Keeping IT Brief

Global geopolitical changes, weather, health and macroeconomics play a part in managing our everyday supply chain. Addressing these factors while accounting for operational agency challenges are becoming a critical part of a supply chain practitioners job. Gaps in reliable, complete data, integrated analysis, undocumented risk assessment procedures, and unclear roles and responsibilities are contributing factors to a vulnerable supply chain risk management program. Elizabeth (“Beth”) Van Absher, Director of the NIH Division of Logistics Services (DLS), and Moshe Nelson, Partner in Guidehouse’s Defense & Security Segment, provide public and private sector perspectives on how we can collectively further supply chain resilience.

Elizabeth Van Absher, Director of Logistics Services and Supply Chain Management, National Institutes of Health (NIH)
Elizabeth "Beth" Van Absher is the director of Logistics Services and Supply Chain Management at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) overseeing $1.9B worth of accountable personal property, fleet, and the NIH Supply Center (NIHSC). The NIHSC is the agency’s priority source for laboratory, fire, safety, and administrative supplies, and is the agency’s mandated source for personal protective equipment (PPE). Van Absher is the lead for the NIH Supply Chain Risk Management (SCRM) Council, in addition to serving as the agency representative on the HHS SCRM. She is a critical driver of good for government outcomes, ensuring supply chain stability through strategic sourcing, enterprise data sharing, collaboration, and modernization.

Van Absher is an integral part of the NIH and HHS teams to implement the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act Public Law 117-58, collaborating across acquisitions, policy, HHS agencies and suppliers to ensure compliance with IIJA. Beth was also the lead for the PPE Plan of Action under Section 708 of the Defense Production Act in Response to COVID-19, during which the NIH Supply Center provided critical PPE to national intake sites on behalf of HHS to volunteers, children, families, and refugees. She also served as the agency lead for nitrile glove enterprise sourcing on behalf of HHS’s BuySmarter program.

Moshe Nelson, Partner Guidehouse
Bio: Moshe has provided supply chain management strategy, technology, and analytics across the public and private sector for nearly twenty years. As a result, clients have reduced operating costs by over $300M, fielded advanced technologies in an efficient and effective manner, and established accountable and data driven means for critical lifecycle supply chain management. Moshe has supported the health, defense, homeland security, diplomatic, and infrastructure arenas to improve supply chain resiliency across the United States.

Guidehouse
Guidehouse is a leading global provider of consulting services to the public sector and commercial markets, with broad capabilities in management, technology, and risk consulting. By combining our public and private sector expertise, we help clients address their most complex challenges and navigate significant regulatory pressures focusing on transformational change, business resiliency, and technology-driven innovation. Across a range of advisory, consulting, outsourcing, and digital services, we create scalable, innovative solutions that help our clients outwit complexity and position them for future growth and success.

As of January 1, 2024, CMS implemented new policies for addressing health-related social needs (HRSN) to proactively treat and better understand the needs of our country's most underserved and chronically ill populations. These policies will support physicians that help patients identify and connect with the appropriate clinical and community resources to address unmet HRSN that may influence a patient's treatment.

Today we speak with Kamala Green, social drivers of health program manager at National Government Services, and we discuss as social, economic, and physical factors affecting patient health evolve and diversify, it's important that federal health agencies continue to prioritize health equity practices and initiatives to provide the highest quality of care possible for every citizen.

Kamala Green, social drivers of health program manager at National Government Services, an Elevance Health Company
In her current position as the Social Drivers of Health Program Manager at National Government Services, Kamala assists with strategic design, implementation and evaluation of social drivers of health initiatives, where she partners to recommend initiatives related to unmet social needs, such as food, housing, legal support and income. Since joining NGS in November 2021, Kamala is instrumental in level setting and shaping the agenda for health equity and the social drivers of health (SDOH), specifically for Medicare.

National Government Services
For more than 50 years, National Government Services has been empowering federal healthcare agencies to improve lives and communities and deliver care to millions of Americans through outcome-driven innovation. The company helps bridge the technology gap to make IT an enabler of healthcare, not an obstacle to operations. Its core business areas include digital health, providing federal IT solutions and services for healthcare, and business process solutions. This includes its role as a Medicare contractor for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.

