HealthCast

HealthCast, along with GovCast and CyberCast, will now be published in the GovCIO Media & Research Podcasts feed. Subscribe and listen today on the podcast platform of your choice.

Dr. W. Kimryn Rathmell is one month into her post as National Cancer Institute’s new director and is already rolling up her sleeves on initiatives impacting health outcomes of cancer patients. Dr. Rathmell discusses her priorities for the year ahead, including a renewed focus on deepening connections across agencies, communities and the nation.

She highlights how the agency fits into broader White House priorities around Cancer Moontshot. She also discusses upcoming plans for artificial intelligence and how it might boost cancer prevention as well as improve cancer screenings. Plus, she shares her story about an organization she co-founded that is near and dear to her heart.

Government is typically not one to take risks, but Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) CIO Nikolaos Ipiotis said failing and learning are key parts to tech and health innovation.

The agency, the newest one within the National Institutes of Health, aims to transform and innovate in health IT, medicine and other lanes of research that aren't easily available through traditional approaches.

Ipiotis, who joined the agency in December 2023, said in his first podcast interview that taking risks, "controlled failure" and collaboration are all keys to his IT strategy. He discusses what lies ahead for data strategy as the agency begins to collaborate with industry and set in motion major initiatives for the health community.

It’s been 15 years since the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) updated its data strategy, and now it is prioritizing innovative ways around data collection, analysis and sharing. The agency hopes these efforts will better treat those seeking mental health and substance abuse support.

SAMHSA Chief of Staff Trina Dutta, Senior Advisor Dr. Robert Baillieu and Survey Statistician Dr. Kathryn Piscopo discuss how the updated strategy will help streamline performance and procure integrated data platforms. The team also talks about how the agency is now using dashboards that are making data more usable and enhancing transparency agency-wide.

NIH is working to better manage and disseminate fair data in a timely manner for researchers, who are working to advance medical treatments and improve overall health outcomes.

Susan Gregurick, associate director for data science and director of the Office of Data Science Strategy, said the agency’s latest strategic plan includes new ways to utilize artificial intelligence by recruiting a workforce more skilled in AI as well as build out trustworthy AI models to reduce bias.

Gregurick also shares some exciting news about current and future initiatives including the RADx Tribal Data Repository, AIM-AHEAD Program and the NAIRR pilot NIH is launching in partnership with the National Science Foundation.

Telehealth and mobile health technology are leading to new efficiencies and opportunities for health care. Spyros Kitsiou, associate professor and director of the mHealth Innovation Lab at the University of Illinois at Chicago, is a trailblazer in the development and testing of mobile health technology interventions.

He discusses some of the ongoing clinical trials funded by NIH that focus on testing the efficacy of mHealth apps and wearable devices. Kitsiou also discusses the potential of these innovations in empowering patients and assisting with chronic disease management.

The National Cancer Institute's Small Business Innovation Research Program is putting scientist entrepreneurs from underrepresented communities on a path to start create businesses that will help develop technologies to accelerate cancer research and enhance the quality of life for cancer patients.

Michael Weingarten, director for the Small Business Innovation Research Development Center at NCI, highlights some of the initiatives his team is working on to support these efforts. Dr. Rukiyah Van Dross, a professor at East Carolina University, discusses how this program helped turn a dream into reality. The leaders discuss some of the key tools that are enabling this community of entrepreneurship and how that is translating to cancer care.

The White House has introduced a first-ever playbook aimed at addressing social determinants of health with directives for the departments of Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, Agriculture, Education, Commerce, Veterans Affairs and more.

Learn about the three key pillars in this playbook, which include efforts around data strategies and partnerships. We dive into what these mean for federal technology opportunities and solutions.

Artificial intelligence is impacting all aspects of government, including public health. The Biden-Harris administration's recent AI executive order impacts health agencies and tasks leaders with building frameworks for ensuring AI is deployed fairly, ehtically and with accuracy in health situations. Health equity remains an issue in the U.S., and leaders of health agencies are thinking of "health equity as a core design principle" of AI systems to be deployed.

GovCIO Media & Research Managing Editor Ross Gianfortune and Staff Writer/Researcher Jayla Whitfield discuss the impact of AI on health equity, the ways that leaders are treating the executive order and how health care will be affected by emerging technology.

A new initiative at the National Cancer Institute aims to create capabilities for detecting pancreatic cancer early and improving treatments for patients with mutations.

A big challenge with pancreatic cancer resides in the KRAS gene. When mutated, the gene can cause normal cells to become cancerous. A new therapy involving KRAS inhibitors and genetic testing can help patients screen for this earlier.

Dr. Christine Alewine, the NIH Lasker Scholar in the Laboratory of Molecular Biology at NCI’s Center for Cancer Research, discussed this breakthrough, how new advancements can serve as an alternative treatment for chemotherapy and where AI can make an impact. Plus, she notes how other health issues such as diabetes also plays a role in screening for pancreatic cancer.

Emerging technologies are poised to greatly impact federal agencies. In health care and health research, this is unlocking tremendous opportunity for researchers advancing treatments, diagnostics and more. The National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences’s five-year plan outlines how AI and machine learning will address big data and translational barriers.

This plan aims to bridge the gap between scientific and operational challenges by improving engagement in the translational space as well as serve as a guide to other agencies when it comes to preparing for future health emergencies like COVID-19.

