Some FAQs may appear in more than one category. This is by design to help you find the desired FAQ easily. Please click on a FAQ category below to expand or collapse it.
No. Brillians is NOT dependent on CPRS in any way. There have been many instances where CPRS was down, but the users could continue providing patient care using Brillians.
However, Brillians depends on the VistA system to get the clinical data. If the network is down, or the VistA system is down, then neither CPRS nor Brillians will work.
CPRS is a front-end to the clinical data stored in the VistA database. Its primary job is to display the requested data. Therefore, CPRS is only concerned with loading, displaying and saving data but NOT with what that data means. This creates two problems:
If the provider does not request a certain data element, he/she may never see it, no matter how significant that data element is.
The large volume of data overwhelms the provider and hides the critical elements of information in the large body of non-significant data.
The difference between CPRS and Brillians is the same as the difference between data and information! CPRS provides raw data. Brillians provides Actionable Information.
CPRS is a front-end to the data stored in the VistA database. Its primary job is to display requested data. Therefore, CPRS is only concerned with loading, displaying and saving data and NOT with what that data means. This creates two problems:
If the provider does not request a certain data element, he/she may never see it, no matter how significant that data element is.
The large volume of data overwhelms the provider and hides the critical elements of information in the large body of non-significant data.
Brillians is designed to provide “Cognitive Support” and “Clinician Support” to ALL clinicians. Whether you are a provider, nurse, dietician, pharmacist or anyone else dealing with the CPRS data (e.g., QM chart reviews), Brillians helps with your intellectual work, and minimizes the time and effort spent on various tasks.
How is that possible? As a professional, all your decisions are data driven. To make those decisions, you need efficient access to clinical data. Unfortunately, the siloed design of CPRS creates bottlenecks to quick data access. Brillians provides a solution for nearly every CPRS bottleneck.
Users must be authorized to have access to the Brillians App. All clinical staff, including trainees, can have access. However, the access must be explicitly granted as noted below.
New Users: If you click on the Brillians / SupraVISTA link on the CPRS Tools menu and the Application does not start, it means that you do not have privileges.
To get privileges to the Brillians App, please contact your Clinical Informatics staff (CACs). At many VAMCs, someone in the Clinical Informatics and/or other non-OIT service can grant access. At other VAMCs, access requires an OIT help ticket.
Existing Users: If you have been using Brillians but you cannot start it from the CPRS Tools menu link (or, the desktop icon) then Restart Windows (Log-off and log back in is not the same as “Restart”).
If that does not fix the issue, then it means that the Brillians installation folder is not accessible on the network. This could be a temporary network issue. Please contact your Clinical Informatics/CAC staff and/or OIT.
If Brillians is installed at your VAMC, the CPRS Tools menu has a link for Brillians either as “Brillians (SupraVISTA)” or “SupraVista” or some variation of the above. The link can be on the Tools menu itself, or on a sub-menu. Your colleagues and Clinical Informatics/CAC staff can help, if you don’t see the link.
Once you are running Brillians, please create a desktop link using the “Create Desktop Link” near the bottom of the “File” menu on Brillians’ main form.
You can start Brillians using the desktop icon even if CPRS is down (look for a green icon showing doctor’s bag with plus sign).
The Brillians App is not accessible due to a [temporary] network issue. First step is to RESTART Windows (note that just log-off and then log back in is not the same as “Restart”).
If the above issue persists after RESTARTING WINDOWS, please contact the Clinical Informatics staff or the Brillians POCs at your VAMC.
Do other uses have the same issue? This helps determine if the issue is with the VAMC’s network or only with certain workstation(s). If it is local workstation issue, it typically resolves after RESTARTING Windows (and, if applicable, reconnecting the VPN).
Clinicians frequently need to review additional data when they are working on a certain Form, e.g., Main Form or Views Form. In CPRS, the data is scattered throughout multiple tabs. Brillians makes this data readily available.
