Aptive to Lead VA Interoperability Work Under New 5-Year Contract

Aptive has received a five-year blanket purchase agreement (BPA) to provide health data interoperability services for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Office of Clinical Informatics (OCI). Part of the Veterans Health Administration’s Digital Health Office, OCI advances the data, tools and informatics processes behind care for more than 9 million enrolled Veterans at more than 1,300 VA healthcare facilities.

With a ceiling of $500 million, this interoperability BPA covers population health, health information exchange, the Joint Longitudinal Viewer, implementation of the Senator Elizabeth Dole 21st Century Veterans Healthcare and Benefits Improvement Act, the Veteran Interoperability Pledge, plus clinical standards and terminology. The goal is stronger data exchange between VA and its community and federal partners, so a Veteran’s full health record is available wherever they receive care.

“A Veteran who sees a community cardiologist on Tuesday and a VA primary care doctor on Friday shouldn’t be the one carrying the record between them,” said Tammy Czarnecki, Executive Vice President of Health Services at Aptive. “Interoperability closes that gap. Our team is here to make sure the data follows the Veteran and that the clinicians on both ends can trust what they see.”

Aptive’s team pairs clinical leadership with deep data expertise. A board-certified clinical informatics physician directs the work alongside a lead terminologist, data scientists, human factors engineers and change management specialists. The team works inside the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) that OCI is adopting office-wide, planning with VA each quarter and delivering defined features within each 90-day cycle.

“Great interoperability starts with trusted data,” said Sean Lenehan, Chief Operating Officer at Aptive. “When clinical terminology is mapped consistently and information moves on shared standards like FHIR, VA can put data from its community and federal partners to work with confidence, from a clinician’s view of one patient to population health insights across millions of Veterans. We’re excited to help OCI build and operate that foundation.”

As more Veterans receive care from both VA and community providers, sharing accurate records across systems has become central to safe, timely care.

The agreement falls within the Integrated Healthcare Transformation 2.0 Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract, under which Aptive and its partners support the Veterans Health Administration across health system transformation, implementation and operations, informatics and business services. For Aptive, the award extends its clinical informatics work at VA into a core modernization priority for the department. Aptive will deliver the work through its Arrow ARC joint venture.