Profiles of Progress 4: State Health IT Initiatives

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Since Profiles of Progress was last released in April of 2009, there has been a tremendous flurry of activity due to the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) announcing the recipients of the State Health Information Exchange Cooperative Agreement Program (State HIE). In addition, the funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) has started to be dispensed to state and regional efforts across the nation and will be used to invest, solidify and make sustainable health IT efforts in the states. The updated compendium, “Profiles of Progress 4: State Health IT Initiatives,” serves as a snapshot of how states are responding to the challenge of leading the implementation of health IT and what role, if any, the state CIO is playing in these efforts. The numerous revisions within the compendium reflect the expeditious growth and adoption of health IT over the past year. As government leaders increasingly support Health IT as a means to improve patient care and reduce costs it is imperative that states implement an enterprise-wide architecture for the statewide exchange of health information.

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Security at the Edge: Protecting Mobile Computing Devices Part II: Policies on the Use of Personally Owned Smartphones in State Government

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Due to the pervasive use of personally owned smartphones in the U.S., practical concerns have arisen around state employee requests to use these devices for state business. The potential for security incidents and data breaches is a practical concern that state CIOs and CISOs must address when establishing security standards. While these devices make the work lives of employees less complicated, and perhaps reduce state IT acquisition costs, officials must once again face the classic dilemma of balancing risks and rewards. Policies on the Use of Personally Owned Smartphones in State Government highlights the trend toward states establishing security policies and standards for connecting personally owned smartphones to government networks.

 

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Gaining Traction on the Road to Win-Win: Limitations on Liability in State IT Contracting

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As state CIOs continue to deploy IT solutions, it is important to recognize the fiscal benefits of transforming the procurement process to meet the needs of a smaller workforce, budget constraints, and consolidation efforts. Because of current economic factors the state CIO is faced with not only budget constraints for needed IT goods and services, but also advocating for procurement reform that meets the needs of the 21st century. Gaining Traction on the Road to Win-Win presents the challenges associated with unlimited liability, and encourages the inclusion of risk management strategies for state IT contracts. The report also calls attention to the fact that state CIOs are better equipped to provide services to the state when flexible terms and conditions for procurement provisions are in place.

 

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DO YOU THINK? OR DO YOU KNOW? Improving State Government Operations Through Business Analytics

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Business analytics provides an evidence-based approach for decision making. With the current emphasis on transparency and visibility into the operations of government, government leaders need to anticipate more questions and evaluation related to not only what decisions are being made, but also what rationale was applied in making those decisions. As stated in this issue brief, intuition alone is not adequate for evaluating alternatives and making decisions. Effective implementation of a business analytics capability will promote an enterprise-wide culture of fact-based decision making. State government is encouraged to seriously look at business analytics as a means for fully understanding current circumstances and make predictions about the future. The predictive nature is particularly important as we continue to face ongoing fiscal challenges and increasing demand for state government services.

 

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State CIO Top Ten Policy and Technology Priorities for 2010

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Each year NASCIO conducts a survey of the state CIOs to identify and prioritize the top policy and technology issues facing state government. The CIOs top ten priorities are identified and used as input to NASCIO’s programs, planning for conference sessions, and publications.

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A Call to Action for State Government: Guidance for Opening the Doors to State Data

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Transparency initiatives and websites are proliferating across government and industry globally. One aspect of the transparency trend is broader access to government data. NASCIO has published this report as initial guidance and recommendations to help state governments get started with data transparency portals. This guidance presents the value proposition along with principles and guidance on how states should move forward.

 

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Resource Guide for State Cyber Security Awareness, Education, and Training Initiatives

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For the observance of the sixth annual National Cyber Security Awareness Month, NASCIO has created a Resource Guide of examples of state awareness programs and initiatives. The compendium augments previously gathered information with data from a just-completed, short survey of state CISOs. It includes links to state security awareness pages, contact information for state CISOs, and information describing cyber security awareness, training, and education initiatives that target four categories: Executives/Elected Officials; Citizens; State Workers; and IT Security Personnel.

The Resource Guide is a work-in-progress that should provide a valuable reference resource for Cyber Security Awareness Month, as well as the ongoing planning of security awareness and training efforts state programs may undertake thereafter.

 

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HITECH in the States: Action List for State CIOs

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In recent years, health information technology has grown from a burgeoning trend to a top policy priority for NASCIO as state CIOs from across the nation have become increasingly involved in health IT initiatives in their states. With billions of dollars now allocated to flow into health IT and health information exchange (HIE) initiatives around the country under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), this trend is only poised to accelerate. HITECH in the States: Action List for State CIOs examines the impact on states—and the implications for state CIOs—of the HITECH Act (ARRA’s health IT requirements) and outlines four broad areas in which state CIOs can have an immediate, and long-term, impact in regards to HIE: Planning, Governance, Financing/Sustainability and Policy. Additionally, this brief highlights the questions that state CIOs should be asking as they work to begin exploring their role within these HIE efforts and also features the affect of the HITECH Act on the Medicaid IT Architecture (MITA) initiative.

 

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States Run on IT

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NASCIO and its Corporate Leadership Council collaborated to create “States Run on IT”.

A fresh look at the computing environment and technical infrastructure will help state government better serve 21st century citizens. Citizens demand mobile, responsive, and technology-enabled government services that are delivered as conveniently as online banking or shopping. The most effective and efficient businesses work at the speed of information and the best governments should too. Does yours?

This document is intended to start a dialogue.

  • Use it to introduce the topic to newly elected or appointed officials.
  • Leave it as a take away when you meet with IT funding decision makers.
  • Use it to help us carry a consistent message to public sector leaders.

 

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Security at the Edge — Protecting Mobile Computing Devices

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The business of government is increasingly conducted or supported by mobile computing devices as states adopt these tools to un-tether traditional office workers from their desks or employ them for a wide variety of purposes in the field. Use of mobile devices is so widespread that it is difficult to imagine how state governments can operate without them, given their increased computing power and the ease with which they may be integrated with state networks and databases via the Internet. At the same time, however, mobile devices are unusually vulnerable to loss, theft, mis-use, or misconfiguration, which can and does lead to the loss of sensitive data. Security at the Edge highlights the risks associated with uncontrolled use of mobile devices, and targets the standards and procedural controls that allow state CIOs to better secure them.

 

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