Services and Solutions
TIAG – Technology That Transforms
To support the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USUHS) mission of advancing military health through education, research, and service, the Consortium for Health and Military Performance (CHAMP) launched Operation Supplement Safety (OPSS). OPSS offers evidence-based information on dietary supplements, empowering military personnel, their families, healthcare providers, and leaders to make informed choices about supplements. This initiative enables them to confidently pursue their fitness goals while prioritizing safety and adherence to military health standards.
CHAMP leadership and staff aimed to provide service members with a comprehensive understanding of the risks and benefits of supplement usage, but the OPSS.org website needed help with navigation, screen hierarchy, and mobile responsiveness. Users struggled to find critical features from the home page, and accessibility issues further hindered engagement. The design did not comply with modern web accessibility standards, making it difficult for users to find the needed information and potentially excluding some users from accessing critical information. Recognizing the need for improvement, CHAMP revamped the OPSS.org website to meet user needs better and offer an enhanced digital experience.
TIAG created an innovative, human-centered design to tackle these challenges and modernized the OPSS.org website. TIAG implemented a comprehensive strategy, starting with in-house user research and baseline assessments. The team analyzed usage trends, behaviors, and drop-out rates, which informed the creation of personas representing soldiers using supplements. These personas were instrumental in developing a goals-driven design roadmap tailored to soldiers’ specific needs.
Post-redesign, stakeholders reported an impressive 50% to over 100% increase in usage for some of the site’s most popular pages and features. TIAG’s comprehensive software development process for OPSS, grounded in Agile methodology and stringent coding standards, resulted in a robust, secure, and user-centric digital product. The iterative and feedback-driven approach, supported by powerful tools like JIRA, Azure DevOps, Adobe XD, Figma, Drupal CMS, PowerMapper, and WebAim, ensured the final product met user and stakeholder needs. The transition to maintenance ensured ongoing optimization and enhancements, providing a sustainable and continually improving digital solution.
The Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USUHS) is a worldwide center of excellence for military and public health professions education and research. USUHS’s mission is to train, educate, and prepare uniformed services health professionals, officers, and leaders to directly support the Military Health System (MHS), the National Security and National Defense Strategies of the United States, and the readiness of our armed forces. As a center of excellence and leader in military medical education, USUHS is dedicated to advancing public health through education and research.
USUHS’s network and data center were outdated, so they could no longer meet cybersecurity accreditation requirements. Creating a secure, state-of-the-art network environment required remediating 2,500 computer systems and 45 servers for the university and migrating all computer systems and servers to a new domain and hybrid cloud infrastructure—all while providing standard operational IT support to the university without impacting end users.
TIAG conducted in-depth interviews with each clinical department to build an interlaced educational support web of applications, systems, and business processes. Once we completely understood the USUHS environment, we designed a systematic transformation strategy as a project roadmap. This included designing and deploying a new VLAN architecture for the entire network. We then virtualized old legacy systems and consolidated all USUHS servers into a designated network operations center server room. From there, we completed full documentation on the USUHS IM/IT environment, including systems, applications, and mission-critical websites. We designed, implemented, and migrated USUHS’s assets to a new .edu network and hybrid Google cloud environment.
TIAG led the migration of more than 2,500 computer systems, all departmental shared drives, 45 servers, and 5,000 gigabytes of data to a new domain and hybrid cloud infrastructure – all while providing regular operational IT support with no impact to end users. We also offered a more open collaborative environment with teaching universities and organizations and facilitated the hybrid cloud modernization of the USUHS IM/IT environment. At the project’s close, our team was awarded an award for “exceptional project management, technical coordination, business process consultation, and exemplary user support.”
The primary mission of the USUHS is to train, educate, and prepare uniformed services health professionals, officers, and leaders to directly support the Military Health System, the National Security and National Defense Strategies of the United States, and the readiness of our armed forces.
Network vulnerabilities put the USUHS military network at risk of disconnection from the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA)-managed Global Information Grid (GIG). Unless successfully remediated, these vulnerabilities would have severely affected the USUHS mission and put at risk the education programs it provides.
