Lead Terminologist

VHA supports and provides medical care for VA’s eligible beneficiaries through the VA health program, which includes VA Medical Centers (VAMCs) and contracted health care networks. The Office of Clinical Informatics within the Office of Health Informatics (OHI), Digital Health Office (DHO) advances the enterprise standard of care and patient experience using improved data, tools, and informatics processes organized around continuously delivering value to its customers. This is achieved through Lean-Agile delivery of clinical practice solutions that support best practice standards for clinical care. OHI is further responsible for ensuring the success of the modernized VA EHR, Oracle Health Millennium/Cerner through continuous exploration, integration, deployment and release on demand of Integrated Health Technology (IHT) solutions. These efforts aim to increase Veterans' access to care and support their active participation in their healthcare. Gritter Francona is looking for a Lead Terminologist to help support a potential project to assist this objective.

Key Responsibilities

Terminology Leadership and Strategy

• Provide authoritative guidance for the assessment, selection, development, implementation, and maintenance of clinical terminologies in clinical information systems.
• Lead and oversee terminology resources under this contract to ensure all terminology work products meet quality, consistency, and standards-based expectations.
• Recommend, define, and prioritize appropriate clinical terminologies to support enterprise-wide interoperability, reusable clinical data, and health information exchange.
• Provide leadership and innovation in integrating clinical terminologies with information models, clinical workflows, information systems, and emerging technologies.

Standards Development and Evaluation

• Participate in the development of specifications and standards related to national health information activities.
• Analyze the impact, feasibility, practicality, and effectiveness of existing and proposed clinical standards, candidate terminologies, regulations, programs, and policies.
• Conduct review, verification, and validation of terminology-related deliverables to ensure alignment with national and federal health standards.
• Support harmonization of terminologies across VA systems and with external partners, including DoD and other federal and national stakeholders.

Program and Stakeholder Support

• Provide expert clinical terminology support to VA programs and offices, including but not limited to:
• Veterans' Health Administration (VHA) Program Offices
• Office of Electronic Health Record Modernization (EHRM)
• Office of Connected Care
• Other VA initiatives requiring terminology services
• Serve as a trusted advisor and consultant to program leadership, technical teams, and clinical stakeholders.
• Collaborate with internal and external partners to ensure terminology solutions support patient care, clinical operations, analytics, and interoperability goals.

Clinical Terminology Expertise and Consultation

• Serve as a clinical terminology consultant, curator, and creator in support of VA programs, Department-level initiatives, and national health priorities.
• Ensure accurate analysis, documentation, and fulfillment of program requirements related to clinical terminology.
• Guide terminology governance, change management, and lifecycle processes.
• Provide mentorship and technical leadership to terminology staff and project teams.

Compliance and Regulatory Awareness

• Maintain current knowledge of federal policies, guidance, and regulatory requirements governing health data standards and terminology activities.
• Ensure terminology practices comply with applicable VA, federal, and national standards and policies.

• Master's degree in nursing or an equivalent clinical specialty
• 10 years' experience in terminology development and implementation
• Strong understanding of clinical information modeling, interoperability frameworks and health date standards

• Health Care Plan (Medical, Dental & Vision)
• Retirement Plan (401k, IRA)
• Life Insurance (Basic, Voluntary & AD&D)
• Paid Time Off (Vacation, Sick & Public Holidays)
• Short Term & Long Term Disability
• Training & Development