Russell Vought, director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), has issued a memo detailing the Trump administration’s new budgetary priority for research and development efforts in fiscal year 2022.
Read More »Deloitte Launches GovConnect to Modernize Public Health Infrastructure; Sanjay Shah, Lindsay Hough
Deloitte has launched a suite of cloud-based solutions to help leaders establish and deploy the strategy and capabilities to address the challenges facing their communities and combat the spread of COVID-19, while overseeing the recovery of public services and economic activity, the company reported on Tuesday.
Read More »Rep. Adam Smith Wants Next Stimulus Package to Prioritize Public Health
Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.), chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, said he thinks Congress should prioritize public health in the next economic stimulus bill to respond to the coronavirus pandemic instead of including more funds for defense, Defense News reported Wednesday.
Read More »White House Calls for Incorporation of Schema Tags Into COVID-19 Webpages
The White House and federal agencies have teamed up with collaborative community Schema.org to ensure that public health updates and related information on the new coronavirus appear on search engine results. Schema.org, which was founded by Microsoft, Google, Yahoo and other tech companies, created and issued new standard tags for COVID-19 webpages, including disease spread statistics, prevention measures, testing, travel guidance and quarantine rules, the White House said Wednesday.
Read More »CDC Wants Lawmakers to Fund Public Health Data Modernization Initiative
Officials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention called on House lawmakers to fund the existing Public Health Data Modernization Initiative that seeks to invest in new technology platforms that detect, monitor and analyze trends associated with disease outbreaks, FCW reported Tuesday.
Read More »President Trump Signs $8.3B Emergency Coronavirus Spending Bill; Sen. Maria Cantwell, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus Quoted
President Trump signed a new $8.3 billion spending bill to combat the spread of coronavirus, the White House announced on Friday. The funds will be allocated to the prevention efforts and research to expedite the development of a vaccine for the virus.
Read More »NIH NIAID Awards Booz Allen Hamilton $147M Support Contract to Protect Public Health Around the World; Roman Salasznyk Quoted
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) has awarded Booz Allen Hamilton a potential $147.4 million, five-year support contract to provide technical support and services that will help the Institute fulfill its mission to protect public health around the world, the company announced on Monday.
Read More »GAO: HHS’ ASPR Office Should Conduct Targeted Outreach on Personnel Reassignment Processes
The Government Accountability Office has recommended that Department of Health and Human Services instruct HHS’ Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response to conduct outreach programs to inform agencies and offices regarding ASPR expectations and processes. GAO said in a report published Monday that ASPR should also develop a plan to evaluate action reports …
Read More »Paula Yoon: CDC Explores Data Collection Tech to Modernize Disease Surveillance Systems
Paula Yoon, director of the health informatics and surveillance division at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, has said CDC currently explores technologies as part of an initiative to modernize aging public health surveillance systems. Yoon wrote in a blog post published Wednesday that CDC eyes application programming interfaces and microservices that …
Read More »Gayle Smith: USAID Contest to Seek Methods, Tools Against Zika Virus
The U.S. Agency for International Development will invest $30 million in a competition for innovators worldwide to help create approaches and technologies to stop the spread of the mosquito-borne Zika virus. USAID Administrator Gayle Smith said Wednesday the agency will seek ideas on how healthcare organizations can stem the Zika outbreak and better prepare for public health threats through Combating …
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