Emerging Tech

OSTP, NIST Team Up to Fine-Tune Search Engines for COVID-19 Research

Researchers are using the present health crisis to help improve search systems and enable clinicians to find better answers quicker.

Digital Government

Spike in Federal COVID-19 Spending Flattens as Total Nears $3B

A separate analysis shows some IT modernization efforts booming while others are put on hold during the pandemic.

Digital Government

Survey: Nearly Half of U.S. Employees Feeling Burnt Out

Though many Americans have lost their jobs, one in four remaining employees said COVID-19 has added stress to their lives.

Emerging Tech

How Homeland Security’s Biosurveillance Arm Uses Tech To Track a Pandemic

The National Biosurveillance Integration Center began tracking what would become the novel coronavirus on Jan. 2.

Ideas

Even During COVID-19, 'Nature is a Necessity'

“If a city doesn’t have enough green space for the amount of people who live there, that’s a public health issue."

Digital Government

Congress Hears Options—And Concerns—for Using Smartphone Data to Fight COVID-19

Other countries have been using various forms of location and proximity tracing to slow the spread of the disease, with widely varying levels of privacy protections.

Emerging Tech

Wi-Fi Peeks into Buildings to Check Social Distancing

Mapping the Wi-Fi strength of mobile devices can reveal how people move and gather.

Digital Government

Lawmakers Push CDC for New Demographic Data on Coronavirus Patients

A group of 17 lawmakers asked the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to collect sex, race, ethnicity and other information to spot potential inequities in health care. 

Modernization

VA Delays Major IT Programs to Focus on COVID-19

The initial rollout of the new electronic health records system will be pushed out—again—as well as pilots for the new scheduling system. A third, integral effort remains on track.

Digital Government

Trump Removes Acting Pentagon IG Slated to Lead Pandemic Oversight

Only current IGs may serve in the new position created by Congress to oversee the government's coronavirus relief effort.

Emerging Tech

Pentagon Seeks Innovative Commercial Tech to Address COVID-19 Pandemic

The Air Force solicitation outlines seven mission areas it’s looking to support, including citizen welfare.

Artificial Intelligence

White House Expands Coronavirus-Focused Supercomputing Consortium

Officials are putting high-performance computing resources to work across the country to help combat COVID-19.

Modernization

Mid-Pandemic, CDC Looks to Upgrade Its Biosurveillance Database

The system collects data from hospitals, local public health departments, pharmacies and more to give researchers and officials a view of how diseases spread across the country.