TRANSFORMATION
Executive Letter
To Our Stakeholders
At the time that last year’s annual report went to print, the world was in the early throes of the COVID-19 pandemic, the global economy was in freefall, and American democracy was under the strain of an intense debate about race and identity. We challenged our people to be resilient and to find ways to turn adversity to opportunity, and they did just that—literally transforming themselves, the company, and client agencies to respond to mission-supporting imperatives to protect and promote the health and wellbeing of our fellow citizens. So, transformation is not just a fitting theme for this report. It captures the spirit and strength of Atlas Research (Atlas) and speaks to the alignment of our capabilities with critical federal client needs.
We prioritized the safety of our employees and their families and made the decision to go to a remote and flexible work posture in early 2020. From the many anecdotes we have heard from across the company, we know that this early decision—and the direction to our managers to be maximally accommodating of health, childcare, and other needs—was the right call; and our employees more than reciprocated, leaning in to deliver on our aspirations and our commitment to service delivery excellence. We call out for special recognition those employees who, by virtue of the essential client missions they supported, volunteered to continue going to client sites as the pandemic raged, putting themselves at risk for the wider good. Their commitment is just one example of the ingredients that combined to make 2020 a year to be proud of and the foundation for a strong and impactful year ahead.
As we reflect on our transformative 2020 body of work, a few things stand out.
COVID-19 RESPONSE
We founded Atlas Research to help clients become more agile and efficient in serving their customers (the American people), and our capabilities and reputation as trusted advisors, built up over more than decade, combined to make us a go-to partner when the pandemic hit. Through our support, clients were better able to sustain their missions under extraordinary circumstances, and they were also better able to anticipate and prepare for future challenges. Further, our deep expertise in public health brought us a number of new projects aimed at harnessing the power of data to understand and address the pandemic:
- An excellent example is our support for the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Procurement and Logistics Office (P&LO). Pandemic logistics became a top priority for VA, as it did for large, complex organization worldwide, and P&LO embraced the transformation imperative imposed by COVID-19 in important ways.
- For the Veterans Health Administration (VHA), we created a centralized decision-support dashboard for monitoring key pandemic-related metrics, enabling VHA to allocate resources more effectively for the care of Veterans throughout the country.
- For the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), we helped develop a national communication campaign to combat vaccine resistance and to promote broader awareness among the American public.
We also had success pivoting existing projects and resources to address immediate needs. Atlas experts have been working with VHA’s Office of Connected Care to expand the use of telehealth for Veterans who live in rural areas or are homebound. When lockdowns made telehealth a necessity for nearly all Veterans, we helped the Office rapidly scale its telehealth capabilities to well over 100,000 appointments per week. As we responded with agility to emerging client needs, we also worked to transform the strategies and plans for our own work environment and the journeys of our Atlas staff and leadership to promote resilience and the promising new practices best aligned to a thriving, learning organization.
BEYOND THE PANDEMIC
While the pandemic dominated the headlines in 2020, our nation’s other challenges persisted and evolved. Our focus on national-level engagements and deep subject matter expertise in health and organizational transformation contributed to critical, innovative federal efforts impacting our nation at large, with a particular focus on enhancing health equity and on modernizing government agencies.
- Cyberattacks increased more than 200% across the public and private sectors worldwide, pushing the demand for cyber talent ever higher. We helped the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) respond by transforming its systems, analytics, and employment practices so that it can compete in that critically important market.
- Rural hospitals, emergency departments, and clinics continue to close at alarming rates, making childbearing women in rural communities increasingly reliant on health care workers and facilities that lack obstetric specialties, training, and resources. Atlas convened experts to identify ways to improve the obstetric readiness of these providers, and thereby narrow a health equity gap that touches millions of women.
- The country is moving toward more transparent health care markets— including comparable price and quality data for consumers, payers, and providers—as a way to improve outcomes and lower costs. We helped develop a national roadmap for health quality, and we are supporting VA’s pioneering work with quality metrics for improving access to care.
- The National Science Foundation (NSF) stewards a research award portfolio totaling almost $30 billion, across a wide range of analytical, monitoring, and review activities. We continue to assess the risks associated with NSF research awards, develop and update policies and procedures, conduct program evaluations and analyze financial adjustment requests, and manage a range of complex and pressing award management problems.
Further, we continued to advance projects focused on improving access to primary and mental health care for vulnerable populations, on modernizing supply chain management and equipment lifecycle systems, on grants management and financial audit services, and on human capital and performance improvement training and workforce management efforts. We supported data modeling efforts and managed major transformation efforts across the VHA Innovation Ecosystem, the national oncology program, the clinical research enterprise, the Office of Discovery Education and Affiliate Networks (DEAN), the Care and Payment Innovation (CPI) portfolio, and in benefits claims processing. Meaningful, impactful programs have been the animating force of Atlas since our founding, and we continued to leave our mark across all of our expanding markets.
