The Federal Cybersecurity Workforce: Background and Congressional Oversight Issues for the Departments of Defense and Homeland Security

[Excerpt] This report examines congressional oversight of two strategies undertaken by Congress and the executive branch to strengthen the federal cybersecurity workforce: (1) initiatives to define and identify the federal cybersecurity workforce, and (2) hiring and pay flexibilities applicable to cybersecurity positions at DOD and DHS. This report focuses on DOD and DHS because of their key roles in federal cybersecurity and because the majority of hiring and pay flexibilities for cybersecurity professionals authorized by Congress apply to DOD and DHS

Antibiotic resistance information exchanges : interim guidance

Antibiotic resistance (AR) is a major clinical and public health threat with potential to unravel more than half a century of human health advances offered by modern medical care. Unfortunately, modern healthcare delivery is notably contributory to the spread of antibiotic-resistant organisms, as patients who have become colonized with resistant organisms often receive care across multiple healthcare settings (e.g., ambulatory care, acute care hospitals (ACHs), and various long-term care (LTC) settings, including long-term acute care hospitals (LTACHs) and skilled nursing facilities (SNFs)).Although the threat of antibiotic-resistant organism transmission from a colonized patient to physically proximate patients remains for the duration of colonization, the lack of information sharing between healthcare facilities often results in the colonized status of a patient being unknown to a receiving or admitting facility. When this occurs, the appropriate infection control precautions are less likely to be used from the start of patient care, which increases the likelihood that resistant organisms will spread to other patients.The need for improved AR situational awareness is a major challenge to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention\u2019s (CDC\u2019s) strategy to contain the most threatening forms of resistance and the genes responsible for such phenotypes. To fulfill their central role in implementing the CDC\u2019s containment strategy, some state health departments have developed systems (Multidrug-Resistant Organism (MDRO) Registries or MDRO Alert Systems, referred to herein as AR Information Exchanges (ARIEs)) that track patients previously colonized or infected with specific MDROs and then alert healthcare providers when these patients are admitted to a facility. The term AR Information Exchange emphasizes the importance of multidirectional information flow amongst healthcare facilities and public health authorities, as opposed to unidirectional data collection and storage.This interim guidance is intended for operational use by individuals and organizations responsible for developing or enhancing an ARIE; however, it does not constitute legal advice. Public health agencies should follow applicable laws, statues, and/or regulations when developing ARIEs with questions about directed to the entity\u2019s legal counsel.CS 324851-AARIE-Interim-Guidance-508.pdf20211158

Doctor of Philosophy

DissertationHealth information technology (HIT) in conjunction with quality improvement (QI) methodologies can promote higher quality care at lower costs. Unfortunately, most inpatient hospital settings have been slow to adopt HIT and QI methodologies. Successful adoption requires close attention to workflow. Workflow is the sequence of tasks, processes, and the set of people or resources needed for those tasks that are necessary to accomplish a given goal. Assessing the impact on workflow is an important component of determining whether a HIT implementation will be successful, but little research has been conducted on the impact of eMeasure (electronic performance measure) implementation on workflow. One solution to addressing implementation challenges such as the lack of attention to workflow is an implementation toolkit. An implementation toolkit is an assembly of instruments such as checklists, forms, and planning documents. We developed an initial eMeasure Implementation Toolkit for the heart failure (HF) eMeasure to allow QI and information technology (IT) professionals and their team to assess the impact of implementation on workflow. During the development phase of the toolkit, we undertook a literature review to determine the components of the toolkit. We conducted stakeholder interviews with HIT and QI key informants and subject matter experts (SMEs) at the US Department of Veteran Affairs (VA). Key informants provided a broad understanding about the context of workflow during eMeasure implementation. Based on snowball sampling, we also interviewed other SMEs based on the recommendations of the key informants who suggested tools and provided information essential to the toolkit development. The second phase involved evaluation of the toolkit for relevance and clarity, by experts in non-VA settings. The experts evaluated the sections of the toolkit that contained the tools, via a survey. The final toolkit provides a distinct set of resources and tools, which were iteratively developed during the research and available to users in a single source document. The research methodology provided a strong unified overarching implementation framework in the form of the Promoting Action on Research Implementation in Health Services (PARIHS) model in combination with a sociotechnical model of HIT that strengthened the overall design of the study

