GovCIO Media & Research Podcasts

The health sector faces many challenges that technology has the potential to alleviate including workforce burden, staffing shortages, cybersecurity challenges and data management struggles. Much of that can see improvements with smart uses of artificial intelligence and virtual care, according to NTT DATA Chief Health Informatics Officer Heather Hudnall at the HIMSS conference in Orlando, Florida...

The Department of Veterans Affairs is setting in motion new artificial intelligence strategies in light of the White House's executive order to prioritize ethical AI development. At HIMSS in Orlando, Florida, VA Deputy CTO for AI Kimberly McManus highlights the four areas the agency is taking a closer look at: governance, prior use cases, infrastructure and workforce. McManus cites the Veterans He...

Deputy National Coordinator for Health IT Steven Posnack discusses a few updates to data sharing and interoperability rules for the health IT community, including HTI-1, HTI-2, United States Core Data for Interoperability (USCDI) and Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement (TEFCA). As organizations work to adopt new interoperability standards and policies, artificial intelligence is showin...

Artificial intelligence is a key focus at the HIMSS conference in Orlando, Florida, where Department of Health and Human Services Chief AI Officer Greg Singleton discusses his vision for the technology at the agency. Singleton gives us a glimpse at the key parts that make up the CAIO role as agencies are putting in place their strategies to meet the White House's 2023 AI executive order directing...

Taking big-picture technology concepts and integrating them into practice is a key focus for Dr. Paul Tibbits, executive director of technical integration at the Department of Veterans Affairs. At the HIMSS conference in Orlando, Florida, Tibbits discusses how he sees technology like digital twins and artificial intelligence impacting the health care experience. Tibbits gives a glimpse into what's...

Open-source data and artificial intelligence are poised to transform the health care landscape. Andrea Fletcher, chief digital strategy officer at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), aims to leverage and inject human-centered design into these concepts as the agency explores their potential for improving the quality of health care services and keep data secure in heightened threa...

Mitigating cross sector risks and recognizing vulnerabilities in the supply chain remain top priorities for the National Risk Management Center (NRMC) at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. NRMC Assistant Director Mona Harrington said the team of experts is responsible for creating realistic and actionable recommendations to manage risk to the global information and communication...

The Pentagon is undergoing a robust plan to create a foundation for its AI-enabled capabilities that include data infrastructure and management, platforms, processes and, of course, people. Leading this charge is the Chief Digital and AI Office (CDAO), which is working toward a number of deliverables this year around many of these aspects. CDAO Digital Talent Management Office Chief Angela Cough d...

The National Cancer Institute is utilizing a host of new technologies to diagnose and detect cancer thanks to its Innovative Molecular Analysis Technologies (IMAT) and Informatics Technology for Cancer Research (ITCR) programs. These programs are developing methods that are enhancing cancer research, including artificial intelligence. Dr. Kelly Crotty, program director for NCI's Center for Strateg...

Partnerships play a critical part of the innovation work across the Defense Department. The complex global threat landscape, in both the kinetic and cybersecurity domains, requires partnerships to solve some of the most pressing national security challenges. Assistant Deputy Chief of Naval Operations for Information Warfare Jennifer Edgin discussed at AFCEA West the ways her office is leveraging p...

The U.S. Marine Corps is in the middle of modernizing its networks into a single enterprise network to improve identity management and services. The team is upgrading software and hardware to improve latency and cybersecurity, and is leveraging artificial intelligence as part of these modernization plans. At AFCEA West, Shery Thomas, cyber technology officer at the Marine Corps Forces Cyberspace C...

Metrics are critical to assessing a contract's or program's success in IT procurement at the Navy. Measuring success can be difficult without these clear parameters. Justin Fanelli, acting CTO at the Department of the Navy and technical director at Navy PEO Digital and Enterprise Services, discussed with us at AFCEA West the ways in which the Navy is measuring program success. He said when a progr...