GROWING STRENGTH
Moving through challenging times allowed us to re-imagine the future of Atlas. We made strategic capability investments and strengthened our human capital resources to respond to new possibilities in a changing environment. We funded new growth areas and pursued new opportunities that aligned to our mission and values. We focused on resetting our digital and technology initiatives to map to the sources of customer value and worked to implement process improvements and high-impact actions throughout the organization.
We have seen our prior investments bear fruit in the form of continued growth in strategic program wins, an expansion of qualified pipeline opportunities, a shift in contract mix to full and open awards, and the deepening of capabilities that support transformation, market diversification, and the winning of prime contract vehicles. Our energies are focused now on leveraging our new wins and new capabilities to fortify the path ahead, to continue building on our strengths, and to share the exciting vision and experience with every level of the company and with our diverse network of clients and partners.
As the post-COVID world emerges, we welcome it with optimism and deep appreciation. Our people and our capabilities put us in a position of strength, and we look forward to what we expect will be more banner years to come. We are grateful to our dedicated employees and to our partners with whom we work tirelessly to support the missions and programs of our clients, including transformation and innovation initiatives, health equity programs, pandemic response and preparedness, human capital and training efforts, digital and technology services, and a host of other critical performance areas.
It is an exciting time, as we look ahead to a bright future.
Onward and upward,
Ryung Suh, MD
CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
Mark H. Chichester, JD
PRESIDENT
TRANSFORMATION AT A GLANCE
THE TRANSFORMATION IMPERATIVE
Unprecedented Challenges Require Bold New Paradigms
Young Bang
CHIEF GROWTH OFFICER,
ATLAS RESEARCH
Atlas Research was founded to support efforts by the federal government to reimagine and improve how it achieves its mission. For more than a decade we have served as a trusted advisor to clients charged with effecting that change, building a reputation along the way for delivering on client needs and contract requirements based on our knowledge of, and commitment to, populations of concern. Inside the company, we consciously built the capabilities necessary for transformative work. Our clients began using the term “transformation” in our conversations with them, and their emerging awareness created new opportunities to positively impact them and the populations they serve.
Our support of federal transformation initiatives reached a tipping point in 2020, when we worked for three federal clients with strikingly different missions—yet in each case the respective contract vehicle referenced transformation by name.
- The Veterans Health Administration (VHA) Integrated Healthcare Transformation (IHT) contract—a 10-year, $1 billion indefinite delivery/ indefinite quantity (IDIQ)—aims to reassert the VHA leadership position in U.S. health care that it held through decades of pioneering research and quality care.
- With a ceiling value of $332 million, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Business Transformation Team (BTT) vehicle will be used to realign FDA activities from siloed business processes into streamlined end-to-end processes.
- The U.S. Air Force defines the focus of its Air Force Strategic Transformation Support (AFSTS) contract as the fundamental change of the systems, processes, people, and technology across the whole enterprise. The AFSTS ceiling value is $1 billion.
Why are major federal agencies seeking “transformation”? At Atlas, we believe it’s because both risks and opportunities have escalated dramatically, taking the nation into uncharted territory where incremental “modernization” is not sufficient.
The U.S. spends more on health care per capita than any other country on earth—but lags many developed nations in health outcomes, health quality, and addressing social determinants of health. The FDA is now overseeing radical shifts in how food and drugs are conceived, tested, produced, and marketed; for an example, look no further than the rapid approvals required for COVID-19 vaccines. The transformation imperative extends beyond federal health agencies to the U.S. military, which outspends every other nation on armaments, but now must contend with our largest geopolitical competitor being, at once, one of our largest trading partners, our largest sovereign creditor, an essential part of our economy’s supply chain, and a global leader in artificial intelligence and cybertech. Air Force transformation initiatives must contend with reconceiving our past, one-dimensional notion of “warfare.”
Atlas is helping change the paradigm in multiple arenas, as you will read in this Report. With our expertise in transformation, public health and priority populations, data science, human-centered design, business process engineering, and talent development, we can integrate changes in systems, processes, people, and technology at the transformative level our government needs to achieve today’s missions.
CHAMPION FOR RURAL AND HOMELESS VETERANS
A Health Equity Retrospective
PHOTO: Running Bear Photography
Hilda Ruth Heady
SENIOR FELLOW,
ATLAS RESEARCH
When the founders of Atlas Research heard Hilda Heady speak about the unique challenges faced by rural Veterans in a 2009 speech and approached her about taking on an executive leadership role, the nascent firm was providing policy and planning support for the newly established Veterans Health Adminstration (VHA) Office of Rural Health (ORH). They could not have foreseen that Heady, a nationally-recognized advocate for Veterans with special needs, would take on the role of Senior Vice President the following year and help establish Atlas as the preferred partner in federal efforts to improve rural Veteran access to care, end Veteran homelessness, and transform care delivery for women Veterans. She would go on to build and oversee a portfolio of prime contracts spanning the Departments of Veterans Affairs (VA), Health and Human Services (HHS), and Housing and Urban Development (HUD). She served eight years in the role and remains a presence today as a Senior Fellow and member of the Atlas Research Health Equity Working Group. That’s how it’s been throughout her career; when Heady meets a challenge, she gives it her all until the transformational changes she leads become national models. She entered the field as a VISTA volunteer at 19 years of age, earned a masters degree in social work, and, in a sign of what was to come, led the rescue of a rural hospital in West Virginia from bankruptcy while still in her 30s. Born and raised in a rural community, Heady understood that rural health care is a cornerstone of rural economies— without health care, rural communities struggle to sustain population, drive economic activity, or attract investment.