The AIM-AHEAD program mission is to enhance the participation of underrepresented communities in the development of AI/ML models. The program improves the capabilities of this emerging technology, beginning with electronic health records (EHR) and extending to other diverse data to address health disparities and inequities.Today we speak with the CEO and Founder of stackArmor Gaurav "GP" Pal on their program.

Gaurav “GP” Pal, CEO and Founder of stackArmor
Gaurav “GP” Pal, CEO and Founder, has over 20 years of IT consulting experience with large US Government, Defense, and Commercial Organizations driving cloud adoption and implementing NIST security standards for FedRAMP, FISMA, and DFARS/CMMC 2.0 compliance.

GP’s countless industry and government relationships led stackArmor to establish an AI Risk Management Center of Excellence (CoE), comprised of former prominent federal government technology experts, including Maria Roat, Suzette Kent and Richard Spires. stackArmor and its CoE work closely with government to ensure safe AI adoption.

stackArmor
stackArmor provides FedRAMP, StateRAMP, DOD CC SRG, FISMA/RMF, and CMMC/DFARS compliance acceleration services on leading hyperscale cloud providers. stackArmor’s ATO for AI™ and ThreatAlert® ATO Accelerator Security Platform reduces the time and cost of an ATO by 40%. We serve enterprise customers in Defense, Aerospace, Space, Government, and Healthcare markets as well as ISV’s looking to offer cloud solutions for Government.

Enhancing performance, readiness, and resilience for service members and their families is paramount for several reasons. First and foremost, optimized performance ensures military effectiveness, which is critical for national defense. Next, readiness that encompasses whole health, preparedness, and skill development ensures that service members have what they need for rapid response to evolving threats. Finally, building resilience to maintain their well-being is crucial for coping with the unique challenges faced by military service members and their families. Today, Kevin Kaiser, serving as Division Manager, Performance and Readiness at Leidos, takes a look at how improved performance, readiness, and resilience not only contributes to mission success, but also enhances the overall quality of life – reinforcing the military's capability to navigate dynamic scenarios while prioritizing the physical, mental, and emotional welfare of those dedicated to serving their nation.

Kevin Kaiser serves as Division Manager, Performance and Readiness at Leidos and has 30 years of experience managing and executing tasks on military health contracts in the areas of performance, readiness, and research involving more than 1,400 employees supporting dozens of programs across the United States and international locations. Kaiser graduated from UCLA in 1992 with a bachelor’s degree in biology and then earned a master’s degree in public health at San Diego State University in 1994, with a concentration in epidemiology and biostatistics.

Today we speak with Amanda Warfield. Amanda currently leads the Optum Serve program integrity practice, overseeing support and integration of key IT capabilities and solutions for Federal agencies.

Amanda Warfield
Amanda manages a portfolio of projects supporting agencies across the Department of Health and Human Services, and the Department of Veterans Affairs, while supporting growth and strategic direction for the organization. She also spearheads Optum Serve’s internal research and development investments in cutting edge technologies and solutions designed to meet emerging federal needs. Her works includes fostering collaboration across Optum’s enterprise, identifying opportunities for private to public partnerships to solve problems. Amanda has worked with Federal government clients for more than a decade in designing and implementing approaches to tackle key challenges like fraud, waste, and abuse in federal programs. She holds a master’s degree in communication management and is certified in SAFe agile, and a certified Project Management Professional (PMP).


Optum Serve
As the federal health services business of Optum and UnitedHealth Group, Optum Serve offers federal agencies the robust health IT solutions that have proven successful at one of the largest health care organizations in the world — UnitedHealth Group. Our unrivaled health care knowledge combined with our end-to-end technology allows us to be a unique and reliable partner.

The healthcare sector is ramping up activity regarding its implementation of AI technology. Recently, the American Hospital Association expressed support for a “sector-specific” approach to AI regulations to both mitigate patient risk and allow organizations to harness the potential of these technologies. The following week, the NSA launched the AI Security Center to lead AI security protocols, analyzing its effect on U.S. hospitals and health systems.

As healthcare organizations continue to adopt AI solutions into their operational workflows, it’s imperative that the benefits and risks are thoroughly analyzed, and proper security regulations are in place to protect patient data while providing the highest quality of care available.

