Health IT Archives

The State Department's Office of eDiplomacy hosted a conference Friday that sought to connect technology innovators with those interested in "diplomacy and development to enable 21st century statecraft." More than 300 people from federal agencies and the private sector attended Tech@State, held at the agency's Harry S. Truman Building in Washington. The focus was on open source software.

A few noteworthy items from the conference:

Chief Technology Officer of the United States Aneesh Chopra said all federal agencies now have Congressional authority to pursue prize-based challenges, such as those for developing new applications. "No general counsel can stand in the way of our movement [on] this philosophy," he said.

The White House is considering imposing some type of consistency standard for .gov websites, said White House New Media Director Macon Phillips. The administration wants to interject a little more rhyme and reason to the sites, Phillips said.

State will continue to consider open source technology where it makes the most sense, said Chief Information Officer Susan Swart. Specifically, the agency will look at internal applications that can be hosted using open-source software, she said.

Next week, the Health and Human Services Department will launch a HealthData.gov community on the U.S.'s open data site data.gov. It will be a one-stop resource for health data innovation, said Chief Technology Officer Todd Park. Part of the site will serve as a virtual apps expo, where Park expects people to find problems with the data the agency puts out, as HHS simply does not have enough manpower to check all of it.

Perhaps the best quote of the day came from Park, who said HHS wants to provide developers with the raw data and let them take the lead in creating the software and tools to use it. The agency wants to be a "data sugar daddy," he said to laughter.

The Health and Human Services Department awarded Verizon Business, a Verizon Communications unit, a $169 million contract to manage and secure Internet protocol and data networks.

The award, announced on Tuesday, was made off the General Services Administration's Networx Universal contract and will include security capabilities for HHS including processing Medicare claims, according to a Verizon press release.

Agencies have been slow to transition to the new telecommunications services since GSA awarded Networx in March 2007, Nextgov reported.

For the Health and Human Services Department, Health IT is all about knowing the end result.

"It's not about the technology, it's about knowing what you want to get out of it," said Dr. Farzad Mostashari, deputy national coordinator for programs and policy at the office of the national coordinator for health IT at HHS.

As part of health care reform, more emphasis will be placed on available and developing technologies, Mostashari said during a panel discussion on Aug. 16 and hosted by Government Executive. Rather than focus on intangibles, "we will be able to look at actual outcomes," he said, such as did a patient's blood pressure improve.

Mostashari gave an example from his time as assistant commissioner for the primary care information project at the New York City Health Department. In New York, they developed a system that told the provider the quality of health care provided by analyzing results, which, he said, was keeping "the eye on the prize."

Lockheed Martin has fattened its health information technology portfolio by securing a $9 million contract to demonstrate nationwide exchanges of patient data, following the government contractor's successful test of electronic health records at the Social Security Administration.

The company Wednesday afternoon announced that the Health and Human Services department awarded a contract to create software that will expand the nationwide health information network, which is a secure, electronic channel for sharing e-health records among hospitals and practitioners across the country. Lockheed also won a contract to deploy real-world pilots that will show off the network's capabilities.

Separately, the company is pursuing an estimated $2 billion contract for Social Security IT services that would expand upon Lockheed's current contract with the agency, but also include more sophisticated health IT support.

In February 2009, Lockheed helped develop technical specifications for sharing medical records of people applying for SSA disability benefits with MedVirginia, a health information exchange owned by a coalition of nonprofit hospitals and physicians in central Virginia. The effort laid the groundwork for the nationwide health information network.

Ari Schwartz, a longtime advocate for protecting privacy in the age of Web-based government, is leaving his post at the Center for Democracy and Technology to press for change from within the administration at the National Institute for Standards and Technology.

After working at the Washington civil liberties group for nearly 13 years, Schwartz on Monday announced that he has accepted an offer to become a NIST senior adviser for Internet policy. The move will allow him to continue examining issues related to identity management, cybersecurity and privacy, he said.