Advisories are one of the most powerful features of Brillians. Advisories improve patient safety and quality of care while reducing clinician’s work.
Advisories identify the clinical abnormalities and high-risk issues by automatically analyzing clinical data when you load a patient in Brillians. Typically, Brillians auto-synchronizes patient with CPRS when user changes patient in CPRS.
The advisories are designed to “point the user in the right direction” by highlighting important issues. They do not identify every possible abnormality in the patient medical record. You can review the nature and the scope of Advisories on this page: Advisories: Logic and Scope | Brillians
The Advisories may not always mirror the USPSTF and various specialty board guidelines which may significantly differ from each other. Further, the data analysis is limited by the lack of computable data in VistA. Therefore, though advisories provide great help, it is important to understand what they are and are not.
Finally, Advisories do not substitute for good history-taking and clinical judgment on part of the clinician. Like many other tools in the clinician’s toolbox, they are just one tool to help improve patient safety and quality of care.
The advisories list may display two types of icons.
Green-checkbox icon: This indicates which Advisories have been reviewed. During review of the Advisories, the user clicks on advisories one by one and reviews the data in the right pane. However, the user may review the advisories in any order and may not review some at all. The green-checkbox icon indicates which Advisories have been reviewed.
A Flag icon: The user can “Flag” an Advisory for self-reminder, e.g., to review later in the visit in more detail. To do so, click in the left-most column for the given Advisory.
Both icons are TEMPORARY – i.e., they exist during the current patient session only. They are not saved for later use.
Both icons can be turned on and off by clicking on them.
Yes, that is recommended. See buttons in the left pane to filter lab data.
By default, Brillians Lab Review sets a filter to display abnormal labs and shows a list of labs which have been abnormal at least once in last N years (typically, 3 years)
These are system-defined lab groups. When you select a group, Brillians sets a filter to display labs in that group. Think of this as an extension of Lab Profiles.
Clinicians frequently need to review additional data when they are working on a certain Form, e.g., Main Form or Views Form. In CPRS, the data is scattered throughout multiple tabs. Brillians makes this data readily available.
CPRS Progress Note editor allows a maximum of 80 characters per line. If you paste text with lines longer than 80 characters, a few words of those lines will wrap to the next line creating an ugly display. Therefore, it is important that template design takes lines length into consideration. While editing a template, the character position at keyboardcursor is displayed just above the template editor.
Many lab profiles use 75+ characters. It is important to keep line length in the template as close to 79 as possible, but not exceed 80 characters. It takes some creativity:
• Change page width by changing left and right margins (button on the bottom panel). Smaller width will hold fewer characters. • Use a “Fixed” font. We recommend “Lucida Console.” • Use larger font for non-clinical data so those lines take fewer characters
In the templates list, select a shared or personal template which is similar to what you want to create. Click on the “Edit…” button to modify it to create the new template.
On the “Edit Template” tab, bottom panel, locate the dropdown box and “Insert Field” button. Upon clicking the button, the selected command is inserted where the keyboard cursor is.
You can also type in, or copy and paste commands from other templates. Please ensure accuracy.
You can find many examples on the View (Reports) Form (“View’s Script” tab).
Make sure you enclose these commands in curly brackets.
Caution: Do not use “InsertQuery” command in letters or progress note templates. Those are for Queries, not templates.
Finally, there is a detailed help manual that describes how to use commands in Brillians. The same commands are used by Views, Letters and Progress Note Writer to display the clinical data.
On “Edit Template” tab, bottom panel, use “Preview” button.
Note: “Preview” generates the letter on the “Review and Print” tab. After reviewing, you will need to click on the “Edit Template” tab to return to editing.
On the top panel, above the templates list, locate the “Toggle” button to switch shared and personal templates. Use the dropdown box (red circle) to display other user’s templates.
It is very important that you follow a naming convention so that you can easily find your templates, including by search. See shared templates for examples—almost all have a certain prefix. List sorting is affected by uppercase/lowercase. You are prompted for file name when you save a template. You can use any file name you want.
