As part of AFCEA Bethesda’s Health IT March Forward Series, a panel of leaders from the Defense Health Agency (DHA) presented the panel “What’s Next After DHA’s Transformation”.
The event Moderator Servio Medina, Branch Chief, Cyber Security Division, DHA DAD l0/J-6, opened the event, by reporting that the pandemic meant that a great deal of effort was required to maintain cyber security and also to increase flexibility.
Panelists discussed major transformation activities due to the pandemic. Col. Daniel Bridon, Chief, of the Portfolio & Resource Management Division (PRMD), DAD l0/J-6, noted that the pandemic really forced the country to make the right decisions as to what actions would be the most effective especially during COVID-19.
This thinking enabled dramatic changes to be made. As he reported, it made it necessary for MHS to use analyzer tools to really understand what is out there and to look seriously at the use of technology and not just look at financial issues.
Colonel Francisco Dominicci, Chief, Solution Delivery Division (SDD), DHA, DAD l0/J-6, stressed the importance of developing partnerships with industry in order to move forward. Also, it is important to be flexible and invest in technology– not only just replace tools. He pointed out, “As soon as the pandemic hit, our teams quickly kicked into high gear to deliver critical updates to our systems and applications. The goal was to try to get to the new normal and not just do damage control.”
He said, “As for telework, the DHA workforce was able to transition to a telework environment after the IT teams were assured that the networks could handle the traffic. The workforce also enabled multiple online collaboration tools to be used such as video conferencing.”
Thomas Hines, Director, Engineering & Technology Transformation, Senior Advisor DADl0/J-6 CIO, reports that systems need to be reliable, response better to specific needs, and the use of cloud computing is vital.
He likes to see innovations developed that will be able to deliver services faster and work with groups to accelerate laboratory capabilities and work towards a zero trust architecture to deal with credential theft, authentication, and authorization. This is especially important for home devices since they have to be uniquely identified.
Mark Goodge, Program Executive Office (PEO) Desktop to Datacenter (D2D), Chief, DHA, l0/J-6, wants to see D2D and the Medical Community of Interest (Med-COI) manage some of the DHA’s most challenging technical projects.
According to Alvaro Rodriquez, Program Manage, Enterprise Information Technology Services (EITS), DHA, DAD l0/J-6, “It is very important to have transparency with industry so that when the feedback is received, the end result is a better product. Since there are many facilities needing technology, it is important to look across the board, remain agile, and then adopt the technology that will reduce overhead.”
All through the pandemic and throughout 2020, DHA’s IT teams responded quickly to patients, provided innovative tools to MHS healthcare providers and to DHA employees, and as a result, they were able to provide high quality healthcare.
Go to https://Bethesda.afceabethesda.org for more information on the Chapter’s Health IT March Forward Series.