“We need to rethink the role of government in these challenging times”, according to Keynoter Aneesh Chopra, Co-Founder and Executive VP at Hunch Analytics and former U.S. Chief Technology Officer, speaking at The Mid-Atlantic Telehealth Resource Center Summit 2014 held March 31-April 1 in Fredericksburg, Virginia.
Chopra wants to see new avenues open up to advance knowledge which means making more government data available to the public to help solve problems. It is no longer possible for data to sit in a printed format and read by a limited number of people. Today, data needs to go to the cloud for storage and in general be more mobile to reach the entire population needing the information.
Secondly, Government along with the private sector needs to collaborate to develop standards if they want to effectively and securely share information. If the right standards are developed than the public will be able to play a greater role in determining what information can be made available to others. For example, let the patient download their own file and then let the patient decide if they want to share the record. In the coming years, it will be very important to empower the individual.
Chopra also suggests that by issuing challenges and prizes to the government and the public, problem solvers will come forward and come up with new ideas that may be able to solve many of the problems facing the country today.
Chopra finished his suggestions by saying that lean startups need to be launched to develop an entrepreneurial culture in government. A good example currently underway is called the Presidential Innovation Fellows program. This is a highly competitive program taking place today that pairs talented diverse individuals from the innovation community with top government officials to help tackle the nation’s biggest challenges.
For more information, go to www.matrc.org.