Note: These only work for “Lucida Console”. For other fonts, you will need to ensure the display is correct when the letter is copied to CPRS.
Use Page Setup button on the bottom panel to set the following:
Paper Size: Select “Letter” in the dropdown box.
Page Width: Set Left and Right Margins to: “0.65 in”
Font Name: Lucida Console (large and very readable font)
Font Size: 11 points for all text except clinical data 10 points for clinical data inserted via {Query Command} e.g., Lab Profiles, Imaging reports, etc.
Verify that you are getting proper layout in CPRS by pasting letter in a progress note in a test patient.
The text inside the curly brackets is treated as a command. In most cases, this is a place-holder for mail-merge. The commands can be a placeholder for predefined fields (name, address, sender’s name), or for more complex commands used for data insertion like labs, appointments, imaging reports.
Brillians automatically saves your personal templates in your personal folder. While editing, You can Preview and Save template using buttons on the bottom panel of the “Edit Template” tab.
Note: When you save a personal template, it is saved to your personal folder and will NOT overwrite a shared template
The Local Formulary is a subset of the National Formulary. A typical local formulary has 4,000-5,000 entries, whereas the national formulary has about 20,000 entries.
Yes. Separate search words with semi-colons. This search box is on the Local Formulary tab (first tab):
To exclude the Non-formulary items, check the box (red circle) just above the search box
You can take advantage of the naming conventions, e.g., ACE inhibitors end in “pril”, ARBs end in “sartan”. You may find these drugs by searching for “pril” or “sartan”. Same for many other drug categories.
No. However, you can copy the item’s name and paste it in CPRS medication ordering dialog form. Use the “Copy to Clipboard…” button on the bottom panel to copy the item highlighted in the list:
Formulary Search allows you to search VA formulary. You can search medications and supplies without knowing their exact name. Note: This is not possible in CPRS
To order a medication in CPRS, the user needs to know the medication’s EXACT name. E.g., if it is listed as “HCTZ/Lisinopril,” CPRS will not find it by “Lisinopril/HCTZ.”
Problem: When prescribing infrequently ordered or unfamiliar meds and supplies, most users can not remember the EXACT name of the meds/supplies as listed in CPRS.
A phone call to the pharmacy may take 2-5 minutes and wastes both parties’ time. In Brillians, this is instantaneous.
In Brillians, the user can search the VA local formulary using partial names. Similarly, the user can search the VA national formulary by drug class.
The way the Windows system is designed, one app cannot slow down the other. If an App uses excessive CPU or memory, then the entire Windows system, thus ALL application, will slow down. You can verify this by looking at the CPU and memory usage in the Task Manager (that’s where you go to kill CPRS when it is frozen). The network congestion or VistA slowness are more likely causes of CPRS slowness. Nothing changes in CPRS, Brillians, or other Apps on a day-to-day basis.
What can the users do: To keep Windows healthy and up-to-speed, please RESTART Windows at least twice a week, e.g., at the end of the day on Tuesdays and Fridays. (The VA OIT recommends that you leave the computer turned on at all times.)
Note that log-off and log back into Windows does not clear the memory, device drivers, and many other accumulated internal errors like RESTART does.
Yes, users can create custom content for their specialized needs. Brillians comes with a large library of commonly needed content. However, we can not anticipate every possible scenario. Therefore, personalization is supported to the extent possible.
For example, users can:
Create personal “Problem Oriented Views of Data.”
Personal Progress Note Templates.
Personal Letter Templates
Personal content for use by the Quick Keys feature (see training video).
Personal content for use by the Auto Notes, i.e., “Dot Phrases” (see training video).
Lab preferences on Inpatient and Outpatient dashboards
No. You will continue to use CPRS and other clinical Apps as you always do. You will use Brillians when needed.
For each patient you see:
Load patient in CPRS and proceed with your usual steps (e.g., greet the patient, start a progress note, etc.).