She applied that philosophy with groundbreaking results during 18 years as Associate Vice President for Rural Health at West Virginia University. There she built a partnership for rural health equity that aligned federal and private funders, state government, medical and professional schools, and local providers to rotate thousands of health care students into rural communities. During this period she also served as Principal Investigator in the state for the federally funded Area Health Education Centers (AHEC) program, which leverages the resources of medical and professional schools to improve health care in underserved rural areas.
As a member of the National Rural Health Association (NHRA), Heady noticed that there was virtually no academic literature on the needs of rural Veterans. So, she established it as a field of study, rose to the NHRA presidency in 2004, and gave public addresses and testimony to make rural Veteran health and Veteran homelessness national issues.
With Atlas, Heady has formed teams that have guided research, led projects, and published on the full range of health equity issues faced by Veterans. She has led numerous research and pilot projects for Atlas that helped change federal policy. A notable example was VA’s Homeless Veterans Supported Employment Program, which demonstrated that, with the right support, homeless Veterans could gain and sustain competitive community employment. Heady was also instrumental in VA’s widely heralded “25 Cities” program to end Veteran homelessness nationwide. As Atlas continues its vigorous support of the federal government in closing health equity gaps, Hilda Heady remains a beacon of wisdom, strength and compassion.
PANDEMIC RESPONSE
MEETING THE COVID-19 CHALLENGE
Atlas Helps Deliver On Supply Chain Transformation
The Veterans Health Administration (VHA) has been increasing its supply chain resilience through a best practice Operational Model. The model streamlines the planning, ordering, installation, maintenance, and disposition of equipment. A successful operational model relies on key enablers such as robust data analytics and continuous improvement. As one of the world’s largest integrated health care systems, the supply chain of VHA could have been massively disrupted by COVID-19 if not for full integration facility equipment data delivered by Atlas Research.
At the onset of the pandemic, the Equipment Life Cycle Management (ELCM) Operational Model showed value in robust demand planning and enhanced delivery planning for equipment at VHA facilities. The pandemic amplified the need for an agile equipment re-distribution program, with a focus on emergency needs for ventilators and ICU beds. Applying a national view of VHA equipment, Atlas was able to present dashboards showcasing the location of every ventilator and ICU bed across the enterprise, and provide heat maps that displayed an overlay of the data with COVID-19 projections. The model for equipment installation and redistribution came to life when Atlas rapidly translated data analytics to management insight. This enabled the redistribution of ventilators and ICU beds to facilities with the greatest need to meet urgent demand.
“Like playing a strong opponent in sports, encountering a crisis puts the strength and agility of your team to the test. Can you apply your processes under pressure and adapt to unforeseen circumstances? The Operational Model served as our game plan, and we executed soundly.”
Kevin Ripp
VICE PRESIDENT,
ATLAS RESEARCH
STATISTICS
CLARITY DURING CRISIS
Atlas Equips VHA To Turn Data Into Prediction—and Prevention
The first hectic months of COVID-19 taught public health experts important lessons. The pandemic was not going to end anytime soon. Older people were more at risk of death, but anyone could become infected. And the health care system was straining under three weights, not one: in addition to caring for sick patients, it was struggling with staff burnout and supply chains that were always playing catch-up.
The Veterans Health Administration (VHA) recognized that it had abundant data on all these challenges, but no system-wide situational awareness tool for analyzing it and anticipating operational gaps. So it turned to Atlas Research for its integrated expertise in advanced data analytics and human-centered design.
With deep understanding of VHA and its transformation program, Atlas applied a two pronged strategy. One effort was determining the types of information that VHA’s leaders, operations teams, clinicians, and researchers needed and how human beings would work with it, helping to define the requirements for a data dashboard that empowers VHA to use predictive data to make better decisions faster.
Meanwhile, Atlas experts assessed COVID-19 data management tools created by VHA facilities and designed an environment for sharing the best of them more widely while the new decision-support dashboard took shape.
“In a health care crisis, accumulating more data doesn’t necessarily save lives. The data must speak clearly to people who make the life-saving decisions. It’s the kind of challenge, both human and technological, that Atlas loves to overcome.”
Susanne Larkins
PRINCIPAL,
ATLAS RESEARCH
STATISTICS
INFLECTION POINT FOR LONG-TERM CARE
Atlas Bolsters the Nation’s Preparation for the Next Pandemic
“The time has come for a turning point in nursing home care.” So said the Coronavirus Commission for Safety and Quality in Nursing Homes in its September 2020 final report.
