Digital Government

A Galaxy of Cyber Four Stars?

The Army and Air Force CIOs -- Lt. Gen. Jeffrey A. Sorenson and Lt Gen William L. Shelton -- would only get a one-star bump. But since Allen is a one star, BG, this could mean a three-star jump for him -- unless some folks don't think the Marines qualify as a fill-fledged service because they are part of the Navy.

Cybersecurity

Decentralized Defense networks open to cyberattacks, report says

Task force calls for creation of departmentwide, interoperable systems and a netcentric cyber council.

Digital Government

NSA, Margaret Mead and Green

When you think about organizations celebrating Earth Day - today, April 22 - the National Security Agency does not immediately come to mind.

Digital Government

The Long Road to Acquisition Reform

In 1994 then Sen. William Cohen released a report titled "Computer Chaos: Billions Wasted Buying Federal Computer Systems." The report resonates even today with the release this month of a Defense Science Board <a href=http://www.acq.osd.mil/dsb/reports/2009-04-IT_Acquisition.pdf>report</a> calling for the Defense Department to reform its information technology acquisition practices.

Digital Government

Smaller, quicker IT development needed for Defense systems

New acquisition process would allow department to improve interoperability and integration issues as networks are built, science board reports.

Digital Government

IG On VA/SPAWAR Contract Mess

I have picked up some pretty good intelligence that the VA inspector general has just finished a report detailing mismanagement of contracts that the department's IT shop farmed out to the Space and Naval Systems Center.

Digital Government

Update: VA Patient Scheduling Debacle

The Veterans Affairs Department plans to conduct a "rigorous four moth review of potential options" for its long delayed $167 million <a href=http://www.nextgov.com/nextgov/ng_20090331_5665.php>patient scheduling system</a>, which crashed last month, a VA press secretary told me.

Digital Government

Proposed breach notification rule would affect more health vendors

Microsoft and Google's health records programs, iPhone applications and monitoring devices connected to the Internet would be subject to notification guidelines.

Digital Government

Demonizing Veterans, DHS' Deja vu

In July 1975, I wrote an <a href=http://digital.lib.lehigh.edu/trial/vietnam/r1/1975/>article</a> for TV Guide that started:

Digital Government

Military doctors blast new system to track wounded soldiers in Iraq

Clinicians are frustrated by long delays to access information and frequently must look for multiple files on one patient to gather a complete report on battle injuries.

Digital Government

Gulf War Vet for Top VA Health Post?

I'm picking up strong signals that the Obama administration may tap <a href=http://www.iwu.edu/ondra.shtml>Dr. Stephen Ondra</a>, professor of neurological surgery at the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University in Chicago, as the new under secretary for health at the Veterans Health Administration.

Digital Government

Veterans Affairs begins evaluating bids for $150 million imaging contract

Winning contractor will have a labor-intensive job scanning and digitally storing about 25 million pages of files.

Digital Government

No Worries About Chinese Hackers

While the intelligence community has uncovered evidence of Chinese penetration of U.S. banking networks, Joel Brenner, national counterintelligence executive, said he's not worried "that the Chinese government wants to bring down our banking system."

Digital Government

No More 'Off the Cuff' Budgets

Households and businesses run on rigorous budgets, but the Defense Department doesn't. During the past six years, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said the department follows what he described on Monday as an "off the cuff" budget approach, to fund essential stuff such as intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance systems, mine-resistant vehicles and medical care for wounded soldiers.

Digital Government

Defense, VA should convert old code to build new record system

Vendors claim changing software that runs electronic health records systems into Java language would cost a fraction the price of creating joint system.

Digital Government

Coming: A Bigger NMCI Mailbox

Navy Marine Corps Intranet users have repeatedly complained about the storage limitations of the intranet's e-mail system ever since the Navy and EDS (now owned by Hewlett-Packard) started to roll it out nine years ago.

Digital Government

Army medical center successfully tests health records system

Pilot project allows patients to access personal records in Defense systems through Google, Microsoft portals.

Digital Government

An Embarrassing AHLTA Outage

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Digital Government

Obama backs joint VA-Defense electronic health records

Two departments have been working on and off for decades on common standards.