Judy Jiao, Chief Information Officer at National Government Services, an Elevance Health Company
Judy Jiao serves as the Chief Information Officer at National Government Services. She’s leading the organization through a digital transformation based on human-centered design, which is in alignment with the government’s path to modernization. With over 20 years of experience in the health care industry, she’s driven by her passion to help people improve their health conditions. Judy takes pride in providing the best business technology solutions possible to advance the effectiveness and quality of health care.

National Government Services
For more than 50 years, National Government Services has been empowering federal healthcare agencies to improve lives and communities and deliver care to millions of Americans through outcome-driven innovation. The company helps bridge the technology gap to make IT an enabler of healthcare, not an obstacle to operations. Its core business areas include digital health, providing federal IT solutions and services for healthcare, and business process solutions. This includes its role as a Medicare contractor for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.

Is AI gearing up to take over the world? Today we talk with Art Villanueva theChief AI/ML Technology Architect atDell Federal Strategic Programs about the types of AI and what he sees for the future.


Art Villanueva
Chief AI/ML Technology Architect
Dell Federal Strategic Programs
Dr. Art Villanueva is the Chief AI/ML Technology Architect for Dell Technologies’ Federal Strategic Programs where he advises, evangelizes, and molds Dell Federal’s posture in the rapidly evolving world of artificial intelligence.

Prior to Dell, Dr. Villanueva’s experience spanned multiple other industries. In the Defense sector, he served as Chief Architect for billion-dollar programs at Northrop Grumman. In the public transportation arena, he led systems engineering activities for large-scale city-wide transportation systems at Cubic. Dr. Villanueva was a successful entrepreneur, having co-founded two startups in the sustainable energy industry, one now publicly trading on NASDAQ.

Dr. Villanueva is an inventor, holding utility patents and publishing peer-reviewed papers. He holds a D.Eng. degree in Systems Engineering from Colorado State University, specializing in meta-algorithmics for natural language processing, an M.A.S. degree in Architecture-based Enterprise Systems Engineering from UCSD, and a B.S. degree in Applied Mathematics with a Specialization in Computing from UCLA.

Dell Technologies
Dell Technologies is a global technology leader, with a strong commitment to advancing artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) solutions both through internal research and development and strategic partnerships. Leveraging their extensive expertise in hardware, software, and services, Dell Technologies empowers organizations to harness the full potential of AI and ML to solve their most challenging use cases.

Dell offers a comprehensive portfolio of AI-ready infrastructure, including powerful servers and storage solutions designed to accelerate AI workloads. Dell also collaborates with leading AI partners, resulting in innovative and tailored solutions for various industries, from healthcare, energy, defense, and virtually any other industry.

Dell ensures that customers have access to cutting-edge AI technologies and expertise, enabling them to unlock new insights and drive digital transformation. Their commitment to AI ethics and responsible AI development underscores their dedication to delivering ethical and secure AI implementations in collaboration with their trusted partners.

The public focus of EHR modernization has been on configuring a commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) solution that blends all the requirements that are unique to the VA with a system that is widely used in the commercial sector. But equally or even more importantly, the VA needs to continue to invest in, maintain, and upgrade its current EHR – the Veterans Health Information System Technology Architecture (VistA).

Today we discuss these insights which are from a recent Federal News Network guest article authored by David Whitmer, FACHE, vice president for federal operations at DSS Inc. David also discusses how no matter what the outcome of the COTS solution, VistA will remain the vital backbone of VA operations.



David Whitmer, FACHE, Vice President for Federal Operations at DSS Inc.

Mr. Whitmer is the Vice President, Federal Operations at DSS Inc., and is a board-certified healthcare executive with 30 years of public health experience at the National Institutes of Health and the Veterans Health Administration, including 20 years in C-suite positions, and 10 years as member of the Senior Executive Service.

DSS Inc.
Document Storage Systems, Inc. (DSS) is a catalyst for health care innovation, keeping pace with evolving technologies as a solutions provider, systems integrator, and services contractor to the Department of Veterans Affairs. DSS is committed to assisting VA in its High Reliability Organization journey and delivering care quality for Veterans by meeting top initiatives, changing regulatory requirements, and implementing enhanced business transformation across VA enterprise.

As the federal government makes continuous strides toward modernizing health IT programs, such as the federal EHR program, healthcare organizations have become a prime target for cybercriminals given the incredible volume of sensitive data and digitized patient records.

At the same time, healthcare agencies must have the ability to share, access and analyze critical data to support projects focused on population health and patient journey or patient experience.

