Digital Government

General Eyeing Top Doc Job?

I'm picking up medium strength signals that retired <a href=http://www.health.mil/bioDetail.aspx?ID=4>Army Gen. Elder Granger</a>, who served as program executive officer for the TRICARE management activity in the Military Health System, would really like to become the next assistant secretary of Defense for Health Affairs, replacing Dr. S. Ward Casscells, who <a href=http://www.nextgov.com/nextgov/ng_20090430_7776.php>retired this April</a>.

Digital Government

Marines and Social Nets: We Goofed

Despite more than 1,000 news reports to the contrary, the Marine Corps <a href=http://www.nextgov.com/nextgov/ng_20090807_7858.php?oref=topnews>did NOT ban</a> access to social network sites this week.

Digital Government

Are VA and Defense Chopped Liver?

That's the assumption I made after viewing today's meeting of the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, which had an in-depth discussion on President Obama's national health IT plan. Somehow they ignored electronic health record systems that cover 9.2 million patients in the Defense Department and another 6.1 million at VA.

Digital Government

Another Stolen Laptop

Laptops containing personnel information from departments like <a href=http://www.nextgov.com/nextgov/ng_20080301_1011.php>Veterans Affairs</a> and <a href=http://www.govexec.com/mailbagDetails.cfm?aid=34906>Education</a> keep going on unauthorized walks. Now it's the National Guard Bureau's turn, which alerted soldiers on Wednesday of a stolen laptop.

Digital Government

A Social Network Happy Medium

Maj. Gen. Hank Morrow, commander of Air Force North, which is responsible for defending U.S. airspace, thinks a common sense approach to using social network sites such as Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and YouTube can assure security that will allow service members to continue relying on the communications tools.

Digital Government

McCain: Investigate MHS Contract

Sen. John McCain , R-Ariz., <a href=www.govexec.com/nextgov/0809/mccainRecord.doc>read</a> my entire <a href=http://www.nextgov.com/nextgov/ng_20090729_5415.php>story</a> on the earmarks Adara Networks had received from Sen. Thad Cochran, R-Miss., for work on Military Health System information technology projects. He then called on the Senate floor for a full investigation of those contracts, something the Defense Department <a href=http://www.nextgov.com/nextgov/ng_20090728_3448.php>inspector general is doing</a>.

Digital Government

VA Claim in Appeal? Wait 639 Days

That's what Daniel Bertoni, director of education, workforce, and income security at the Government Accountability Office, <a href=http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d09910t.pdf>told</a> the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee this week on the need to improve how the department processes a growing mountain of disability claims.

Digital Government

Social Networking Vulnerabilities

The Defense Department has started to analyze the vulnerabilities of social networking sites and Web 2.0 technologies such as Facebook and Twitter, Pentagon spokesman Air Force Lt. Col. Eric Butterbaugh said in a statement.

Digital Government

The Senator, Adara and Lost Rabbit

As I <a href=http://www.nextgov.com/nextgov/ng_20090729_5415.php>reported</a> on Wednesday, Sen. Thad Cochran, R-Miss, has earmarked just more than $5 million for Adara Networks to work on information technology projects at the Military Health System and has another $10 million pending earmark for Adara in the fiscal 2010 Defense appropriations bill.

Digital Government

GSA, DISA To Make Nice On Satcom?

Over the past decade federal agencies have been able to buy commercial satellite communication services through either <a href=http://www.gsa.gov/Portal/gsa/ep/contentView.do?contentType=GSA_OVERVIEW&contentId=18882>General Services Administration contracts</a> or those <a href=http://www.disa.mil/satcom/sco/index.html>managed by the Defense Information Systems Agency.</a>

Digital Government

House Hot About 'Propaganda' Info Ops

The Defense Department's budget for information operations - that's everything from plain vanilla public affairs to targeted messages and canned 'news stories" to influence audiences in Iraq and Afghanistan - has jumped a hundred fold in the past four years, from $9 million in 2005 to what the House Appropriations Committee called a "staggering" $988 million budget request for fiscal 2010.

Digital Government

The $1.2 billion Health SOA

That's how much funding the House Appropriations Committee <a href=http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=111_cong_reports&docid=f:hr230.111.pdf>estimated</a> the Military Health System will need in the next two years to develop a Services Oriented Architecture to create interoperability between the electronic health record systems operated by the Defense Department and the one maintained by the Veterans Affairs Department.

Digital Government

Interesting Gizmos, Great Soldiers

I spent a couple of days last week at the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico metaphorically kicking the tires on the new high-tech gadgets and gizmos the Army plans to <a href=http://www.nextgov.com/nextgov/ng_20090721_4346.php>field to seven infantry brigades</a> starting in 2011. I came away from the trip -- as I always do when I'm out in the field -- more impressed by the soldiers I met than the gear.

Digital Government

Defense Comms: The House Giveth

The House Appropriations Committee approved a budget for the high-powered <a href=http://www.nextgov.com/nextgov/ng_20090220_1669.php>Wideband Global Satcom System</a> in fiscal 2010 of $626.7 million in its version of next year's <a href=http://appropriations.house.gov/pdf/DoD_FY10_FC_Summary_07.22.09.pdf>appropriations bill</a>, an increase of $425 million from the president's requested budget.

Digital Government

An Invite from the Prez

President Barack Obama has a much busier schedule than I, but he still managed to send me a personal invitation to watch his press conference at 8 p.m. tonight on the need to pass comprehensive health care reform legislation.

Digital Government

VistA iPhone Apps

That's the approach Veterans Affairs Department Chief Information Officer Roger Baker told me he plans go take in fixing the problem information technology projects <a href=http://whatsbrewin.nextgov.com/2009/07/va_gets_real_suspends_45_it_pr.php>halted</a> by VA Secretary Eric Shinseki on Friday.

Digital Government

Leadership Still Trumps Digits

I spent a couple of days last week hanging out with the Army Evaluation Task Force at White Sands Missile Range, N.M. They're testing all kinds of exotic systems and networks key to the Army's future modernization projects, and I wondered if troops in the future will be into battle at the click of a mouse.

Digital Government

VA Gets Real, Suspends 45 IT Projects

The Veterans Affairs Department on Friday said it halted development of 45 information technology projects that were behind schedule or over budget, with Secretary Eric Shinseki personally making the announcement.

Digital Government

How Many Computer Centers?

The answer to that question may be just 13, the number of <a href=http://www.disa.mil/computing/documents/CatalogOfServices.pdf>computer centers operated by the Defense Information Systems Agency</a> and none run by the Army, Navy or Air Force.

Digital Government

What is Defense-VA Interoperability?

The Defense and Veterans Affairs departments will achieve full interoperability of electronic health records by Sept. 30, Rear Admiral Gregory Timberlake, acting director of the Defense and VA interagency program office, told a House VA Committee <a href=http://veterans.house.gov/hearings/hearing.aspx?NewsID=427>hearing</a> on Tuesday.