Drawing on its expertise in public health, long term care, public engagement, and expert facilitation, Atlas collaborated with national partners to turn lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic into preventative recommendations in preparation for future infectious outbreaks that could impact the more than 15,000 nursing homes that house approximately 1.2 million of the nation’s most vulnerable citizens.
These initiatives demonstrated near-term success, with safety recommendations offered and high-impact solutions, such as placing virus testing equipment directly in nursing homes, immediately adopted. With a full slate of recommendations in hand, stakeholders are equipped to lead the transformation of long term care facilities to meet the challenge of future infectious outbreaks—which are all but inevitable.
“It was extremely rewarding to participate in rapid response efforts for COVID-19, which benefited our nation’s most vulnerable populations and informed plans for mitigating the negative impacts of future outbreaks. This is essential, because as public health specialists it’s our responsibility to prepare well before the next pandemic.”
Bobby Kopp
SENIOR CONSULTANT,
ATLAS RESEARCH
STATISTICS
LOGISTICS SAVES LIVES
Atlas Supports VA’s Health Care Supply Chain Resilience
One of the lessons from COVID-19 is that a pandemic is both a medical crisis and a logistical one. For example, when the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) saw critical shortages of personal protective equipment (PPE), gear, and supplies in its health care facilities, it accessed additional storage capacity from other federal agencies. These “regional readiness centers” (RRCs) enabled VHA to store and maintain sufficient critical PPE stock on hand nationally to last for months, not just weeks.
In late 2020 VHA decided to make the RRCs a permanent part of its resilience and operational readiness strategy, particularly for PPE and testing supplies. Atlas Research, in partnership with Prometheus Federal Services (PFS), was asked to rapidly develop a concept of operations (CONOPS) and an implementation plan for the RRCs. Having deep domain experience from years working closely with VHA and its Procurement & Logistics Office (P&LO), Atlas experts expeditiously fused the concept into the plan to produce an actionable strategy ready for rapid execution—all within three weeks.
One of the key challenges for RRCs is keeping medical equipment and supplies both in stock and in timely rotation, while complementing the cost-effective short-term purchasing that VHA had previously established for its 170+ medical centers nationwide. The Atlas team is solving this puzzle and have also made key contributions to ensure the strategy’s success: the team established a comprehensive program management office (PMO) comprised of multiple workstreams. Atlas also supports a myriad of critical tasks at both the PMO echelon as well as within the various RRC workstreams.
“Balancing supply chain resilience with just-in-time flexibility is a complex equation, and Atlas is helping VHA get it right. We’ve all seen what COVID-19 did to health care logistics, and we can’t let that happen to our nation’s Veterans.”
Will Ross
MANAGER,
ATLAS RESEARCH
STATISTICS
HEALTH CARE TRANSFORMATION
TRANSFORMING U.S. HEALTH CARE
Atlas Vitalizes Managing Health Care Quality
Health care in the U.S. is like shopping in a store that doesn’t show products or prices: you don’t know what you bought, or what you paid, until you get home. Now policymakers are moving the nation toward a sweeping transformation that gives patients and payers the ability to assess provider quality and pricing, so they can receive better health outcomes overall. In 2020, Atlas Research mapped out a critical part of that journey: how to lead, coordinate, and manage it.
This is a fundamental challenge because of the number and size of stakeholders, including three agencies that control nearly all federal spending on health care: the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), and the Department of Defense (DOD). Given Atlas’ past work with these agencies and its team of public health experts led by the esteemed Kenneth W. Kizer, M.D., it was uniquely qualified to inform the shaping of a governance model, develop a plan for presenting it to stakeholders, and create an executive playbook for execution. The journey continues in 2021.
“Set aside all the technical considerations in measuring health care quality, and what you have is human beings better able to give and receive care for something priceless: good health. That’s why Atlas is committed to delivering innovative and transformative health care solutions.”
Sarah Lifsey
SENIOR MANAGER,
ATLAS RESEARCH
STATISTICS
HEALTH CARE HEROES
Atlas Empowers VHA Frontline Innovators
In 2015, Atlas helped the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) launch a transformative program called “Diffusion of Excellence,” which VHA now calls “one of the most successful innovation programs in VA.” In 2020 Atlas helped advance and expand the program yet again, supporting the launch of the VHA Diffusion Academy.
The Diffusion of Excellence program collects bright ideas from frontline workers throughout the vast VHA health care system, puts those innovations through a rigorous winnowing process, finds them powerful champions in VA Medical Centers and regional networks, and then diffuses them to other VHA facilities. One of the key drivers of the program is the inspiration and motivation of those frontline workers, who hold down their day job while also pushing hard for their innovations to have a positive impact on Veterans, providers, and staff across VHA.
That’s why Diffusion Academy gives these heroes vital new skills: they’re now on a mission that could change health care in the U.S. They learn how to build and adapt the business case for the innovation, refine their implementation strategy, and package it all into presentations to national stakeholders who can help scale the innovation across VA. The entire approach reflects Atlas’ long-term focus on empowering people to drive change—and knowing how to achieve that in the most human-centered industry on earth.
