Industry Interview: Akimeka LLC
Interview with
Vaughn G. A. Vasconcellos
President
Akimeka LLC
Vaughn G.A. Vasconcellos founded Akimeka, LLC in January 1997. Akimeka, LLC is a Native Hawaiian-owned company and was recently recognized by Hawai’i Business Magazine as one of the “2008 Best Companies To Work For.” He is also president of the Alaka’ina Foundation, a non-profit entity focused on education and leadership programs for youth in Hawai’i. Vasconcellos holds a B.S. in Engineering from West Point and an EMBA from Northeastern University.
Q: Advanced IT solutions is a core capability of Akimeka. How much of your business is focused on the military or VA communities?
A: About 95 percent of our business is the DoD, Veterans Affairs and other government agencies. At Akimeka meeting high-priority challenges with high-impact solutions is what we are all about. Whether it’s helping to transform the future of military medicine, providing timely trusted access to vital information, or saving lives through our enhanced 911 services, we are dedicated to delivering innovative solutions that help our government customers accomplish their missions.
Q: What would you rate as key highlights of your medical IT solutions over the past year?
A: While we have had many successes over the past year, our top priority continues to be development of medical systems that support the combatant commands and the health care of our soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines. In our business deadlines are critical and any lag in system performance directly affects patient care, and that is not acceptable.
Q: Are there any identifiable areas that you are focused on that will bring higher levels of performance and productivity?
A: We draw on our proven capabilities to develop extremely flexible solutions that help our customers make critical decisions and achieve new levels of performance and productivity. Enterprise architecture, Web-based technologies and database management are all areas that are critical to achieving our mission. This past year, we have been successful as our team continues the development of the Joint Medical Work Station and the Theater Medical Data Store.
The Joint Medical Work Station—JMWS—provides medical situational awareness to support command and control and tracks injury and illness trends to support medical surveillance. JMW has been deployed since January 2003 in support of operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom.
The Theater Medical Data Store—TMDS—provides worldwide visibility of theater medical information. Recent accomplishments include the development of the capability to provide clinicians theater medical information to Veterans Affairs through a Web application called the Bi-Directional Health Information Exchange Theater—BHIET—and the capability to exchange patient clinical and movement information through the TRANSCOM Command and Control Evacuation System—TRAC2ES.
Q: The military health care system is huge and diverse with wide ranging hardware and software systems in place. What are the biggest challenges you face in recommending solutions when facing the existing environment?
A: Our customers are making huge strides in the continued struggle of interoperability between diverse systems. The days of building uniquely defined, point-to-point interfaces are slowly disappearing. Standards are becoming increasingly clear and mature to support our needs. As Akimeka moves forward we are focusing our efforts on adopting and integrating open standards.
Q: What can we expect to see from Akimeka in the future?
A: One of our new initiatives is the Medical Situational Awareness in Theater, or MSAT, concept technology demonstration, which is nearing the completion of year one development. The MSAT ACDT is developing the next generation of open standards based on portal and geographical information system applications for decision-support and medical situational awareness. The primary focuses of MSAT is to provide advanced decision support for: 1) Force health protection and readiness, disease surveillance and trend analysis; 2) Potential, chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear and occupational environmental hazards and exposure; 3) Logistics planning and operations; 4) Patient treatment, movement and visibility; and 5) Health information sharing with non-DoD organizations such as other federal agencies, coalition partners and non-governmental organizations.
Q: I understand that being from the island of Hawaii has influenced the company and its values. Can you tell me about this?
A: Absolutely. I think a good way to summarize this is to tell you how our company was founded and the way our high values tie in with our work ethic.
Akimeka was started with high values in mind. Over the last 11 plus years these values have continued to define who we are. Of these values, the first is koa which means courage of leadership. Leadership is attitude not a position. We empower our employees to make the difficult decisions needed to succeed at the highest level. Second is the word lokahi which means harmony. This means that your mission is our mission. We view our customers as partners and form a collaborative working relationship based on mutual respect. Third is ohana which means family. Family spirit is at the core of Akimeka. Our commitment to mutual support, common goals, and personal and professional enrichment help attract both customers and top talent. Fourth is laulima, or spirit of cooperation. A task is made easier by many hands working together. We draw upon this knowledge and resources of the entire organization to meet our goals. And fifth is ho’okipa or generosity. In Hawaii, guests and strangers alike are welcomed with our spirit of aloha. As we try and anticipate our customer needs we always remember to provide great customer service to not only our clients but our communities as well. ♦