NCAYS Branch Chief of the Office of Policy, Communications and Education Dr. Meredith Temple O'Connor briefs us on this plan plus the expansion of the N3C program comprising COVID clinical data, how AI is shortening the diagnostic odyssey for rare diseases and what’s going on with its new partnership with ARPA-H.

Federal health agencies are progressing in artificial intelligence development and use to provide better patient care and counter cybersecurity threats.

We take a look at some of the developments where AI is making a difference. This includes at the Department of Health and Human Services where AI is helping tackle substance abuse and fraud.

We also dive into some of the ethical concerns that arises around the technology and recap the six key principles for responsible AI development the Department of Veterans Affairs has prioritized to combat AI bias.

Public health leaders across the public and private sectors joined GovCIO Media & Research’s Health IT Summit to discuss pressing issues in health IT like electronic health records (EHR) modernization, data interoperability and emerging technology. If you missed it, catch the highlights here.

Jayla Whitfield, Anastasia Obis, Amy Kluber and Ross Gianfortune joined GovCast to recap the event and discuss the highlights from the event.

A clinical trial at the National Cancer Institute called NCI-MATCH showed how cancer patients could benefit from genomic sequencing and is now informing future trials on precision medicine.

The NCI Molecular Analysis for Therapy Choice Trial initially screened 6,000 patients and treated 1,300 of them by pairing certain medications with their specific tumors regardless of the cancer type. Future trials like ComboMATCH will now look at precision medicine to study how tumors respond to targeted treatments.

NCI Researchers Dr. Lindsay Harris and Dr. Peter O'Dwyer shared how precision oncology is expanding treatment options and increasing patients' survival rates. They also discuss the importance of clinical trials like these for progressing the fight against cancer.

Transportation is the biggest barrier to health care in the veteran community. Getting more veterans to their appointments reliably is the goal of an expanded partnership the Department of Veterans Affairs has  with Uber. Launched last year at an initial 10 sites, the VHA-Uber Health Connect Initiative is now serving 60 VA medical centers in its second phase.

VHA Chief of Innovation Indra Sandal and Veterans Transportation Program Director Ben Williams return to HealthCast to brief us on the progress the program has made, plus a look at new digital tools that are helping streamline this program even more. Sandal and Williams say the program not only is helping to reduce costs, but also is supporting overall federal priorities in improving the customer experience.

They also tease a new feature coming out this month and hope to roll out the overall program enterprise-wide by May 2024.

Pediatric cancers require better treatments, and developing better treatments necessitates innovative technology that supports collaborative data sharing.

This Childhood Cancer Awareness Month, National Cancer Institute leaders Dr. Nirali Shah and Dr. Christine Heske from the Center for Cancer Research break down some of the novel new therapy developments targeting b-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia and other rare cancers that affect children.

Standard therapy, they said, is not working and tends to be very toxic. The researchers describe their focus on prevention — meaning early detection opportunities for cancer. Underlying these efforts in therapy development includes the technology that enables critical access to and collaboration with data. This includes the Molecular Characterization Initiative that is sharing data publicly with doctors, families and researchers to better inform them on treatments and participation in clinical trials.

Shah and Heske describe how tech is “moving the needle forward” for researchers to access high-quality specimens and pre-clinical trial models to develop new therapies and new methods to detect cancer markers early.

Modernizing government agencies has become more effective with the emergence of “as-a-service” IT delivery models, which offers a streamlined approach and better user experience to delivering IT solutions especially in the age of cloud. Enjoy this preview of our recent GovFocus panel featuring leaders from FDA, the Department of Veterans Affairs and Maximus. Watch the full panel at https://governmentciomedia.com/govfocus/service-it-delivery-models-driving-modernization

The National Cancer Institute’s Last Mile initiative is exploring new ways at getting screening tests for cervical cancer into more hands. Women who die from cervical cancer often have had limited or no access to screenings. This is just one element that has largely driven the White House’s Cancer Moonshot Program to significantly reduce the death rate from cancer over the coming years.

Dr. Vikrant Sahasrabuddhe, deputy chief of the Breast and Gynecologic Cancer Research Group and Program Director in the Division of Cancer Prevention at NCI, discusses more about how technology and research are driving the Last Mile initiative and how it is reducing health inequities by reaching women where they are with more at-home screening options. Sahasrabuddhe also highlights how advancements with tools like AI are improving diagnosing and treating cervical cancer.

The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), the national agency dedicated to better understanding and treating disorders of the immune system, requires fast and easy access to data for things like clinical trials and genomic sequencing that are critical to developing new vaccines and treatments. Its Clinical Genomics Program is one way opened up a world of data to researchers. NIAID CIO Mike Tartakovsky highlighted several of the new technologies he has implemented to better share and protect clinical data and touted the agency’s new Biovisualization Lab that is applying virtual reality technology in biomedical research.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is putting itself in a better position to handle future health emergencies with its new data-driven Moving Forward strategy. CDC Deputy CIO Jason Bonander said the goal is make it easier for state and local partners as well as health care providers to share data in one centralized place rather than delivering the information through multiple formats and systems. Bonander highlights the role culture plays in public health decision-making and how the agency’s data efforts are addressing health equity and bridging the gaps.