The Armed Forces Communications Electronics Association (AFCEA) Bethesda Chapter https://Bethesda.afceachapters.org held the first of a series of panel discussions at their 13th Annual Health IT March Forward Event on March 2, 2021.
The discussion moderated by James Hanson, Next Gov held March 2, 2021, was an opportunity to hear from federal leaders about today’s digital health IT innovations and their predictions on future trends.
Perryn Ashmore Chief Information Officer at HHS reported that HHS has been investing in remote technology since most employees are working at home. He went on to say that the plan is to meet the challenges for interoperability to not only provide more efficient information to the public, but also to enable more effective interaction within HHS to deal with the crisis and beyond. As he emphasized, going forward, the future will involve improving data along with IT.
As for telework and telehealth, Dominic Cussatt, Acting Assistant Secretary for IT, Chief Information Officer at the VA, reports that VA’s networks across the U.S are effectively caring for veterans by supporting telework to help all veterans during the pandemic.
He said, “One important step taken was to place reliance on the cloud infrastructure which meant purchasing new equipment and deploying the equipment out to clinicians and the population in the field. What really helped was having vendors step up to help provide services rapidly.”
He reports, as for telehealth, previously not everyone wanted the technology used as clinicians and doctors were used to having robust encounters with patients. Before the pandemic, the VA took care of 2,500 patients via telehealth and today, the VA is taking care of 45,000 per day with this figure is continuing to grow.
Thomas Flanders MSH Chief Information Officer at the Defense Health Agency (DHA), pointed out that virtual health needs to have scheduling and patient records integrated into the system. He noted that there are still barriers moving forward and that the pandemic has slowed down innovation, but having people work remotely has made it essential to produce a cloud based internet structure.
As Andrea Norris, NIH, Director for IT and Chief Information Officer explained, there have been big operational changes at the agency. She explained that everyone was teleworking except for scientists that need to work in the labs especially when conducting research on COVID.
However, she reports that virtual sessions moving forward do not always operate 100% efficiently, but in general, virtual sessions are favorably received and the agency is able to work effectively both internally and externally.
She pointed out that data used in the sciences has changed with the use of new technologies. Today, vast amount of data sets are generated at a relatively low cost. Two big data initiatives at NIH include obtaining data from the Brain Initiative at NIH which is mapping the brain and using data to address all aspects of mental health illnesses. The goal is to move data to the Cloud which offers opportunity and accessibility to open data to all at NIH plus other researchers and scientists.
Rajiv Uppal, Director of the Office of IT and CIO at CMS reports that there have been operational and business changes due to the pandemic. The changes include expanding Medicare and telehealth capabilities plus investing long term in new technologies.
In addition, people stepped up during the crisis and as a result, there was a breakdown of barriers and silos resulting in great collaboration. Today, people are able to work remotely and engage with each other using new tools such as Zoom and other tools.
HEALTH IT March Forward will have further discussions on March 16, Defense Health Agency Day, March 23 VA Day, and March 30 Acquisition and Public Health Day. For information or to register, go to https://bethesda.afceachapters.org.