Leveraging the next generation's digital skill sets, comfort with technology and innovation is key to the Marine Corps' vision for its future software-savvy workforce. Lt. Col. Charlie Bahk, director of the Marine Corps Software Factory launched last year, tells GovCIO Media and research at AFCEA West that "all you have to do is just kind of get out of the way a little bit." Bahk also discusses th...

The Navy's systems and data operations exist in a challenging environment that requires strong identity management to secure threats,  partnerships across the Defense Department and technology innovation. At AFCEA West, Navy CIO Jane Rathbun discusses how the service is avoiding common pain points in modernization and introducing more structure, data and flexibility. She also highlights how the se...

The Defense Department is undergoing largescale modernization efforts that require close attention to building the infrastructure that delivers information quickly, but also securely. Digital transformation in government requires a mindset that considers all aspects of the organization, partners and stakeholders. While at AFCEA West in San Diego, Equinix Senior Director of Segment Marketing for th...

Cyber threats from China have been the subject of recent high-profile Congressional hearings lately. Analyst Jack Corrigan from Georgetown University's Center for Security and Emerging Technology (CSET) spoke to the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission Feb. 1 about the risks that Chinese information and communications technology and services (ICTS) have on U.S. national security and...

Last month the National Science Foundation (NSF) launched the National Artificial Intelligence Research Resource (NAIRR) pilot to encourage AI cooperation and innovation as part of the White House's executive order to advance AI. The pilot comprises a partnership with 10 federal agencies and 19 industry organizations. Tess deBlanc-Knowles, NSF's special assistant to the director for AI, joins GovC...

The White House's Better Contracting Initiative aims to ensure the federal government is getting the best prices on services through acquisition. The government spent more than $77 billion dollars on federal IT contracting last year, so saving money for government and ultimately taxpayers is among one of the initiative's top priorities. Laura Stanton, assistant commissioner for the Office of Infor...

President Joe Biden's executive order on artificial intelligence requires agencies to name chief artificial intelligence officers (CAIO). Some agencies with longstanding AI experience have named CAIOs, while others are still in the process of naming their officials. Managing Editor Ross Gianfortune and Staff Writer/Researcher Jordan McDonald analyze the state of CAIOs and the future of AI official...

The U.S. Digital Corps started out as an idea to help strengthen the federal tech workforce and was borne in August 2021 out of a collaboration between the White House, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and General Services Administration's Technology Transformation Services to transform hiring tech talent. Since then, it has placed more than 80 early-career tech and cybersec...

The Department of Homeland Security is developing a new workforce plan to bring in technical talent through initiatives like a new IT Academy. Executive Director of IT Operations Chris Granger discusses how these efforts and more are part of a broader plan at DHS to improve its services make them more equitable and accessible. Granger dives into the agency's strategic plan for the next four years...

CISA's "secure by design" framework is helping software manufacturers bake cybersecurity into products as part of an effort to implement the National Cyber Strategy that the White House released earlier this year. Cybersecurity has traditionally been treated as an afterthought in technology. CISA wants to change that. CISA Senior Advisor Lauren Zabierek discusses what it means to be secure by desi...

GovCast had a banner year in 2023, featuring dozens of interviews with federal IT leaders, officials and experts. We take a look back at the year's work around AI, zero-trust implementation and many other issues and topics facing all IT staffs throughout government. On this year-end episode of GovCast, Managing Editor Ross Gianfortune, and Staff Writers Jayla Whitfield and Jordan McDonald as they...

Former Federal Deputy CTO Jennifer Pahlka who helped found the U.S. Digital Service and other major technology programs like the Presidential Innovation Fellows has ideas for how government can leverage the opportunities in technology to advance critical services for the public. Often there is a gap between policy and implementation, especially in digital government, which can slow down modernizat...

This episode we're diving into some defense technology perspectives, specifically for the Indo-Pacific region. We recently had the opportunity to connect with leaders at the AFCEA TechNet Indo-Pacific conference in Honolulu where they shared how they're thinking about the quickly changing landscape and what it means for defense programs, software factories, cloud modernization and data centricity....