Major cultural change is required to reduce the barriers government employees face when trying to share data, according to Department of Health and Human Services Chief Data Officer Nikolaos Ipiotis.

Ipiotis said Tuesday at the AFCEA Bethesda Health IT Summit that potentially lifesaving insights often remain untapped because of the length of time it takes staff and agencies to become comfortable with sharing certain assets…

According to Ipiotis, a key aspect of the challenge is addressing concerns about liability felt by employees spearheading programs that involve the sharing of datasets. Currently, the risks often outweigh the potential rewards for staff.

The technology leader cited HHS’ COVID-19 surveillance program, HHS Protect, which he said was in part successful because giving employees across all HHS agencies visibility of the same data allowed the agency to achieve maximum benefit from the program… Read the full article here.