Today we talk to Mark Mellott, Executive VP of DOD and VA at iTech AG, to discuss:

• The essential role cybersecurity strategies play in federal healthcare initiatives and why it's essential for sensitive topics/data.
• Steps for overcoming barriers in the ability to share healthcare/patient data, such as adopting platform governance structures.
• How healthcare agencies can effectively modernize without compromising security through a Zero Trust approach.

Mark Mellott, Executive Vice President of Defense and Veteran Affairs

Mark Mellott is the Executive Vice President of Defense and Veteran Affairs for iTech AG. He leverages his government, military, and health IT background to help defense agencies streamline operations and create impactful results through modern IT solutions.

Mark retired from the U.S. Army after more than 24 years of service. Additionally, Mark is a Senior Lecturer at Clemson University for the Master of Public Administration Program (MPA). He is published in peer-reviewed academic and professional journals and has presented his work at various conferences and consortia.

iTech AG

Founded in 2008, iTech AG is a technology consulting firm that helps federal, state, local, and private organizations streamline their operations to achieve better, faster, and more predictable results. Using a wide range of innovative solutions, the company modernizes customers’ systems and processes to help them unlock their true potential. iTech AG is the only 8(a) disadvantaged small business that is a ServiceNow Elite Partner, and were recently awarded 8(a) STARS III, a Government Wide Acquisition Contract (GWAC) vehicle with a $50 billion ceiling.

The DOD’s Defense Healthcare Management System Modernization program, known as DHMSM, is a technology and healthcare transformation project designed to standardize the delivery of healthcare for nearly 10 million service members and their families. DHMSM is a program management office under the Program Executive Office, Defense Healthcare Management Systems (PEO DHMS)

The MHS GENESIS electronic health record system, developed by PEO DHMS and the Leidos Partnership for Defense Health, is a commercial solution that connects inpatient and outpatient medical and dental information, from the point of injury to the military treatment facility, providing a single longitudinal record. DHMSM leads MHS GENESIS deployment.

PEO DHMS and LPDH have now successfully deployed MHS GENESIS to all primary DOD location in the Continual United States (CONUS). The team is now taking additional steps to deploy the system overseas through OCONUS waves in Europe and Asia by the end of 2023, as well as to a joint VA-DOD facility in early 2024.

I’m joined today by Col. Christina Sheets, DHMSM program manager, and Mr. Raymond Okeke, Senior Vice President, and LPDH program manager.

Col. Christina Sheets, DOD Healthcare System Modernization (DHMSM) Program Manager

Col. Christina Sheets of the United States Air Force serves as the program manager for the DOD Healthcare Management System Modernization (DHMSM) program management office. In this role, she provides acquisition leadership and management expertise for deploying the Department of Defense's electronic health record, MHS GENESIS. Col. Sheets is also a practicing dentist.

Raymond Okeke, Senior Vice President, and LPDH program manager at Leidos

Mr. Raymond Okeke currently leads and manages the Leidos Partnership for Defense Health (LPDH) to execute the $4.3B Defense Healthcare Management System Modernization (DHMSM) program. LPDH is a diverse team, with two dozen partner companies and ~5,000 employees dedicated to building, deploying and innovating the MHS GENESIS Electronic Health Record (EHR) system for the Department of Defense (DOD) and other Federal government agencies.

MHS GENESIS, with 60+ system interfaces and over 1,000 workflows, is arguably the world’s largest single, modern EHR system and is transforming the way the DOD provides military and veteran healthcare. Deployed to over 3,000 locations worldwide with more than 160,000 end-users, the system delivers and documents healthcare for nearly 7 million beneficiaries (9.6 million beneficiaries when fully deployed in 2024).

About DHMSM:
DHMSM leads DOD deployment and sustainment activities for MHS GENESIS, the federal sector’s modernized electronic health record. DHMSM is a program management office under Defense Healthcare Management Systems (DHMS); DHMS reports directly to the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment.

About Leidos:
Leidos is a Fortune 500® technology, engineering, and science solutions and services leader working to solve the world's toughest challenges in the defense, intelligence, civil and health markets. Leidos' 46,000 employees support vital missions for government and commercial customers. Headquartered in Reston, Va., Leidos reported annual revenues of approximately $14.4 billion for the fiscal year ended December 30, 2022. For more information, visit www.leidos.com.