1. The Department of Veterans Affairs | Health Services Research & Development
VA Informatics and Computing Infrastructure (VINCI)
Victoria Barrett, PhD1; Lanny Derby, MBA1,2; Jeffrey S. Scehnet, PhD1,2; Timothy N. Trautman, BSD1; Jonathan Nebeker, MS, MD1,3
1VA Salt Lake City Health Care System and the Departments of 2Internal Medicine and 3Biomedical Informatics, University of Utah, School of Medicine, Salt Lake City, UT
VA Informatics and
Computing Infrastructure
500 Foothill Drive (151)
Salt Lake City, Utah 84148
(801) 588-5262
VA Informatics and Computing Infrastructure (VINCI)
is a major informatics initiative of the Veterans Health
Administration (VHA) to provide researchers a
nation-wide view of high value VA patient data. While
VINCI brings together data sources and provides the
analytical environment for performing studies, VHA
National Data Services authorizes research access
to patient data. New research projects are granted
access to snapshots of data that can be updated as
needed. In addition to data storage, VINCI includes a
cluster of servers set aside for tasks like analysis,
data processing, and extracting information from text.
This means that VA researchers will have access to
the data and the applications they need to select,
transform, and analyze patient data in a central,
secure location inside the VA intranet. VINCI is
revolutionizing the way studies are performed in
the VA.
VINCI DATA MART
• VINCI has one of the largest VA databases
populated from many data sources and is
constantly adding new ones
• The largest source of national level research
data
• Studies are provided database extracts
• VINCI has dedicated database team for gathering
new data and servicing study data requests
• CDW (+HDR) data for Allergies, Vitals,
Encounters, Outpatient Pharmacy, Surgery,
Prosthetics, etc.
• RDW R1 & 4 data for TIU, Health Factors,
Consults, Labs, Appointments, Primary care
assignments, and Radiology Reports
• DSS, Med-SAS, and Vital Status data
• Metadata Repository
• SQL and SAS formats
STUDY & COLLABORATION TOOLS
• Data Access Request Tracker (DART) for fast,
efficient electronic processing of data access
approvals
• Customer Tracker for customer (study) setup,
maintenance, and reporting
• Software Needs Assessment for specifying a
study’s software needs
• Studies have own MS SharePoint site for a study,
document, and collaboration management
• Over 50 different commercial, open source,
government, and custom software programs for
development, collaboration, processing, and data
analysis
• Custom Natural Language Processing (NLP) and
Annotation software for researchers
• SQL Server, R, SAS®, STATA®, and SAS® Text Miner
VINCI VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENT
ABOUT
VA Salt Lake City
Health Care System
500 Foothill Drive
Salt Lake City, Utah 84148
(801) 582-1565
• Shared Research or Dedicated Development
environment depending on need
• Each study has own dedicated multi-user
Project collaboration environment
• More efficient resource utilization with greater
flexibility
• Improved service level availability
• Devoted software servers
• Secure access to numerous VA databases
• Easy, one-stop for services and support
• Secure environment with single entry point
• Server provisioning, maintenance, and
management by VINCI administrators
• Software acquisition, licensing, and installation
by VINCI administrators
• Technical support by Corporate Data Center
Operations’ National Service Desk
VHA
VISN
Warehouse(s)
Regional
Warehouse(s)
Corporate
Data
WarehouseVHA
VA
VistA
HDR
ADR
VBA
NCS
Pharmacy
Benefits
Management
VINCIDoD
CMS
Other
VHA OQP
MISSION & VISION
The mission of VINCI is to improve the healthcare
of Veterans by providing researchers access to
integrated national datasets and tools for analysis
in a secure, high-performance computing
environment.
The vision of VINCI is to become VA researchers’
preferred data source and data-processing
environment.
AMIA-1414-A2009