Recently, Schwartz helped CDT negotiate with the Office of Management and Budget to lift a decade-old rule banning federal websites from using Web-tracking tools and add constraints that would protect users' personal identities.

Schwartz will join the federal government on Aug. 30.

"I've always said that my position at CDT was my dream job. In fact, it exceeded any expectation I could have ever had. Mostly that is due to the great colleagues and mentors that I've had here. On the other hand, I have great admiration and respect for those in public service," he said in an e-mail. "I have been on the lookout for the right position in the federal government and I'm confident that this is it."

The Obama administration's strategy of hosting contests to find answers to the nation's problems seems to be an exercise in trial and error, as predicted.

The Labor Department has had to extend the deadline for a $1,000 competition that asks people to film videos targeting the unskilled and unemployed, which spotlight in-demand, high-paying jobs, such as computer support specialists and health information technicians, according to a notice that Labor issued on Monday.

The deadline for entries was to have been June 11. The department's announcement in the Federal Register says videos are now due Aug. 20. Most of the other phases of the four-part contest, which launched in May, also have been extended by about two months.

It's unclear from the notice whether the extension was prompted by requests from participants for more time, a lack of entries, a mistake in the original May announcement, or some other reason.

Here's more info about the challenge from Labor's website:

The "Career Videos for America's Job Seekers Challenge" invites members of the public to produce and submit one to three minute videos focusing on the daily activities of one of 15 high-wage and in-demand occupations.

The creators of the top video in each category will win a $1,000 cash prize.

The competition will occur in four phases.

During Phase One, members of the public, employer associations, businesses and labor organizations can submit their occupational videos for one of the 15 selected occupations. To review the list of occupations and rules for the video challenge, visit the career videos website.

During Phase Two, the Labor Department will screen, review and identify the top three career videos in each occupation and post these selected videos online for public review.

During Phase Three, the public will be able to recommend and comment on the top career video in each occupational category.

During Phase Four, the Labor Department will share the top career videos with the workforce development community and job seekers by posting an announcement of the top ranking videos on key web sites such as Labor.gov and CareerOneStop. The results also will be shared with national and intergovernmental organizations such as the National Association of State Workforce Agencies and the National Association of Workforce Boards.

Engineers, scientists and at least one lawmaker are pushing like never before to resuscitate a legislative agency that once provided Congress with technological expertise.

In an era of supposed government transparency, with allegations that even scientists are attempting to cover up research on global warming, an objective, authoritative Office of Technology Assessment is of utmost importance, advocates say.

Several lawmakers, particularly House member and physicist Rush Holt, D-N.J., have repeatedly rallied for appropriations to revive the office that Congress dismantled to save money in 1995. The counterargument against funding has always been that other agencies, such as the Government Accountability Office or Congressional Research Services, could provide the same services.

Now that belief may be changing, says Francesca Grifo, scientific integrity program director at the Union of Concerned Scientists, who will testify on Wednesday before the House Legislative Branch Appropriations Subcommittee. Holt also will testify in support of restored funding.

"We've decided to make it a priority issue," Grifo said in an interview with Nextgov on Tuesday. Her group is releasing a letter of encouragement signed by 30 organizations, including the American Civil Liberties Union and the United Auto Workers. "It seems a little counterintuitive but, if you look at our current fiscal situation, OTA saves money," she said, explaining that if lawmakers have sound technical advice when they make policy decisions, "you'll waste less money."

Established in the early 1970s, the office was responsible for providing Congress with early evaluations of the potential costs and benefits of new technologies and new applications of existing technologies.

Grifo's organization estimates that the office cost Congress about $20 million annually but, since its extinction, the federal government has squandered billions of dollars on failed systems, including virtual fences to guard the U.S-Mexico border and baggage screening equipment.

A sample of reports produced shortly before its demise shows that the office already was on top of many innovations at the forefront of today's legislative agenda.