When you change patient in CPRS, Brillians prompts to synchronize with CPRS.
If you take no action, after a few seconds, Brillians will automatically load the patient you have in CPRS (i.e., auto-synchronize with CPRS). You may continue working in CPRS while Brillians loads and processes data in the background.
When ready, review the Advisories and other information in Brillians.
Please note that Brillians requires no work – not even a click – to load and analyze the data. It does NOT change your workflow and does not get in your way at all. Brillians does all its work in the background and waits for you to utilize the information and tools as necessary.
No. Brillians is NOT dependent on CPRS in any way. There have been many instances where CPRS was down, but the users could continue providing patient care using Brillians.
However, Brillians depends on the VistA system to get the clinical data. If the network is down, or the VistA system is down, then neither CPRS nor Brillians will work.
The Brillians App is not accessible due to a [temporary] network issue. First step is to RESTART Windows (note that just log-off and then log back in is not the same as “Restart”).
If the above issue persists after RESTARTING WINDOWS, please contact the Clinical Informatics staff or the Brillians POCs at your VAMC.
Do other uses have the same issue? This helps determine if the issue is with the VAMC’s network or only with certain workstation(s). If it is local workstation issue, it typically resolves after RESTARTING Windows (and, if applicable, reconnecting the VPN).
The difference between CPRS and Brillians is the same as the difference between data and information! CPRS provides raw data. Brillians provides Actionable Information.
CPRS is a front-end to the data stored in the VistA database. Its primary job is to display requested data. Therefore, CPRS is only concerned with loading, displaying and saving data and NOT with what that data means. This creates two problems:
If the provider does not request a certain data element, he/she may never see it, no matter how significant that data element is.
The large volume of data overwhelms the provider and hides the critical elements of information in the large body of non-significant data.
Most VHA clinical users have two monitors attached to their workstations. Even if there is only one monitor, Brillians will play nicely with CPRS and other Windows Apps. Having two monitors improves efficiency and productivity.
If you have two monitors, then please place CPRS on your primary monitor and Brillians on the 2nd monitor. For best results, these applications should not be covering each other.
On the modern, wide-screen monitors, the navigation between multiple Apps works best if you place the Windows taskbar along the right edge of the primary monitor. This takes some getting used to but increases efficiency significantly.
Brillians is designed for clinical staff, not computer geeks. Therefore, the user interface is simple, intuitive and easy to navigate. All the features have similar layout which eases the learning curve. Therefore, users rarely need help once they become familiar with the basics.
Brillians is designed to provide “Cognitive Support” and “Clinician Support” to ALL clinicians. Whether you are a provider, nurse, dietician, pharmacist or anyone else dealing with the CPRS data (e.g., QM chart reviews), Brillians helps with your intellectual work, and minimizes the time and effort spent on various tasks.
How is that possible? As a professional, all your decisions are data driven. To make those decisions, you need efficient access to clinical data. Unfortunately, the siloed design of CPRS creates bottlenecks to quick data access. Brillians provides a solution for nearly every CPRS bottleneck.
Yes, users can create custom content for their specialized needs. Brillians comes with a large library of commonly needed content. However, we can not anticipate every possible scenario. Therefore, personalization is supported to the extent possible.
For example, users can:
Create personal “Problem Oriented Views of Data.”
Personal Progress Note Templates.
Personal Letter Templates
Personal content for use by the Quick Keys feature (see training video).
Personal content for use by the Auto Notes, i.e., “Dot Phrases” (see training video).
Lab preferences on Inpatient and Outpatient dashboards
No. You will continue to use CPRS and other clinical Apps as you always do. You will use Brillians when needed.
For each patient you see:
Load patient in CPRS and proceed with your usual steps (e.g., greet the patient, start a progress note, etc.).
When you change patient in CPRS, Brillians prompts to synchronize with CPRS.
If you take no action, after a few seconds, Brillians will automatically load the patient you have in CPRS (i.e., auto-synchronize with CPRS). You may continue working in CPRS while Brillians loads and processes data in the background.
