Digital Government
Are VA and Defense Chopped Liver?
That's the assumption I made after viewing today's meeting of the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, which had an in-depth discussion on President Obama's national health IT plan. Somehow they ignored electronic health record systems that cover 9.2 million patients in the Defense Department and another 6.1 million at VA.
Digital Government
Google, Microsoft executives criticize Obama's e-health records plan
Officials want White House to give patients access to their medical records and to focus on managing health data, not on the specifics of the electronic health record.
Digital Government
Defense hands over commercial satellite procurement to GSA
Consolidating purchases worth $5 billion during 10 years could save up to 15 percent in satellite communications costs, according to government officials.
Digital Government
Another Stolen Laptop
Laptops containing personnel information from departments like <a href=http://www.nextgov.com/nextgov/ng_20080301_1011.php>Veterans Affairs</a> and <a href=http://www.govexec.com/mailbagDetails.cfm?aid=34906>Education</a> keep going on unauthorized walks. Now it's the National Guard Bureau's turn, which alerted soldiers on Wednesday of a stolen laptop.
Digital Government
Head of Joint Chiefs bucks social media ban in a Tweet
Adm. Mike Mullen says the right balance between security and transparency needs to be found because Defense cannot ignore social networking tools.
Digital Government
A Social Network Happy Medium
Maj. Gen. Hank Morrow, commander of Air Force North, which is responsible for defending U.S. airspace, thinks a common sense approach to using social network sites such as Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and YouTube can assure security that will allow service members to continue relying on the communications tools.
Digital Government
HHS names Parks as chief technology officer
The co-founder of a physician management software firm says he plans to use data, technology and innovation to improve public health.
Digital Government
McCain: Investigate MHS Contract
Sen. John McCain , R-Ariz., <a href=www.govexec.com/nextgov/0809/mccainRecord.doc>read</a> my entire <a href=http://www.nextgov.com/nextgov/ng_20090729_5415.php>story</a> on the earmarks Adara Networks had received from Sen. Thad Cochran, R-Miss., for work on Military Health System information technology projects. He then called on the Senate floor for a full investigation of those contracts, something the Defense Department <a href=http://www.nextgov.com/nextgov/ng_20090728_3448.php>inspector general is doing</a>.
Digital Government
Air Force checked blogs, Twitter to gauge New Yorkers' anger about flyover
Service learned by monitoring blogs and Tweets that the public's reaction to the photo shoot of Air Force One over the Statue of Liberty in April was 'nasty.'
Digital Government
VA Claim in Appeal? Wait 639 Days
That's what Daniel Bertoni, director of education, workforce, and income security at the Government Accountability Office, <a href=http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d09910t.pdf>told</a> the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee this week on the need to improve how the department processes a growing mountain of disability claims.
Digital Government
Army awards contracts to build sophisticated supply chain network
The Automatic Identification Technology IV contract covers the supply of hardware such as bar code printers and scanners and Wi-Fi gear to network a range of systems.
Digital Government
Social Networking Vulnerabilities
The Defense Department has started to analyze the vulnerabilities of social networking sites and Web 2.0 technologies such as Facebook and Twitter, Pentagon spokesman Air Force Lt. Col. Eric Butterbaugh said in a statement.
Digital Government
The Senator, Adara and Lost Rabbit
As I <a href=http://www.nextgov.com/nextgov/ng_20090729_5415.php>reported</a> on Wednesday, Sen. Thad Cochran, R-Miss, has earmarked just more than $5 million for Adara Networks to work on information technology projects at the Military Health System and has another $10 million pending earmark for Adara in the fiscal 2010 Defense appropriations bill.
Digital Government
GSA, DISA To Make Nice On Satcom?
Over the past decade federal agencies have been able to buy commercial satellite communication services through either <a href=http://www.gsa.gov/Portal/gsa/ep/contentView.do?contentType=GSA_OVERVIEW&contentId=18882>General Services Administration contracts</a> or those <a href=http://www.disa.mil/satcom/sco/index.html>managed by the Defense Information Systems Agency.</a>
Digital Government
Company won earmarked funds for work on military health records
Defense employee has alleged that Adara Networks received software code in advance of winning sole-source contract.
Digital Government
House Hot About 'Propaganda' Info Ops
The Defense Department's budget for information operations - that's everything from plain vanilla public affairs to targeted messages and canned 'news stories" to influence audiences in Iraq and Afghanistan - has jumped a hundred fold in the past four years, from $9 million in 2005 to what the House Appropriations Committee called a "staggering" $988 million budget request for fiscal 2010.
Digital Government
Employee: Military Health System was unethical in awarding contract
Internal e-mails allege top officials provided a technology company with software code and documents for the military's massive electronic health record system and awarded it a contract without competition.
Digital Government
The $1.2 billion Health SOA
That's how much funding the House Appropriations Committee <a href=http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=111_cong_reports&docid=f:hr230.111.pdf>estimated</a> the Military Health System will need in the next two years to develop a Services Oriented Architecture to create interoperability between the electronic health record systems operated by the Defense Department and the one maintained by the Veterans Affairs Department.
Digital Government
House pushes Defense to change comm network in Afghanistan
Committee withholds $20 million from budget to push DISA to move from satellite-based to fiber-optic network.
Digital Government