HealthCast

If there's anything federal technologists can learn from RPA, it's that although it has widespread applicability in many different areas, there are commonalities in overcoming its challenges from which health care leaders can learn. Hear from health and defense leaders on how RPA is enabling mission success.

Jonathan Weiner, founding director of the Johns Hopkins University Center for Population Health IT (CPHIT), discusses the application of big data to safeguard public health and manage care during the COVID-19 pandemic — including his work on the Population Health Segmentation Framework and the ongoing development of the JHU ACG System.

In this episode, Dr. Ryan Vega, executive director of the Veterans Health Administration Innovation Ecosystem (IE), discusses how the IE has been critical for advancing health care and biomedical advances within Veterans Affairs. Vega also discusses the upcoming VA Innovation Experience forum, a digital summit that brings together some of the most promising ideas developed within the IE this year.

Check out this event recap episode on our Oct. 1 Digital Health Modernization virtual event to learn more about what agencies are doing to share data, expand access to health services, and improve patient care with digital health.

To streamline patient access to care during the pandemic, the Department of Veterans Affairs developed a COVID-19 screening tool. Its creators, Presidential Innovation Fellow Dr. Kaeli Yuen and Digital Service Expert Patrick Bateman, outline the motivations behind creating the application, as well as how the VA's recent digital modernization push allowed for rapid programming and deployment of a p...

In this episode, the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute CIO Alastair Thomson explains how his agency is advancing international research related to COVID-19 with an expansive cloud-based ecosystem, called BioData Catalyst. Thomson also touches on how AI can improve patient health outcomes, the importance of diversity in research, agency funding opportunities and partnerships, and more.

Dr. Amy Abernethy, the principal deputy commissioner and acting CIO of the Food and Drug Administration, discusses the FDA's plans to update its data strategy and technology to move with the speed of scientific advancement. She also explains the importance of leveraging innovative technology like AI and blockchain, migrating to the cloud, and public-private partnerships supporting the agency's COV...

If you missed the House Oversight and VA Digital Modernization event this month, catch up with these highlights as federal leaders discuss the tech successes behind the agency's telehealth, electronic health records, customer experience and more during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond.

September is Suicide Prevention Month, and while suicide rates have increased significantly in recent decades and has become one of the leading causes of death in America, the transgender and nonbinary communities are especially at risk for suicidal ideation and attempts. We spoke to Bri Barnett, Director of Development and Interim Director of Communications at Trans Lifeline, a non-profit trans s...

Defense Health's Joint Trauma System built and maintained the Defense Department's Trauma Registry, updating it with data on various trauma injuries and informing best practices across the military health system. Recently, the JTS built out a COVID-19 registry, and we spoke with JTS Chief Col. Stacy Shackelford and Deputy Chief Dr. Mary Ann Spott to learn more about how they scaled to build a COVI...

Veterans Affairs Innovation Ecosystem's entrepreneur-in-residence Danielle Krakora details how the division is supporting the agency's wider COVID-19 response. Krakora has served across VA to elevate the patient experience through technology.

We gathered leading health researchers, data analysts, and AI experts from across the federal government to see how they're using AI for biomedical research and contributing to the pandemic response. Throughout these conversations, officials highlighted that as nice as it is to pedestal the potential of AI technologies, you can't get there without getting a handle on your data first. Here are the...

In this episode, NCI's Center for Global Health Director Satish Gopal discusses how the agency is leading cancer control research, innovative technology efforts and collaborative networks to ensure cancer services are accessible, effective and affordable. 

Dr. Ken Wiley and Dr. Robb Rowley from NIH's National Human Genome Research Institute provide an overview of the agency's eMERGE Network, a national network of medical institutions and clinical sites advancing genomic medicine. The federated network is using large-scale data analytics and informatics on patient DNA and their electronic medical records to improve health outcomes for those with comm...

Dr. Paul Jacobsen details how the National Cancer Institute is using evidence-based research around health care delivery services to improve cancer care. He also discusses the main challenges and opportunities for telehealth, including HIPAA and provider reimbursement policies, regional disparities in broadband internet access, and effectively utilizing remote patient monitoring devices for improv...

With a career beginning at the NIH National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases in 2003, CIO Mike Tartakovsky said the desire to share knowledge and collaborate among researchers, federal agencies and private partners is higher now than he's ever seen before. Tartakovsky discusses various biomedical resources and technological efforts the agency has launched to help researchers access a...

Dr. Joshua Denny has been part of the NIH All of Us research program since its beginning, dedicating his work to improving patient care through the advancement of precision medicine. Since All of Us aims to collect and study health data from at least a million people in the U.S. to advance precision medicine, Denny discusses the role of electronic health records, how the program protects participa...

We're joined by Veterans Affairs Assistant Under Secretary for Health Support Services Deb Kramer and Executive Director at the VA Office of Procurement and Logistics Andrew Centineo to discuss the agency's restructuring of its medical supply chain to meet the abrupt demands of the COVID-19 pandemic, including the broader shift to an enterprise-level model and the application of data analytics to...

Dr. Renee Wegrzyn oversees a variety of programs within DARPA's Biological Technology Office, but her "Detect It with Gene Editing Technologies," or DIGET, program has captured recent attention for its potential in tracking COVID-19 and other pathogenic threats. In this episode, Wegrzyn explains the background and science behind the program, how it can aid in the national response to COVID-19 and...

Dr. Meg Mooney helps coordinate cancer clinical trial networks across the country and internationally, as well as organizes initiatives related to innovative cancer treatment reviews and precision medicine. In this episode, Mooney discusses a new clinical trial study the National Cancer Institute launched for cancer patients with COVID-19 as well as the work being done in drug discovery and develo...

Data-sharing efforts at HHS aim to bring increased collaboration among its subagencies and centers. Sanjay Koyani has been working on these efforts to help agencies be more aware of the common tools to accomplish public health missions in areas like the opioid crisis, the COVID-19 pandemic and more.

Nick Weber leads the NIH's initiative to bring cloud-computing tools to researchers. He discusses cloud's benefits for engaging researchers to collaborate and share valuable data in a secure environment. Part of this effort includes the STRIDES Initiative, which incorporates public-private partnerships to streamline data use.

Dr. Adam Haim from NIH's National Institute of Mental Health discusses digital mental health interventions, research on mobile health applications, and the accelerated adoption of telehealth by patients and providers during the COVID-19 pandemic. This is the third part of a series in recognition of Mental Health Awareness Month.

In part 2 of our series exploring mental health during the coronavirus pandemic, Kelly Blasko, a clinical psychologist and mobile health clinical integration lead for the Defense Health Agency Connected Health branch, discusses developments on apps to provide mental health tools for military health beneficiaries and how they're helping users through the pandemic.  

World-renowned psychiatrist Dr. Nora Volkow discusses how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted those suffering from substance-abuse disorder and drug-related illness, as well as the roles that telehealth and innovative treatment methods play during this time. This is the first part of a series in recognition of Mental Health Awareness Month.