When ready, review the Advisories and other information in Brillians.
Please note that Brillians requires no work – not even a click – to load and analyze the data. It does NOT change your workflow and does not get in your way at all. Brillians does all its work in the background and waits for you to utilize the information and tools as necessary.
No. Brillians is NOT dependent on CPRS in any way. There have been many instances where CPRS was down, but the users could continue providing patient care using Brillians.
However, Brillians depends on the VistA system to get the clinical data. If the network is down, or the VistA system is down, then neither CPRS nor Brillians will work.
If Brillians is installed at your VAMC, the CPRS Tools menu has a link for Brillians either as “Brillians (SupraVISTA)” or “SupraVista” or some variation of the above. The link can be on the Tools menu itself, or on a sub-menu. Your colleagues and Clinical Informatics/CAC staff can help, if you don’t see the link.
Once you are running Brillians, please create a desktop link using the “Create Desktop Link” near the bottom of the “File” menu on Brillians’ main form.
You can start Brillians using the desktop icon even if CPRS is down (look for a green icon showing doctor’s bag with plus sign).
The difference between CPRS and Brillians is the same as the difference between data and information! CPRS provides raw data. Brillians provides Actionable Information.
CPRS is a front-end to the data stored in the VistA database. Its primary job is to display requested data. Therefore, CPRS is only concerned with loading, displaying and saving data and NOT with what that data means. This creates two problems:
If the provider does not request a certain data element, he/she may never see it, no matter how significant that data element is.
The large volume of data overwhelms the provider and hides the critical elements of information in the large body of non-significant data.
Most VHA clinical users have two monitors attached to their workstations. Even if there is only one monitor, Brillians will play nicely with CPRS and other Windows Apps. Having two monitors improves efficiency and productivity.
If you have two monitors, then please place CPRS on your primary monitor and Brillians on the 2nd monitor. For best results, these applications should not be covering each other.
On the modern, wide-screen monitors, the navigation between multiple Apps works best if you place the Windows taskbar along the right edge of the primary monitor. This takes some getting used to but increases efficiency significantly.
When you load a different patient in CPRS, Brillians displays a small window on top of CPRS. This displays countdown to auto synchronization. At this point, there are three options.
If you take no action, after a few seconds, Brillians will automatically load the patient you have in CPRS (i.e., auto-synchronize with CPRS). You may continue working in CPRS while Brillians loads and processes data in the background.
Press the Control-F8 key to cancel synchronization.
Press the Control-F12 key to immediately load the patient without waiting for the countdown.
Brillians is designed for clinical staff, not computer geeks. Therefore, the user interface is simple, intuitive and easy to navigate. All the features have similar layout which eases the learning curve. Therefore, users rarely need help once they become familiar with the basics.
Yes, users can create custom content for their specialized needs. Brillians comes with a large library of commonly needed content. However, we can not anticipate every possible scenario. Therefore, personalization is supported to the extent possible.
For example, users can:
Create personal “Problem Oriented Views of Data.”
Personal Progress Note Templates.
Personal Letter Templates
Personal content for use by the Quick Keys feature (see training video).
Personal content for use by the Auto Notes, i.e., “Dot Phrases” (see training video).
Lab preferences on Inpatient and Outpatient dashboards
Brillians is designed for clinical staff, not computer geeks. Therefore, the user interface is simple, intuitive and easy to navigate. All the features have similar layout which eases the learning curve. Therefore, users rarely need help once they become familiar with the basics.
Yes, you may search for multiple words, separating them with a semi-colon. Use synonyms, e.g., tumor ; mass ; nodule; cancer ; malign Note: The white space around semi-colons is ignored
Yes, abnormal studies are highlighted automatically. The list of imaging studies is displayed on the left pane. Click on imaging study’s name to view report. Click on the next [highlighted] row to review “Impression”
You are searching full text of all the imaging reports completed over past N years (e.g., past five years). You can selected how much imaging data you want to review on the top panel.
