Defense Health Agency’s Recent Advancements Toward a More Interoperable Future
Modernizing the defense healthcare system has never been more front and center for Defense Health Agency (DHA), the Department of Defense's (DOD) primary arm that manages all things healthcare for military service members and their beneficiaries. With acts of war and terrorism arising from overseas and the possibility of having our troops involved in future conflicts, patient healthcare and service preparedness are top priorities for the agency. So, the DHA is looking to work across federal agencies and industry to strengthen its healthcare systems.
Data Innovations in Healthcare: Sometimes Two Steps Forward Requires One Step Back
Technological innovations in the storage and computing capacity in the world of data has moved exponentially – especially in the healthcare space. One of the most dramatic use cases is in the field of genomics. As Andrea Norris, the CIO for NIH mentioned at a public sector Healthcare Summit on IT Modernization last week, technology has greatly increased the speed and lowered the costs associated with gene sequencing. Originally, when the human genome project completed the task, it took around 13 years with funding around 2.1 billion dollars (the project was from 1990–2003)
Bringing Big Data to the Fight Against Government Benefits Fraud, Waste, and Abuse
The U.S. Government spends trillions of dollars on benefits programs like Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid each year. Unfortunately, billions of those dollars are improperly paid, reducing the benefits to those who most rely upon them. In 2016, the White House estimated these losses at $144B.
Improper payments, fraud, and abuse takes many forms, consider some of these examples of Medicaid fraud and abuse:
[Webinar] Bring BIM to Your Next Veterans Affairs Healthcare Facility Project
The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has long been a proponent of Building Information Modeling (BIM). In 2010, VA issued its Building Information Lifecycle Vision or “BIM Guide” stating its commitment to move the organization and its service providers to BIM “as effectively and efficiently as possible”.
Layered Security Strategies for the Health Sector: An ICIT Briefing
Our very own Chief Cybersecurity Technologist and Institute for Critical Infrastructure Technology (ICIT) fellow, Don Maclean, recently joined fellow fellows Robert Lord (Protenus), John Menkahart (Securonix), Dr. Ron Ross (NIST) and ICIT co-founder and senior fellow, Parham Eftekhari on Capitol Hill to discuss the risks and threats associated with cyber attacks on healthcare facilities.