After evaluating the USUHS IT environment and security posture, we built and executed a systematic transformation and accreditation strategy, focusing on the USUHS network infrastructure, computing devices, and enterprise management tool set. We created a configuration management database and asset portfolio of all resources and evaluated and addressed any shortcomings in all assigned systems. Finally, our experts in cybersecurity enhanced the organization’s security by hardening server and network infrastructure, addressing security vulnerabilities, and creating unique compliance documentation. The project concluded with full visibility, management, and vulnerability coverage of their non-homogeneous environment and divergent networks, successful disposition and remediation of all systems assigned, and a new accreditation of both their .MIL and .EDU networks–one of the first in the DoD. Currently, we are responsible for all aspects of Risk Management Framework (RMF) preparation and submittal, IAVA tracking and compliance, policy development and enforcement, and ensuring security compliance and accreditation of all USUHS networks and systems. Our approach involves all measures that protect and defend information and information systems by ensuring their availability, integrity, authentication, confidentiality, and non-repudiation.
The President of USU gave TIAG an award for our Exceptional Performance implementing the full suite of DoD Information Assurance Certification and Accreditation Process remediation services that helped them achieve an Authority to Operate for their military and .EDU network circuit.
USUHS educates, trains, and prepares uniformed services health professionals, officers, and leaders to provide direct support for the Military Health System, the National Security, and National Defense Strategies of the United States. Their focus is to support warfighter and military community readiness to ensure their health and overall well-being. More specifically, AFRRI strives to protect the health of U.S. military personnel through research and training intended to advance the understanding of the effects of ionizing radiation.
USUHS and AFRRI needed a mobile application of a radiological assessment triage tool for emergency response teams. The foundation of the app is based on recognized assessment and treatment principles that enable radiological and nuclear emergency response teams to triage suspected casualties. The application is also intended to serve as a training tool for use in a variety of radiological scenario exercises intended for emergency response preparedness.
Emergency response professionals extend enormous personal risk on the front lines of radiological disasters and events, and the tools they carry in the field need to be lightweight, efficient, and accurate. We first established an iterative human-centered design process that encompassed several research and design methods, from extensive background research to user testing with first responders. We organized and defined all data points and diagnostic outputs to create a baseline for the app’s information architecture. After creating some rough mock-ups, we produced an interactive, high-fidelity prototype that followed established user interface best practices, style guides and asset creation, content development and 508 compliance recommendations. Once stakeholders approved the prototype, we conducted user testing with first responders whose backgrounds were in various emergency response services. After testing and results reporting, design changes and approvals were finalized, and we created and submitted a robust annotated document to the development team.
The mFRAT is a mobile application specializing in dose-specific and diagnostic outputs for radiological disasters and events. With this assessment-based mobile tool, emergency response teams can efficiently mobilize in the field and quickly identify exposed individuals to expediate the appropriate medical response.
USUHS educates, trains, and prepares uniformed services health professionals, officers, and leaders to provide direct support for the Military Health System, the National Security, and National Defense Strategies of the United States and the readiness of our armed forces. AFRRI strives to preserve and protect the health and performance of U.S. military personnel through research and training that advance understanding of the effects of ionizing radiation.
USUHS and AFRRI needed a mobile version of a radiological assessment triage tool based on recognized assessment and treatment principles that would enable radiological and nuclear emergency response professionals to triage suspected casualties.
We leveraged our expertise in user-centered design, mobile application development, usability testing, and project management to develop and deliver the mobile First-Responders Radiological Assessment Triage (mFRAT) application. The mFRAT software collects and evaluates data on radiation dose exposure, assesses the probability of exposure without an assigned dose, and indicates when there is no evidence of overexposure. In addition, it generates dose-specific messages addressing reliability and diagnostic information, hospitalization estimations, and mortality projections for each specific case.
Radiological and nuclear emergency responders now have a mobile tool that gives them dose-specific and diagnostic output with entering only minimal text. The mFRAT tool helps responders quickly differentiate between the concerned public and exposed individuals for the appropriate use of medical resources, which greatly assists the triage process for these emergencies and events.