MEDCOM’s Deputy Chief of Staff for the Army Recovery and Care Program is the leading proponent for the evaluation and treatment of wounded, ill, and injured soldiers through a comprehensive, soldier-centric process of medical care, rehabilitation, and personal and professional development.

ARCP’s Army Recovery and Care System (ARCS) is a customized, integrated, multi-role care management system that assists care provider teams and wounded soldiers during their transition back into the force or into veteran status.

TIAG was tasked with streamlining burdensome provider workflows and designing customized, user-friendly features by fusing human-centered design (HCD) user research and design practices within established development processes. Because ARCS is a robust multi-role system, we first wanted to establish an HCD phased approach to prioritize workflows and customized feature sets with the ARCP stakeholders and providers. Next, we identified a curated set of user research methods and design techniques to capture all health provider pain points in their workflows and task needs. In parallel to the design process, we used “Tech Checks” – essentially technical reality checks – to evaluate the technical feasibility and requirements of the designs. Finally, we were able to establish a tailored HCD strategic approach by conducting usability testing with ARCP providers to measure ease of use, time-on-task, and overall provider satisfaction.

Using our HCD approach, TIAG evaluated, unraveled and redesigned task management processes, workflow, and feature sets to optimize ARCS function and flow. As a result, we reduced key workflows and task management processes by up to 50%. A recent survey of 231 ARCP providers revealed that the top two most liked workflow and feature enhancements were the provider dashboard and the revised soldier assessment survey designs. Tackling these areas relieved the burden and cognitive load for many ARCP providers and increased overall satisfaction.

The mission of the U.S. Army Medical Command (MEDCOM) Deputy Chief of Staff for Warrior Care and Transition (DCS, WCT) is to oversee, integrate, and synchronize policy, advocacy, and execution for warrior care initiatives and the Army Wounded Warrior Program. The Army Recovery Care Program (ARCP) evaluates and treats wounded, ill and injured soldiers through a comprehensive, soldier-centric process of medical care, rehabilitation, and professional and personal development.

In order to leverage technology to better support the needs and experiences of the wounded, ill, and injured soldiers in their system, the WCT needed to rethink how they approached the IT, cybersecurity, and enterprise-related requirements inherent in establishing and growing a medical organization. Our challenge was to understand the process and doctrine as it was being developed and then to support and scale it in a way that was useful to track the health, wellness, and transitions of the 20,000 warriors in the system.

TIAG’s on-site team served as critical contributors to the mission by providing project management and technical advisory and development services. We were the central coordination point for contracted activities and managed all internal projects, working directly with both the CIO and CMIO to advance the clinical IT priorities of the organization We worked closely with clinical and non-clinical SMEs (nurse case managers, occupational therapists, social workers, etc.) to design surveys and assessment tools that could be automated and used to proactively monitor ARCP’s wounded, ill, and injured soldier population. Our goal was to ensure the data was easy to manipulate and leverage across all users. On a local and individual level, an individual squad leader or clinical practitioner would have the ability to view all necessary components, but at an aggregate level, leaders could see how many soldiers were reporting as high risk, dealing with pain issues, rehabilitating, and more.

We were able to help WTC navigate and identify the best use of technology. Taking this approach and direction on the adoption of new technologies was fundamental to growing WTC’s IT portfolio and infrastructure. Because of this detailed understanding and cooperation, we were able to vastly improve the command’s ability to track every soldier’s progress – advancing their mission to fully support the U.S. Army’s ill and wounded warriors and their families.

The Army Recovery Care Program (ARCP), previously known as Warrior Care and Transition (WCT), evaluates and treats wounded, ill, and injured soldiers through a comprehensive, soldier-centric process of medical care, rehabilitation, and personal and professional development.

ARCP needed to consolidate various Information Management and Information Technology (IM/IT) systems to support its direct reporting units, requiring the modernization of the Army Warrior Care and Transition System (AWCTS).

TIAG utilized best practices from across the software industry to develop the AWCTS release-cycle. We implemented tools and techniques such as code reviews, triage meetings, and code styling guides to achieve a baseline level of quality and standardize source code. Once each release was internally verified, we completed a formal UAT including a suite of regression tests in a pre-production environment managed by the same DoD hosting provider that hosts the production system.

Our approach to AWCTS software delivery preserved the key tenets of its agile methodology. This enabled the support team to successfully deliver a well-tested, deployment-ready release package for every scheduled deployment window since contract inception.

The U.S. Army Medical Command (MEDCOM) Deputy Chief of Staff for the Army Recovery Care Program (DCS, ARCP) delivers high-quality, Soldier-centric care, rehabilitation, professional development, personal resilience, and case management to Wounded, Ill, and Injured Soldiers. The Army Warrior Care and Transition System (AWCTS) is an integrated, web-based IM/IT application that allows seamless information sharing between modules for user accessibility. It is the U.S. Army’s singular case management system and is integral to supporting Ill and Wounded Warriors throughout their care and transition back into the force or veteran status.

As the primary case management system for wounded, ill, and injured soldiers, AWCTS faced significant challenges due to its outdated infrastructure. These issues compromised data accuracy, policy compliance, and user accessibility, hindering the ARCP’s mission to deliver high-quality, soldier-centric care and support. The system needed help with data management, making maintaining accurate records and ensuring seamless care transitions challenging. Frequent hardware failures and maintenance issues increased downtime, disrupting services and compromising soldier care. The inability to dynamically allocate resources during periods of heavy use resulted in performance instability and delays in implementing new software releases. Additionally, the user interface could have been more intuitive, making it challenging for case managers and other users to navigate and utilize effectively. These challenges highlighted the urgent need for modernization to support the ARCP’s mission.

ARCP partnered with TIAG to produce a high-quality, robust, reliable, and adaptable soldier-centric case management system with customized development, testing, and training.

Key modernization needs for AWCTS included enhancing its ability to handle complex case management, ensuring stable performance during heavy usage periods, and enabling dynamic resource allocation. Additionally, it was essential to reduce maintenance costs and downtime and allow technical personnel to focus on optimization rather than constant troubleshooting. To address these needs, TIAG implemented a comprehensive solution using Azure Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS). The primary objective was to transition AWCTS to the cloud, eliminating the dependency on physical servers. This strategic move allowed for the rapid deployment of development and user preview environments with minimal overhead, significantly improving the system’s flexibility and scalability.

One key advantage of the Azure IaaS implementation was the ability to allocate resources dynamically during periods of heavy use. Adding more CPU or memory as needed, the system maintained stable performance and quickly adapted to special testing requirements. This approach also allowed seamless integration of new software releases without additional hardware, ensuring uninterrupted development activities.

Not being limited to physical hardware allowed us to approach the support for AWCTS creatively. The cloud-based solution reduced device and hardware failures, minimized maintenance time and costs, and allowed technical personnel to focus on optimization efforts. Implementing new software releases and certifying their functionality are seamless and do not impact the development environment or require additional hardware.

By transitioning to a cloud-based infrastructure using Azure IaaS, TIAG enhanced system reliability, improved data management, and future-proofed the platform with inherent flexibility and scalability. As the program grows and evolves, so will the technology supporting it. We were also able to significantly reduce device failures, hardware failures, and maintenance time and costs, giving technical personnel more time to focus on optimization efforts. This enhanced the overall performance and reliability of AWCTS and significantly decreased operational costs by providing more dynamic and flexible resource deployment.