Officials in the State of Washington are very interested in the response to the “Digital States Survey 2014” that is conducted every two years by the Center for Digital Government and Digital States Performance Institute, a division of eRepublic. Some of the results in the most recent state survey touched on cybersecurity, open data, disaster recovery, cloud computing, healthcare, mobile applications, plus a number of other areas with the information being circulated.
Cybersecurity is a top priority in the state. Information from the Office of the Chief Information Officer reports that (OCIO) has hired additional expertise to provide leadership and is developing contracts for outside expertise to support cybersecurity.
The OCIO oversees the Public Regional Information Security Event Management (PRISEM) system, a regional cyber security monitoring system that extends situational awareness for public sector organizations across the Puget Sound area.
The survey shows that in case of an emergency, state, local, and tribal agencies are able to manage the response and recovery through a shared WebEOC. This web-based tool can be accessed from any device and gives secure, real-time access to details of operation in the local, neighboring jurisdictions and includes regional, state, and national data.
The State was one of the first states to implement an Emergency Services IP Network (ESInet) a core component of next Generation 911. ESINet is now used so 911 centers can back each other up by switching calls when overloaded or down.
Migrating to the cloud requires data to move to different delivery systems which requires sensitive data to be kept secure. The State survey found that cloud computing hosted by external providers such as Microsoft is increasingly cost effective and more secure than in-house data centers.
The State has partnered with Unisys on two different contracts. The first contract is specifically designed for handling sensitive data which requires cloud providers to meet a higher bar of certification, vetting, and reporting. The second contract handles public data and enables agencies to be more innovative without using additional controls and costly protections.
These contracts also enable access to a quickly growing list of over 100 cloud providers. This approach to use several contracts has put the State in a national leadership position so that the cloud can be used by government agencies.
The State’s Health Information Exchange (HIE) allows the Department of Health to send/receive electronic health information to and from hospitals, clinics and individual providers. The prescription monitoring program uses the HIE to enable healthcare providers to immediately receive patient prescription information.
The PRISM system’s web-based clinical decision support application provides care management for high risk Medicaid clients. Longitudinal health information provides a comprehensive view of patient risk factors, service use, and health outcomes. PRISM also uses state-of-the-art predictive modeling to identify patients at greatest risk for high future medical costs.
As for mobile services, OCIO intentionally has few standards for mobile development, allowing department maximum flexibility to rapidly develop or procure apps from vendors that are compatible with their applications environments.
The State expects that the number and kinds of mobile services will be vastly expanded in the next two years due to the Governor’s Lean Management direction coupled with OCIO’s emphasis on agile development and mobility.
Go to www.ocio.wa.gov/about-ocio/digital-states-survey-2014/digital-states-survey-submitted to read the full survey report.