“It’s amazing to work with people driven to change their organization on a national scale, and we helped design and deliver Diffusion Academy to give them the power to do just that. Each of us shares the mission to deliver health care improvements that change people’s lives.”
Miia Newman
SENIOR CONSULTANT,
ATLAS RESEARCH
STATISTICS
PIONEERING ACCESS TO CARE
Atlas Helps VHA Measure Its Success With Same-Day Services
As the U.S. grapples with providing equitable access to health care, the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) is leading the way. Since 2018 all VHA medical facilities have offered same-day services for urgent primary care and mental/behavioral health to facilitate timely access to care for Veterans, including especially those with post-traumatic stress disorder or who may be at elevated suicide risk. At the same time, it has been empowering Veterans to give real-time feedback about its services.
These advances have combined to present VHA with a highly complex yet fundamental question—one that has yet to be well answered anywhere in health care: how to determine if same-day services are fully meeting the needs of Veterans, and which performance metrics can help answer this question for patients, clinicians, administrators, and researchers.
To launch this inquiry, VHA’s Office of Veterans Access to Care turned to Atlas Research and its partner for health quality measurement, the National Quality Forum (NQF). After assessing existing research and best practices, convening experts, and applying our extensive domain knowledge of health care, the Atlas team produced the first Quality Measurement Framework for Same-Day Access. This framework is now guiding VHA’s work in 2021 to develop a dashboard of quality metrics that will likely be a model for the nation.
“Assessing access to health care is a challenge for the entire country. Atlas is helping VHA pioneer a robust, evidence based approach that will inform the national conversation about access for years to come.”
Kenneth W. Kizer, M.D.,
CHIEF HEALTHCARE TRANSFORMATION OFFICER,
ATLAS RESEARCH
STATISTICS
CAMPAIGNING AGAINST CANCER
Atlas Advances a VA Mission With National Impact
The National Oncology Program (NOP) is the latest example in a long legacy of medical leadership by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), dating back to ground-breaking tumor research in 1932. NOP’s mission is to bring the most advanced cancer-fighting treatments and practices to the 400,000 Veterans living with a cancer diagnosis.
This effort—transformative for the individuals it impacts, the field of oncology, and VA itself—won’t succeed without active support from clinicians, researchers, and VA’s strategic partners. That’s why VA engaged Titan Alpha, a joint venture of Atlas Research and Prometheus Federal Services (PFS), to lead a strategic communications campaign to raise awareness across the spectrum of stakeholders. The communications team developed a sophisticated NOP brand and strategy recognizing stakeholder nuances, matching messages with media, and pacing the campaign to build over a year.
Shoulder to Shoulder debuted in 2020 with a six-week sprint focused on NOP’s lung cancer programs. Five more sprint campaigns were set to run consecutively in 2021, focused on prostate cancer, precision oncology, research, and other advances in cancer care. Using consistent messages, clear language, and compelling patient stories, these campaigns are centering NOP in the nation’s conversation about defeating one its deadliest diseases.
“This work is a true partnership. We collaborate with our clients and reach deep for their expertise so we can combine it with ours to achieve lasting impact that neither organization could have produced independently.”
Rebecca Hart
PRINCIPAL,
ATLAS RESEARCH
STATISTICS
READY CARE FOR RURAL MOTHERS
Atlas Addresses Three Health Disparities
Atlas Research was founded to help government health agencies address health care disparities in the U.S. In 2020, Atlas helped transform the conversation about three such disparities that intersect in a single demographic: rural women of child-bearing age, who are likely to be women of color. Rural communities often lack dedicated obstetric service providers, and disadvantaged women lack the time and resources to access care in distant hospitals. Thus, their pregnancy-related mortality rate is far higher than that of urban women.
Rural hospitals—and especially their obstetric units—continue to close at alarming rates; therefore, obstetric care typically falls to local volunteer ambulances, small community clinics, and hospital emergency departments. Atlas engaged national experts to explore ways to improve rural obstetric readiness for these providers.
The Atlas team designed, convened, and moderated a series of conversations around the country; and, within a supportive framework, identified application-ready solutions for nationwide implementation.
“Thousands of people across the country are not considered obstetric providers but are often obligated to deliver those services anyway—to millions of rural women. Their courage and resourcefulness inspired us to make the project a success.”
Reva Stidd
SENIOR MANAGER,
ATLAS RESEARCH
STATISTICS
DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION
A SURGE FOR CYBERSECURITY
Atlas Helps Close the Federal Cyber Talent Gap
The U.S. is experiencing unprecedented competition for cybersecurity talent—and one of the biggest competitors is the federal government. In 2020, the congressionally mandated Cyberspace Solarium Commission reported that 33,000 federal cybersecurity positions remained unfilled. Atlas Research is working hard to close the gap.
