Digital Government
VA, Kaiser to exchange digital patient data
The Veterans Affairs Department and health care provider Kaiser Permanente are collaborating to share patient medical data electronically, starting in December.
Modernization
Could mobile technology have stopped state dinner security breach?
Some IT specialists say better communications among security forces could foil attempts to sneak into White House events, but others say nothing will fix human error.
Ideas
Open Government Directive?
Remember the open government directive - the guidance that President Obama on his first day in office <a href="http://www.eda.gov/PDF/Memo_PresidentObama_FOIA.pdf">memoed</a> his administration about. He said he wanted recommendations by May 21 for regulations -- to be issued by the Office of Management and Budget -- that would put the principles of transparency, collaboration and participation in government into practice.
Digital Government
Following Your Tweets
There's an interesting <a href="http://www.govloop.com/profiles/blogs/following-your-employees-on">conversation</a> going on at GovLoop about whether it's OK for an agency's official Twitter account to follow the personal Twitter accounts of its employees. Some private sector companies follow their own employees' accounts, which can help promote the idea of being more transparent and open. But it also could raise some concern for employee privacy as well as an agency's public affairs strategy.
Digital Government
Giving Some Thanks on Thanksgiving
Tomorrow is Thanksgiving, so I'm going to doff my grump hat and thank the folks who make this column possible, starting with some really fine military public affairs officers.
Ideas
If at First You Don't Succeed . . .
Maine has to have one of the longest running system-development sagas going. In 2001, the state awarded a contract to CNSI to build a Medicaid claims processing system. After numerous delays and cost overruns, Maine turned the system on in January 2005. The system immediately began <a href=http://www.cio.com/article/20133/Maine_s_Medicaid_Mistakes>misreading claims</a>, resulting in millions of dollars worth of medical bills that doctors and hospitals field to go unpaid.
Digital Government