One 1995 report referenced the potential for tracking the efficacy of medical treatments with electronic health data - a controversial issue in the ongoing debate over healthcare reform. "Because large amounts of electronic data now can be collected and manipulated, there has been increased emphasis on using existing data, often in the form of insurance claims databases, to evaluate health care technologies," the research stated. "Data gathered from events occurring in a wide range of practice settings have become viewed as a tool for looking at effectiveness-- average outcomes achieved by average doctors and patients."

In a report entitled "Bringing Health Care Online: The Role of Information Technologies," the office found that electronic patient records, portable computers, automated data capture and computer networks "can potentially improve the quality of health care" by "enhancing clinical decision support and by improving data for assessing the effectiveness of health services and the performance of health care providers and insurance plans."

Another 1995 report probed the ramifications of electronic surveillance, concluding, "If major problems arise in meeting the needs of law enforcement, they will likely arise as a result of institutional difficulties in dealing with a diverse, highly entrepreneurial industry made up of a large number of telecommunications companies offering many new innovations and features, with the number of players steadily increasing."

Do you know a federal manager who recently took risks to push through a bold idea, policy or program that uses technology to make government work better or improve public services? If so, we'd like to hear your story by nominating your colleague for a Nextgov Award.

The Nextgov Award program, developed in partnership with O'Reilly Media Inc. and TechWeb, will recognize government executives who stepped outside their comfortable confines to think and manage differently. They acted boldly to push through an innovative program, policy or new management practice that relied on technology to move government in a new direction, to challenge employees to think and work differently, and that ultimately improved the lives of citizens.

We know there are many managers who have done just that, and we want you to tell us about them by nominating them for a Nextgov Award. The deadline is March 12, but we suggest you don't wait. Visit the nomination page and spend just a few minutes filling out the form. We'll tell the stories of the winners later this spring on Nextgov.

A panel of respected judges will make choose the winners, who will be honored at a luncheon on May 27 at the Gov 2.0 Expo at the Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C. The expo is co-sponsored by O'Reilly Media Inc. and TechWeb, and Nextgov is the premier media sponsor.

The Xbox 360, Microsoft's powerful video game console, may soon be good for more than just virtual basketball games and war simulations. Company researchers currently are looking to adapt the device to various health care needs, including the transfer and display of electronic medical records.

The Xbox may be used to feed information onto displays in patient rooms, researchers said during a health care technology forum held last week in Beijing. Microsoft also is looking at automating the display of sensitive information based on conditions such as who is in the room. A sensor would tell the device to filter the records as people enter, and the onscreen display would change accordingly.

In addition to streamlining healthcare delivery, the Xbox would serve its original purpose: entertainment for patients and visitors. The company plans to release its Project Natal system, which allows users to control the device with gestures, later this year.

Nextgov has launched the Nextgov Awards, an inaugural program to recognize federal managers who have shepherded a program, policy or management practice that is not only innovative, but bold and brave.

Yes, we know, there are a lot of awards programs in government. But when we asked federal managers and industry executives what is missing, they told us unanimously: No awards recognize federal employees who took on risks -- personal, political and otherwise -- and boldly acted to see their idea to fruition. Or if their idea died, at least they took on entrenched bureaucratic interests in an attempt to make government better through the use of technology.

We invite you to visit our awards page to learn more and to nominate someone who fits the criteria. The technology isn't the reason for the award, but the bold idea must rely on it in some way. And we encourage you to tell us a story about the individuals you nominate. We want you to wow us because we know there are dozens of stories of federal employees trying to improve government and the lives of citizens, but they are up against big odds. Yet, they have acted bravely and with resolve to bring about change. We want to know about them, the drama they faced and the results they achieved. And, of course, the technology they used.

The winners of the Nextgov Awards will be honored at a luncheon at TechWeb's Gov 2.0 Expo in May. (Nextgov is a TechWeb partner for the event.) We'd love to see you there.

More to come.