Throughout 2020, an Atlas team executed on a comprehensive contract with the Office of the Chief Human Capital Officer (OCHCO) within the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The contract includes everything from staffing and position management to business process improvement, training development, and program management. Atlas has even given apps and webpages a completely new look. In short, Atlas is helping CISA transform its competitiveness in the cyber talent arena.
Among many contributions in 2020, one stands out: mapping the highly dynamic market for U.S. cybersecurity talent. Atlas mined data on industries, geographies, technologies, turnover, compensation, and more to present OCHCO with a comprehensive picture of where the talent is, what they expect, and how to recruit them. For the first time, the agency tasked with protecting our digital and physical infrastructure knows where and how to find the nation’s best and brightest cyber professionals.
“There is nothing routine about staffing our nation’s cybersecurity defenses at a time of rapid change on many fronts. So as we support human capital capabilities for our clients, we’re also constantly bringing fresh ideas to their evolving challenges.”
Sally Rainey.jpg)
SENIOR MANAGER,
ATLAS RESEARCH
STATISTICS
DATA SCIENCE FOR CUSTOMER SERVICE
Atlas Stimulates Transformation of VA Claims Processing
One of the oldest jokes in medicine is that doctors’ clinical notes are invaluable sources of patient health information—if only we could read their writing. But it turns out that even typed notes aren’t enough to advance modern medicine in a key area: leveraging patient health information to improve outcomes and customer service. Now Atlas Research is helping the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) apply leading-edge data science to do just that.
One of the objectives of VA is to speed up the processing of Veterans’ claims for benefit increases due to hospitalization for service connected disabilities. The rules for such increases are clear, but the data required for medical claims adjudication is often hiding in clinical notes. This challenge forces adjudicators to hunt for conclusive evidence while Veterans wait for a life-altering financial decision. So Atlas’ data science team created a tool that uses natural language processing (NLP) to automate the review of clinical notes, extract key medical terms and phrases, and tag them for rapid retrieval.
At the same time, Atlas is applying its expertise in human-centered design (HCD) to make the digital wizardry seamlessly serve the professionals processing the claims, so they become more efficient in their areas of expertise. It’s a win for adjudicators, for Veterans, and the nation.
“Given that the digital universe has expanded 3000% in the past decade, data science represents a valuable approach to derive meaning from ever-increasing amounts of data. This project showcases how data science helps our federal partners advance their missions.”
Nicole Janeway Bills
DATA SCIENTIST,
ATLAS RESEARCH
STATISTICS
FROM PROMISE TO STANDARD OPERATING PROCEDURE
Atlas Helps VHA Take Telehealth to New Heights
One of the enduring stories of the COVID-19 pandemic will be accelerated adoption of digital technology to replace in-person interactions. One of the best examples comes from the health care industry, where telehealth—using digital technology to care for patients remotely—was transformed from a promise into standard operating procedure. As one of the world’s largest health care systems, the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) showed how effectively telehealth can work—with help from Titan Alpha, a joint venture of Atlas Research and Prometheus Federal Services (PFS).
VHA’s in-house technology department is the Office of Connected Care (OCC). It provides web and mobile solutions, telehealth services, and a web-based self-care program for Veterans known as My HealtheVet. Atlas Research has been assisting OCC since 2016, primarily with strategic planning, program management, and acquisition support. When the pandemic hit, the team swung into action on multiple new fronts.
One priority was securing emergency funds and directing them into rapid scaling of OCC programs. Another was establishing an innovative new program to prescribe tablet computers and smartphones for Veterans participating in telehealth appointments. The impact on telehealth surprised even its ardent supporters. In the early months of the pandemic in 2020, VHA telehealth appointments soared from around 10,000 per week nationally to more than 120,000.
“Scaling telehealth for VHA was transformational, especially for rural veterans, because it proved that distance and other access issues can be taken out of the health care equation. This raises the bar everywhere, not just inside VA or the U.S.”
