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Government IT Programs Garner Recognition at 14th Annual Excellence.gov Awards [Health & Beauty Close - Up](Health & Beauty Close - Up Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) The American Council for Technology-Industry Advisory Council (ACT-IAC), a public-private partnership in the government IT community, announced the six winning programs and overall winner for the 14th annual Excellence.Gov Awards. According to a release, the event honors the best of government information technology (IT) programs demonstrating proven strategies and solutions. A total of 31 finalists from 17 federal, state and local government agencies were honored at the awards reception in Washington, D.C. on Monday, March 24. "Excellence.gov Award finalists have had a measurable impact on supporting government missions by delivering innovative services to the nation's citizens," said 2014 Excellence.gov Government Chair Kimberly Hancher. "This year's winners join a prominent group of instrumental programs that have defined new levels of government service and benchmarks for operational efficiency." "There are hundreds of programs put into place every year that make government more efficient, cost-effective and responsive to the needs of the citizenry," said 2014 Excellence.gov Industry Chair Atacan Donmez. "These programs all effectively collaborated with industry counterparts to use IT in innovative ways which truly defines their value and impact." The group said that a panel of over 40 judges representing government and industry participated in a three-stage process for the selection of finalists and winners recognized at this year's award ceremony: Overall Winner for 2014 Excellence.gov Awards Parkinson's Disease Biomarkers Program Data Management Resource (PDBP DMR) - The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) Parkinson's Disease Biomarkers Program (PDBP) brings together stakeholders dedicated to research and discovery of diagnostic and progression biomarkers for Parkinson's disease. The PDBP focuses on improved assessment of Parkinson's disease (PD) progression and development of new tools and resources to facilitate and accelerate PD scientific research. Stakeholders include basic and clinical researchers, research study participants, healthcare professionals, NINDS program staff, information technology experts, individuals with Parkinson's disease, caretakers, and the community. Excellence in Customer Experience Virtual Service Delivery - The Internal Revenue Service's (IRS) Virtual Service Delivery uses video communication to allow a taxpayer to interact in real-time through video with an IRS employee. Many taxpayers need to meet face to face to resolve their issues, however the IRS is challenged to balance those needs against the cost and efficiency of providing staff in many cities. This service allows the IRS to offer face to face interaction in cities with no staff and to supplement service in understaffed and high- traffic locations. Excellence in Digital Government JAGConnect - The Army Judge Advocate General (JAG) Corps created "JAGConnect on MilBook" a secure enterprise social network for Department of Defense (DoD) legal professionals. Through online communities of practice and effective use of webinar technology, the Army JAG Corps has achieved an unprecedented level of global collaboration. This proved especially critical to the Army law practice during the October 2013 government shutdown, which necessitated rapid, accurate, and comprehensive coordination between headquarters, field organizations and forward-deployed personnel. Excellence in Enterprise Efficiency Crop Insurance Program Compliance and Integrity Data Warehouse - The Risk Management Agency (RMA) of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) oversees the Federal Crop Insurance Corp., which is the primary source of risk protection for America's farmers, including coverage for events such as lost crops and poor yields. The RMA's compliance mission is to ensure that adequate safeguards are in one place to avoid potential abuses and that claims filed each year are accurate so the billions of dollars in benefits can be distributed equitably. RMA has the ability to perform data analysis and data mining to quickly analyze hundreds of millions of records over more than 20 years to help recognize trends, patterns, links and associations. In addition, they can monitor and analyze the crop insurance program, identifying fraud and using satellite and weather and other data to analyze claims filed by farmers. Excellence in Health IT Medical Communications for Combat Casualty Care (MC4) - The U.S. Army's MC4 program integrates, fields and provides technical support for a comprehensive medical information system enabling lifelong electronic medical records (EMRs), streamlined medical logistics and enhanced situational awareness for Army operational forces. The MC4 team helps to ensure that Service members have a secure, accessible, lifelong EMR, which results in better informed health care providers and easier access to VA medical benefits. With more than a decade of experience managing the Army's deployable medical recording system, MC4 remains the most widely-used, comprehensive information management medical system on the battlefield. Excellence in Intergovernmental Collaboration Benefits.gov -Benefits.gov was created to provide all U.S. citizens with a single, online source of accurate information and personalized eligibility prescreening services for benefit programs, while reducing the expense and difficulty of interacting with the government. The site generates value to citizens by providing easy access to accurate benefit information and eligibility prescreening, and to government by reducing call center calls, decreasing ineligible benefit applications and providing cloud-hosted, customized shared services to agencies. The program operates through collaboration between 17 federal agencies who provide operational and financial support, with the Department of Labor serving as the managing partner. Excellence in Pilots and Start-up Projects Program Integrity Tools (PIT) - The Veterans Administration's (VA) PIT reduces improper payments made by VA to community providers, predominantly, for the care of veterans, but also for eligible veterans' family members. Health care claims are routed from a decentralized network of 150 VA Medical Centers to and through a centralized set of business rules designed to detect fraud, waste and abuse (FWA) at the chargeable line item level within the claim. PIT also creates statistically valid profiles of providers that are used to detect suspected billing patterns and stop FWA at the organizational level. More information: www.actiac.org ((Comments on this story may be sent to [email protected])) (c) 2014 ProQuest Information and Learning Company; All Rights Reserved. |