At IntelliDyne, we develop IT solutions for federal health-related agencies every day. The challenges are non-stop in a world of information technology that is constantly changing – from advancing IT in order to deliver improved healthcare, to responding to cyberattacks and malicious actors.
So what is on the horizon for federal healthcare IT? From our support of both civilian and military agencies, we have some thoughts on the subject that focus on three key areas:
- Modernized Application Development
- Network Modernization and Enterprise Management
- “Above & Beyond” User-Centric IT Systems
Modernized Application Development: Bespoke Systems, Cloud Migration, Analytics, and RPA
Federal IT professionals have a need for application and software development that creates opportunities for improved healthcare delivery. In the military sector, you see this with the term “Medically Ready Force … Ready Medical Force.” This includes:
- full-stack development (including the development, operations, and management of bespoke systems)
- virtualization and migration to cloud systems
- the development and implementation of robust analytics solutions, and
- the introduction of robotic process automation (RPA) to improve reporting and processes.
The Department of Defense’s Digital Modernization Strategy, released last year, makes clear that cloud computing is the foundation on which DoD will build and scale improved IT systems, analytic solutions, and command and control abilities. Or, as DoD puts it, the Department wants to “deliver a general-purpose enterprise cloud for compute and store capabilities.”
Cloud is the foundation upon which DoD will build and scale more effective cybersecurity, advanced analytical capabilities, better command and control, and future enabling technologies. Commercial innovation will be leveraged to “enable the Department to organize massive amounts of data and support rapid access to information for improved decision-making, preserving and extending our military advantage.”
IntelliDyne’s Senior Director of Application Development & Modernization, Todd Margules has said, cloud migration offers a number of benefits, including:
- collaboration across different locations
- reduced IT cost
- the ability to scale up or down quickly
- business continuity
- automatic updates to your technology
While AI is a popular term in the media, we believe that federal agencies can advance their IT toward AI by implementing robotic process automation. Phil Vincenzes, IntelliDyne’s Senior Vice President and Chief Analytics Officer, points out that “RPA is augmented intelligence applied to the long-standing field of process automation to reduce costs, improve speed, and improve accuracy.” As a path to AI, RPA is a step toward the White House’s Executive Order on Artificial Intelligence, which calls for “maintaining American leadership in AI [with] a concerted effort to promote advancements in technology and innovation.”
Stated another way, RPA is one way that the Defense Health Agency, as Nextgov puts it, can achieve “data-driven, evidence-based and measured improvement of operational processes and IT services.”
Federal IT Network Modernization and Enterprise Management
In an era of cloud migration and the development of the Internet of Things, healthcare information technology solutions should help federal agencies take better control of the future of their enterprise infrastructure, in an efficient and secure manner.
In our decades of support for federal agencies, we know that this means that IT innovation and modernization is not just a matter of new technologies, but of helping agency personnel successfully conceptualize and adopt new IT solutions. This should happen across a wide range of “network-centric” areas, including:
- Front end data center operations
- Network modernization
- IT security
- Enterprise operations and management
- Cloud systems
Adoption of new systems and integration of improved technologies is achieved when contractors listen to, collaborate with, and guide federal CIOs to help them achieve their vision and support them with the best technologies and processes available.
As such, IT modernization is a mindset as much as it is a set of new technologies. We probably couldn’t put it any better than Federal Chief Information Officer, Suzette Kent when she stated in late 2019 that “IT modernization will never stop.”
Deliver “Above & Beyond” User-Centric IT Systems
While innovating in the areas of application development and network-focused IT systems is crucial to reaping the benefits of IT modernization, we believe that effective information technology can only be delivered with a consistent focus on the “bread and butter” components of enterprise operations support.
These “user-centric” aspects of IT include helpdesks, systems administration, database administration, and network security. Users knows that getting systems such as Office365 and BYOD (bring your own device) support are some of the first steps in making IT modernization work for agencies and their customers.
At IntelliDyne, we are proud to help both military and civilian agencies strategize and implement modernized IT systems to help them achieve their mission-critical goals.