Ryan Styer
TECHNICAL ADVISOR,
ATLAS RESEARCH
STATISTICS
PROFILE
Leadership
Executive Team
RYUNG SUH, MD, MPP, MBA, MPH
Chief Executive Officer
Mark H. Chichester, JD
President
YOUNG BANG
Chief Growth Officer
KENNETH W. KIZER, MD, MPH
Chief Healthcare Transformation Officer and Senior Executive Vice President
ELIZABETH (BETH) MARTINEZ MAHAN, MHA
Executive Vice President
CHRISTOPHER P. CRONIN
Senior Vice President
STEFANIE LEHMANN, MPA
Senior Vice President
THEOLINDA (TEDDI) MIKULA, MA, MBA
Senior Vice President
MARIE MINIER, MPS, MBA
Senior Vice President
JAMES J. CHUNG
Vice President
CATHERINE FOY
Vice President
KEVIN RIPP, MBA
Vice President
Senior Leaders
DANA COGAR
Senior Principal
KAMRAN SARTAJ
Senior Principal
BENJAMIN TAUB
Senior Principal
MEREDITH WILLIAMS, MPH
Senior Principal
JIM BLAYLOCK
Senior Director
VANESSA DOWNES, MBA
Senior Director
TIM TINKER, DRPH, MPH
Senior Director
RAE ANNE FISCHER
Principal
JEFFREY GREENBERG, PHD
Principal
REBECCA HART, MBA
Principal
SUSANNE LARKINS, MHA
Principal
JUSTINE WAGNER
Principal
JOON AN
Director
JOHN JACOCKS, MD, MTM&H
Director
BRIDGETTE LYONS
Director
RENÉE J. O’BRIEN, JD, MSFS, MS
Director
ZAHRA REHMAN
Director
TRESSA SANDERS
Director
JOHN U. SEPULVEDA, MA, MPHIL
Director
Board Members
Anne K. Altman
Co-Founder, Everyone Matters, Ventures; Retired General Manager, IBM U.S. Federal and Government Industries
Robert W. Carr, MD, MPH, FACPM
Retired Corporate Medical Director and Senior Vice President, GlaxoSmithKline; Chief Medical Officer, Kumanu
Nicholas Donofrio, MS
Fellow Emeritus and Retired Executive Vice President, Innovation and Technology, IBM
Robin L. Portman, MS
Former President and Chief Executive Officer, Atlas Research
Stephen Joel Trachtenberg, JD, MPA
President Emeritus, The George Washington University
John F. “Skip” Williams, MD, Ed.D., M.Sc., MPH
President Emeritus, State University New York Downstate Health Sciences Center
SERVICES
| SERVICES | CAPABILITIES |
Digital and TechnologyWe offer a suite of digital services and technology solutions designed to enable continuous innovation and modernization. From defining strategy to implementation, Atlas can help chart digital transformation journeys that enhance customer experiences and accelerate the adoption of forwardleaning software, data, and cloud solutions in the rapidly evolving digital landscape. |
Digital Strategy and Transformation; Human-Centered Design; Data Analytics and Artificial intelligence; Modern Software Development; and Cloud Solutions |
Facility ActivationWe have a successful history of working collaboratively with clients to activate medical facilities on time, on scope, and on budget. We use proven methods and tools, including our proprietary Atlas Facility Activation System (AFACTS™), to execute and track the requirements, specification documents, roadmaps, and prototypes needed for a smooth transition of medical services and operations. |
Initial Outfitting and Transition; Activation Project Management; and Facility Advisory Solutions |
Human Capital SolutionsWe offer clients expert human capital solutions in human resources policy and strategy, workforce planning and management, employee engagement, and business process improvement and innovation. We help our clients develop the organizational capabilities and capacity needed to address evolving competencies and mission requirements by using a continuous improvement approach to create measurable, performance-focused training solutions to enhance and enable workforce learning and program implementation. |
Human Capital Strategy; Learning and Performance |
Innovation and ModernizationWe break down large-scale, complex challenges via grass-roots efforts that can be scaled to accelerate innovation. We apply creativity, design thinking, and analytical capabilities to develop scalable solutions and tailored approaches that encompass the innovation lifecycle—from strategy through implementation, sustainment, and evolution. |
Innovation – Vision and Mission Strategic Planning, Advisory, and Implementation; Modernization Strategy and Roadmap; and Grass-Roots Initiatives |
Organizational TransformationWe utilize best practices to deliver organizational change at the enterprise level through implementation and adoption. Leveraging principles in Lean Six Sigma, Business Process Reengineering (BPR), Change Management Advanced Practitioners (CMAP), and Continuous Process Improvement, Atlas evaluates performance, develops solutions, and accomplishes organization transformation. |
Transformation – Change Leadership, Organization Design, Operations Improvement, and Program Management; and Scalability |
Research and EvaluationWe have unparalleled expertise in public health, behavioral health, and health care research and evaluation across multiple federal agencies. We identify, evaluate, and implement evidence-based solutions to help our clients support underserved and hard-to-reach populations. |
Qualitative Research; Quantitative Research; Mixed-Methods; Systematic Reviews and Environmental Scans; Measurement Studies; and Knowledge Translation and Implementation Science |
Strategic Marketing and CommunicationsWe believe that great communications begin with great science. Evidence-based communications has the power to educate, inspire, and motivate action. Our research, measurement, and analysis inform and drive success in achieving our clients’ communications and business objectives. Through smart, creative, and innovative design thinking, we share and fulfill a common vision with our clients to seize opportunity, solve their most difficult communication challenges, and create a future of unlimited possibility. |
Marketing & Communications Strategy; Research, Measurement and Analysis; Stakeholder Engagement; Marketing & Outreach, including Branding; Creative Services; Digital and Earned Media |
CONTRACT VEHICLES
Government-Wide
GSA HCATS IDIQ – SMALL BUSINESS POOLS 1 + 2 AND UNRESTRICTED POOLS 1 + 2
NIH CIO-SP3 SMALL BUSINESS IDIQ
NTIS JOINT VENTURE PARTNERSHIP
GSA Multiple Award Schedule
GSA INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (IT) SCHEDULE 70
54151HEAL – Health Information Technology Services
54151S – Information Technology Professional Services
OLM – Order-Level Materials (OLM)