In the example below, WHC staff frequently searches for PAP; Mammo; HPV; Colpo
On t he Keyword Search Form (top panel), click the edit button as shown on the image below:
A Form will open. Follow the instructions on that Form. Afterwards you will be able to “drop in” your frequently used searches using the drop-down (red circle).
Yes, it is possible. Separate words with semi-colon, and use synonyms. E.g., LVEF ; Ejection Frac Note: The spaces before and after the semi-colon is ignored.
Keyword search only looks at the preloaded data per VAMC’s configuration. There are many other options under the “Search Docs…” button on the top panel:
Yes, that is recommended. See buttons in the left pane to filter lab data.
By default, Brillians Lab Review sets a filter to display abnormal labs and shows a list of labs which have been abnormal at least once in last N years (typically, 3 years)
These are system-defined lab groups. When you select a group, Brillians sets a filter to display labs in that group. Think of this as an extension of Lab Profiles.
Each template is designed to automatically mail-merge the necessary data, e.g., patient’s name and address, clinical data and letter sender’s name and address, etc.
The user selects the template and clicks a button. A fully populated letter is displayed within seconds, and the user has the ability to fine-tune it if needed.
It creates “ready to use” letters with a few clicks. Brillians provides over 100 ready-to-use templates. There is a template for just about every need.
Brillians automatically saves them in your personal folder. While editing, you can preview and save the template using the buttons on the bottom panel of the “Edit Template” tab.
Patients frequently request letters for: work/jury duty excuse, lab and imaging reports, disability related documentation, and many other topics. With Microsoft Word, it may take 5+ minutes. Brillians does the same in less than 10 seconds.
No. Nearly all Calculators are able to automatically look-up and fill in the needed values. Click on “Calculate using Patient Data” button and instantly see the results.
For example, “What will the BMI be if the patient were to lose 20 lbs?”. For this type of scenario, you may enter your own values. In the left pane, fill in the blanks with the values you want:
On the right pane, click on “Calculate using User-entered data” button.
Look at top of the Calculator’s Form. Each Calculator is located on its own tab page. As of this writing (summer 2020), the following 10 calculators are included:
Yes. You may click the button just above the View’s text to load the View you want. The button changes to “Add” or “Remove” depending on the situation.
Yes. Separate search words with semi-colons. Please note that view’s are searched by title, not by their content. Look for search text box in the left pane, just below the frequent used Views list
E.g., when looking for Pain related Views, you may want pain, neurology and Ortho related Views:
Views (a.k.a. Reports) expedite data visualization for the given disease, specialty or body system from 5-10 minutes down to a few seconds. Note: This is not possible in CPRS.
Clinicians frequently review data for a given situation. In CPRS, the data is scattered on many tabs and has to be manually located.
Finding all the relevant data for a disease (e.g., Anemia), a body system (e.g., Liver) or a specialty (e.g., Urology) may take 5-10 minutes and many clicks. Brillians finds all the relevant data within 2-3 seconds with one click and displays in a nicely formatted View.
This is to sort the desired Views to the top of the list. By convention, the specialty or body system related “Chart Review” type Views are displayed on top of the list. Subsequently, the disease specific and other Views display in alphabetical order.
Quick Keys can be found on the “View Alert and Login Helper” button on the bottom panel. Note: there are multiple options under this button. You can also find it on the Main Form’s “Tools” menu.
It enables users to do common CPRS tasks with one keystroke (e.g. make an addendum, add Additional Signer, sign notes). Common tasks are assigned to specific keys or key-combinations. When a user presses that key, the given task is performed with one keystroke rather than multiple mouse-clicks or keystrokes.
Use it for common tasks, such as processing View Alerts. Many View Alerts require making an addendum, entering a short blurb (e.g., “This request is taken care of.”) and signing the addendum. Each of these three functions requires one keystroke.
To avoid covering data on the screen, the user interface shows as a small window on top of CPRS. If CPRS is not active, it moves further up, off the screen.
