Michael J. Keegan

Best Apps in Government. NextGov reports: ”At trade group ACT-IAC’s second annual Mobility Application Fair, agencies such as the Federal Communications Commission and the Small Business Administration competed for titles including ‘Most Innovative App.’” And the winners are . . . {see link} DOD: Not Ready for Sequestration? Federal News Radio reports that the Government Accountability Office has issued a new report warning the Defense Department that it hasn’t adequately summed up lessons learned from the 2013 sequester, in order to be prepared if it were to happen again.

Deconstructing Chief Data Officers. Federal News Radio is running a series of articles around the new role of agency chief data officers – who they are, what they do, and where do they fit with agency Chief Information and Chief Technology Officers? Part 1: Finding a balance in the pantheon of “chiefs” Part 2: An interview with DJ Patil, the White House’s first “chief data scientist.” More installments to come! 18F Pushes Plain Language.

A clear strategic focus and sound management are essential to the effective stewardship of taxpayer dollars, enabling agency decision makers to make tough choices on a day-to-day basis and for long-term management challenges. Given the critical challenges facing government today, the ability of government executives to properly align mission support functions with mission delivery can help them respond more effectively to their mission and management challenges simultaneously, as well as drive change within their department. The U.S.

Prairie Dog Companions? A Federal News Radio online survey “shows feds are happiest when they work in offices where they can close their doors. Cubicles and open spaces with little separating them from colleagues are a recipe for distraction and lower productivity, they say. ‘My colleagues just pop up like prairie dogs and ask me questions all day,’ said one respondent.” Do Lessons from IRS Scandal Apply?

Since its inception the US Department of Homeland Security, DHS, has undertaken numerous reviews and reorganizations in an ongoing effort to increase the department's efficiency and effectiveness in managing its wide ranging complex mission set. In April of 2014, Secretary of Homeland Security Jed Johnson directed DHS leadership to make several key changes to "transparently incorporate" DHS components into unified decision making process and the analytic efforts that inform decision making.

Doubt haunts federal employees following OPM data breaches, survey shows. Federal employees and other security-clearance holders do not trust the Office of Personnel Management to protect victims of the hacks on its databases, an exclusive Federal News Radio survey shows. Yet they’ll accept the agency’s credit- and identity-protection services. Moreover, they’ll continue to give OPM their sensitive personal information if it means they’ll keep their security clearances. VA’s impending shutdown to impact nearly all of its hospitals.

Hope for the DATA Act. Hudson Hollister, the head of the Data Transparency Coalition, was interviewed by Federal News Radio on his take of the status of the implementation of the DATA Act, which requires regular reporting of financial transactions by each federal agency on at least a quarterly basis. He shared his frustration, but also some hope. Later that day, GAO testified on the Act’s implementation and noted progress, but more needs to be done.

Report Slams VA Over Health Care Enrollment System Backlog. A Department of Veterans Affairs Office of Inspector General report finds that the Veterans Health Administration's enrollment system in 2014 had about 867,000 pending records, 35% of which were for deceased veterans. OIG says VHA's Health Eligibility Center is not successfully managing data, causing a significant backlog and limiting access to care. Modern Healthcare et al Cyber drawbridges, medical device data and more.

HIMSS Releases Top Health IT Policy Priorities for Congress. The Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society has published its annual "congressional asks," naming interoperability, cybersecurity and telehealth as the top policy priorities that lawmakers should address in the next year. Healthcare IT News, Politico's "Morning eHealth." ONC: Rate of EHR Replacements Among Providers Up Significantly. New data show that the percentage of eligible professionals and hospitals that switched electronic health record vendors quadrupled between meaningful use program years 2013 and 2014.