GSA PROFESSIONAL SERVICES SCHEDULE (PSS)
541430 – Graphic Design Services
541611 – Management and Financial Consulting,
- Acquisition and Grants Management Support,
- and Business Program and
- Project Management Services
541613 – Marketing Consulting Services
541820 – Public Relations Agencies
541910 – Market Research and Analysis
611430 – Professional and Management Development and Training
OLM – Order-Level Materials (OLM)
Agency-Specific
HHS FDA BUSINESS TRANSFORMATION TEAM BPA
HHS FDA INTEGRATED SERVICES BPA
HHS HRSA EVALUATION STUDIES IDIQ
HHS PROGRAM SUPPORT CENTER IDIQ
HHS SERVICES ABUSE AND MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES (SAMHSA) IDIQ – DOMAIN 5S
VA VHA INTEGRATED HEALTHCARE TRANSFORMATION IDIQ
VA VHA PRODUCT EFFECTIVENESS FUNCTIONAL REVIEW BPA
FEDERAL CLIENT PORTFOLIO
- National Science Foundation
- U.S. Department of Commerce
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- National Technical Information Service
- U.S. Department of Defense
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- Air Force Medical Service
- Defense Centers of Excellence for Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury
- Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency (formerly Defense Security Service)
- Joint Program Executive Office for Chemical and Biological Defense
- Military Health System
- Defense Health Agency
- U.S. Army Medical Command
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- Program Executive Office, Assembled Chemical Weapons Alternative’s Occupational Health Program
- U.S. Air Force
- U.S. Army, Program Executive Office
- U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
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- Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
- Division of HIV/AIDS Prevention
- Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services
- Center for Clinical Standards and Quality
- Center for Consumer Information and Oversight
- Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation
- Food and Drug Administration
- Health Resources and Services Administration
- Federal Office of Rural Health Policy
- Maternal and Child Health Bureau
- Office of Special Health Affairs
- National Institutes of Health
- National Heart Lung and Blood Institute
- Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health
- Office of Adolescent Health
- Office of HIV/AIDS and Infectious Disease Policy
- Office of Minority Health
- Office of Population Affairs
- Program Support Center
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- Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration
- Center for Substance Abuse Treatment
- Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration
- U.S. Department of Homeland Security
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- Customs and Border Protection
- Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency
- U.S. Department of Labor
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- Veterans’ Employment and Training Service
- Women’s Bureau
- U.S. Department of Transportation
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- Federal Railroad Administration
- U.S. Department of Treasury
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- Community Development Financial Institutions Fund
- U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
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- MyVA Program Support Office
- National Center on Homelessness Among Veterans
- Office of Acquisitions, Logistics, and Construction
- Strategic Acquisitions Center
- Office of Enterprise Integration
- Center for Innovation
- Office of Human Resources and Administration
- Office of Human Resources Management
- VA Learning University
- Office of Information and Technology
- Enterprise Program Management Office
- Office of Operations, Security, and Preparedness
- Office of Public and Intergovernmental Affairs
- Office of the Deputy Under Secretary for Organizational Excellence
- Office of the Secretary
- Veterans Experience Office
- Veterans Health Administration
- Eastern Colorado Health Care System
- National Workers Compensation Program
- Office of Administrative Operations
- Healthcare Technology Management
- Procurement and Logistics Office
- Office of Clinical Operations
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- Access and Clinical Administration
- Geriatrics and Extended Care Services
- Homeless Program Office
- Mental Health Services
- National Center for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
- Military Sexual Trauma Support Team
- Office of Connected Care
- Office of Research and Development
- Women’s Health Services
- Office of Communications
- Office of Community Care
- Office of Policy and Services
- Office of Policy and Planning
- Office of Research and Development
- Office of Rural Health
- Office of Strategic Planning
- Office of the Deputy Under Secretary for Organizational Excellence
- Office of Internal and Audit Risk Assessment
- Office of Quality, Safety, and Value
- Patient Care Services
- Southeast Louisiana Veterans Health Care System
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- Veterans Benefits Administration
- Education Service
- Office of Business Process Integration
- Office of Disability Assistance
- Office of Disability Assistance
- Compensation Service
- Office of Economic Opportunity
- Loan Guaranty Service
- Office of Interagency Care Collaboration and Integration
- Office of Management
- Office of Strategic Planning
- Office of Business Process Integration
- Veterans Benefits Administration, Department of Defense Program Office
- U.S. Small Business Administration
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COMMERCIAL/NON-PROFIT CLIENT PORTFOLIO
- Commission on Accreditation of Health care Management Education
- DC Department of Disability Services, Developmental Disabilities Administration
- DC Department of Health Care Finance
- Deloitte Center for Health Solutions
- Georgetown University, School of Nursing & Health Studies
- National Association of Community Health Centers
- Precision for Medicine
- The Commonwealth Fund
- The Dole Foundation
- United Service Organizations
- University of Michigan Health System
- West Virginia State Legislature