Data is displayed in tabs. Most tabs have a dropdown box above the text area. This allows you to directly go to the desired document (red circle on the image below).
Please use the familiar Search panel on the top panel. Note that you are searching ALL the data on ALL the tabs. Therefore, depending on the volume, it may take a few seconds.
Remote data functionality expedites searching the VA Remote VA. Users can download data from multiple remote VAMCs for N years and search the remote data like it is one local document.
To avoid clutter, there is a second Form for the less frequently used data (e.g., Cytopathology, Microbiology, etc.). Data loading works exactly like this form. You can access it from:
1. Large + button on the bottom panel:
2. Under the “Remote Data” button on the main form.
Many veterans receive, or have received, care at multiple VAMCs. Often, patients refer to a discussion, lab, or procedure done at another VAMC and asks the provider to follow-up.
Problem: In JLV, finding a specific piece of data (e.g., Colonoscopy or LVEF) may take 5-10 minutes and many clicks. This is because in JLV users have to manually open and review each document. There is no global search feature. Brillians finds all the relevant data in the remote data within seconds with a few clicks.
You may single-click on a document title in the left pane. This will load ALL the documents by that title. You do not need to specify date range because all documents are loaded by default.
User can find and search documents titles among ALL the documents the given patient ever had in the selected category on top panel (Progress notes, consults and DC summaries). This is not possible in CPRS.
Patients have complex histories and you want to review and search ALL progress notes under a given note title (e.g., Urology or Dermatology).
CPRS provides no mechanism to load ALL the progress notes with a given title. Brillians allows you to search ALL the notes titles using only the partial note titles. Note: This data is NOT limited by date range. When user clicks on a title on the left pane, full text of ALL the documents with that titles is loaded and is searchable using the keyword search on the top panel
Yes, that is the recommendation. For example, “Cardio” will match any progress note title that has the word “Cardio” in it. With this type of search you are searching documents’ titles, not the content.
Yes. Separate words with semi-colons. Specify Include words and (optional) Exclude words to define search criteria. The image below shows how to exclude Neurology when looking for Urology note titles:
Patient says: Two years ago, I went to a Cardiology clinic who told me X. I did not follow up then but I want you to find and follow up on X.
Problem: Where to look for X? There are a large number of progress note titles for many specialties. E.g., for Cardiology, your VAMC may have MANY note titles like “Cardio Provider”, “Cardio NP”, “Cardio X”, “CHF clinic”, “Pace-maker” and so on.
Brillians allows you to load and search ALL the notes using only the partial note titles. Using the above example, if you search for “Cardio; CHF; pace-maker” you will find full text of all the progress notes for the specified interva
The way the Windows system is designed, one app cannot slow down the other. If an App uses excessive CPU or memory, then the entire Windows system, thus ALL application, will slow down. You can verify this by looking at the CPU and memory usage in the Task Manager (that’s where you go to kill CPRS when it is frozen). The network congestion or VistA slowness are more likely causes of CPRS slowness. Nothing changes in CPRS, Brillians, or other Apps on a day-to-day basis.
What can the users do: To keep Windows healthy and up-to-speed, please RESTART Windows at least twice a week, e.g., at the end of the day on Tuesdays and Fridays. (The VA OIT recommends that you leave the computer turned on at all times.)
Note that log-off and log back into Windows does not clear the memory, device drivers, and many other accumulated internal errors like RESTART does.
The Brillians App is not accessible due to a [temporary] network issue. First step is to RESTART Windows (note that just log-off and then log back in is not the same as “Restart”).
If the above issue persists after RESTARTING WINDOWS, please contact the Clinical Informatics staff or the Brillians POCs at your VAMC.
Do other uses have the same issue? This helps determine if the issue is with the VAMC’s network or only with certain workstation(s). If it is local workstation issue, it typically resolves after RESTARTING Windows (and, if applicable, reconnecting the VPN).
