“In today’s U.S. health care market, speed is a top-ranking priority. In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, health care organizations are looking at ways to get technologies, systems and capabilities to market faster than ever before. But as advancements in technology continue to accelerate, the industry can’t afford to lag behind.”
“’The unfortunate thing with technology is that it atrophies under your feet,’ said Robert Wood, chief information security officer and director of the information security and privacy group for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, during a recent GovCon Wire event. ‘So if you’re not changing, you’re sliding.'”
“At CMS, Wood leads the agency’s batCAVE effort, a continuous authorization and verification engine which, he explains, is ‘about trying to get systems, software development teams to market as fast as humanly possible.'”
“However, a host of elements can create friction in the process of moving something to market in the healthcare sector. Wood cited factors like procurement cycles, identity provisioning, funding, duplicative infrastructure work and ‘getting APIs to talk to you’ as major development slow-downs…”
“In conjunction with optimizing the market delivery process, CMS is also working to simplify information sharing and eliminate data storage roadblocks by breaking down data silos and moving towards a more centralized data strategy…”
“Meanwhile, at the Department of Veterans Affairs, information technology is taking the front seat in a different way. Paul Tibbits, executive director of the Office of Technical Integration for the VA, said the agency’s Office of Information Technology is now on equal footing with the rest of the department in regards to business process decisions.”
“The guiding principle behind this effort, Tibbits shared, is ‘vision-driven IT execution’ — one of the agency’s four primary areas of focus…” Read the full article here.
Source: Health Care Orgs Target Faster Development Processes & IT Team Empowerment in Modernization Push – By Summer Myatt, June 9, 2022. GovConWire.
