Melissa Harris

As the American health care and public health sectors continue responding to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Department of Health and Human Service’s Health Sector Cybersecurity Coordination Center (HC3) is taking a multi-pronged communications approach to securing health IT and operations across the country.

President-elect Joe Biden proposed a $9 billion investment in the Technology Modernization Fund and support for cybersecurity and improved IT assets across federal agencies as part of his $1.9 trillion economic package released Thursday night.

The National Institutes of Health Information Technology Acquisition and Assessment Center (NITAAC) is getting ready to release its CIO-SP4 final request for proposal next month after shifting its in-person plans for industry feedback sessions this year during the pandemic. 

The Office of Management and Budget is expected to release the Federal Data Strategy 2021 Action Plan by the beginning of January with calls for emphasis on maturing data management, tightening cross-agency collaboration and furthering data-skills training, Deputy Federal CIO Maria Roat told GovernmentCIO Media & Research.

The Defense Department faces new recommendations from the Defense Innovation Board for a more remote digital workforce and culture.

Data is increasingly becoming a critical component to federal and commercial activities and showing promise for impacting the public good.

President-elect Joe Biden formally announced top members of his administration’s health care team — the first step in a sign of who might take the reins on the COVID-19 pandemic and the future of American health care in the coming years.

The Cyber Unified Coordination Group, an effort between the U.S. intelligence community and the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), is in the midst of coordinating its response to the recent discovery of a major hacking incident across various agencies last week.

Digital clinical trials and technologies — as well as an unprecedented collaboration among industry, government and academia — were some of the most critical components to the rapid development of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine.

Federal health officials are seeking and applying different technology solutions and programs to support health care providers amid high rates of burnout and mental and physical health distress.

As federal health IT officials are looking toward 2021, their focus is on leveraging data more effectively, furthering cloud adoption, investing in their workforces and partnering with industry teams who can offer packaged rather than point solutions.

Deputy Federal CIO Maria Roat is looking for continuous long-term modernization of government agencies in a way that leverages data, security and Agile processes effectively, and cloud capabilities are helping agencies achieve that goal.