of the application when updating the binaries after a bug fix or to add functionality. When you design your application, there will likely be some application settings you'll want applied for the user. Perhaps the users specify custom information about how their views are shown or which menus are displayed.

This data can be copied at first run of your application and enables per-user state for each user. Another aspect of installation that causes some grief in the UAC world is updating. If you are going to update binaries in the Program Files directory, the process overwriting the binaries must have administrator or system privileges. Since Windows Installer 3. Other than using MSI files, application developers can either integrate a binary that is specified to run with administrator privileges-which will prohibit updating in an enterprise with standard users-or include a service that will execute any updates required.

Shipping a service is strongly discouraged because any security vulnerability in the service could make the ISV an attack vector for malware. MSP files are your best bet.

Because there was no analogous per-user Program Files directory, the application binaries generally were still written to the Program Files directory. Instead, an additional bit was allocated in the MSI file to determine whether to prompt the user.

This is bit 3 in the Word Count Summary property. If this bit is set to 1, the package is assumed to be a per-user MSI and the user will not be prompted for an Administrator token. There are times that you may need administrator privileges for an application. You may write code that directly interacts with a piece of hardware or an app that sets machine-wide settings in HKLM. When possible, you should design your apps to limit the need for admin privileges to narrow sections of code, or communicate to an application started with full administrator privileges.

Aside from MSI-based elevation, there are two ways to create processes with a user's full administrator token. It is important to note that the elevation occurs at the time of process creation. The process token never has privileges or group membership added during run time, only when it is created.

One word of caution: the UAC elevation prompt is only presented to the user when ShellExecute is called to create the process. When a new process is created, the AIS will inspect the binary to determine whether it requires elevation. The first thing that gets checked is the application manifest that is embedded into the application's resources.

This takes precedence over any other type of application marking including an application compatibility marking or UAC's Installer Detection, which is described later. The manifest defines a run level that tells Windows the privileges needed to run the binary. The three choices for run level are: asInvoker, highestAvailable, and requireAdministrator.