One of the roles that the IDEA Lab and the Office of the CTO perform to serve the HHS community, our stakeholders, and the public, is that of a ‘virtual village square’ to promote engagement of new ideas about how we do the people’s business.
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By Susannah Fox – On his first day in office, President Obama announced administration policies to make government serve the American people better through greater transparency, collaboration, and participation. Known as the federal government’s Open Government Initiative, each agency has developed a plan every other year outlining steps.
By Mona Siddiqui – As a third year medical student, these were the words I heard from the surgical fellow running my team. His message was clear: you have a role and you have your tasks-don’t rock the boat.
By Susannah Fox – Every spring, our team in the HHS IDEA Lab gears up for our biggest event of the year: the Health Datapalooza. It’s an annual celebration of the power of data that was started by my predecessor, Todd Park, in 2010. This year, we were honored to hear from an extraordinary lineup of leaders from private industry, academia and the federal government, including Vice President Biden.
By Susannah Fox – How many times have we heard people say, “If we could put a man on the moon, we can fix XYZ health care problem”? Or: “Hey, it’s not rocket science, right?” So, when I met Dava Newman, the Deputy Administrator at NASA, and began a conversation with her about innovation at our agencies, I was eager to learn how to apply their famous “horizon mission” spirit to health and human services.
By Greg Downing – Founded in 2010, the Health Datapalooza grew from our innovation efforts here, from a very simple belief—if federal government data were made available for innovators to use, new health applications, technology platforms, and services could be created.
By Lisa Simpson – As the new hosts of the annual Health Datapalooza, AcademyHealth will welcome the ‘geekerati’ and ‘glitterati’ of the health data liberation movement to D.C. from May 8-11. Although this is the event’s 7th year, it’s our first as host and I couldn’t be more excited!
By Adam Culbertson – The promise of EHRs is that they will improve quality and lower cost. The basis of this claim is in part due to a presumption of EHR interoperability. Patient matching has been identified as a critical barrier to interoperability. Patient matching refers to the act of accurately linking individuals to their health data located in various disparate electronic health databases.
By Susannah Fox – At HHS, we are working toward transforming our health care system into one that puts individuals at the center. By making prices and quality information more accessible, providing the right tools to help people navigate the system, and listening to patients, we can help engage and empower people to take control of their health, something that’s good for them and good for our communities.