Operationalizing the United States Department of the Air Force Digital Archives

Abstract This paper analyzes the current state of digital curation within the United States Air Force History and Museums Program and evaluates the lifecycle of Air Force digital records. The scope of this evaluation includes information from existing literature, in-the-field personnel, and named experts to generate an independently understandable archival needs assessment. The paper supplies numerous synopses of American and international digital archive models and standards to create a baseline understanding of the benefits of digital curation. In contrast, the research generates several Air Force case files highlighting the need for standardization and training across the force. The study delivers a controlled and measurable appraisal of the current state of digital asset management and information packaging employed by the Air Force. The analysis concludes by recommending the courses of action the Air Force History and Museums Program must implement to operationalize and connect the global network of United States Air Force digital archives

Ontologies in medicinal chemistry: current status and future challenges

[Abstract] Recent years have seen a dramatic increase in the amount and availability of data in the diverse areas of medicinal chemistry, making it possible to achieve significant advances in fields such as the design, synthesis and biological evaluation of compounds. However, with this data explosion, the storage, management and analysis of available data to extract relevant information has become even a more complex task that offers challenging research issues to Artificial Intelligence (AI) scientists. Ontologies have emerged in AI as a key tool to formally represent and semantically organize aspects of the real world. Beyond glossaries or thesauri, ontologies facilitate communication between experts and allow the application of computational techniques to extract useful information from available data. In medicinal chemistry, multiple ontologies have been developed during the last years which contain knowledge about chemical compounds and processes of synthesis of pharmaceutical products. This article reviews the principal standards and ontologies in medicinal chemistry, analyzes their main applications and suggests future directions.Instituto de Salud Carlos III; FIS-PI10/02180Programa Iberoamericano de Ciencia y Tecnología para el Desarrollo; 209RT0366Galicia. Consellería de Cultura, Educación e Ordenación Universitaria; CN2012/217Galicia. Consellería de Cultura, Educación e Ordenación Universitaria; CN2011/034Galicia. Consellería de Cultura, Educación e Ordenación Universitaria; CN2012/21

The Future of Higher Education for Land-Grant Institutions: Considerations Beyond Short-Term Strategic Planning

This research addresses future challenges for land-grant universities and calls on administrators to look beyond short-term strategic planning. Chapter One frames the research problem and presents a brief history of U.S. higher education defined by disruption and evolution. Statistical models provide a basis to identify future challenges for land-grant universities. I then propose to address those challenges by investigating University Industry Partnerships (UIP), increasing research productivity, and fostering sense of belonging for part-time graduate students. I use a systematic literature review of UIP structuring practices to reveal how UIPs are structured by time, personnel, and flexible horizontal organizational structures. I then use hermeneutical interpretative policy analysis to examine university research policies and research productivity. Findings from this policy analysis indicate institutional policies can positively influence research productivity when accompanied by investment in support and coordinated communication; consequences of institutional research policies are priorities are also addressed. Finally, I conducted a quantitative study to examine sense of belonging for part-time graduate students. Data analysis suggests existing measures of SB may need revision to accurately capture SB for part-time students. Findings indicate that positive academic outcomes are associated with higher levels of SB for part-time graduate students

Harnessing Openness to Transform American Health Care

The Digital Connections Council (DCC) of the Committee for Economic Development (CED) has been developing the concept of openness in a series of reports. It has analyzed information and processes to determine their openness based on qualities of "accessibility" and "responsiveness." If information is not available or available only under restrictive conditions it is less accessible and therefore less "open." If information can be modified, repurposed, and redistributed freely it is more responsive, and therefore more "open." This report looks at how "openness" is being or might usefully be employed in the healthcare arena. This area, which now constitutes approximately 16-17 percent of GDP, has long frustrated policymakers, practitioners, and patients. Bringing greater openness to different parts of the healthcare production chain can lead to substantial benefits by stimulating innovation, lowering costs, reducing errors, and closing the gap between discovery and treatment delivery. The report is not exhaustive; it focuses on biomedical research and the disclosure of research findings, processes of evaluating drugs and devices, the emergence of electronic health records, the development and implementation of treatment regimes by caregivers and patients, and the interdependence of the global public health system and data sharing and worldwide collaboration