healthcarereimagined

By AARON BOYDJUNE 23, 2022 12:50 PM ET

The Boise Veterans Affairs Medical Center now plans to deploy the Cerner Millennium system a month later than originally planned, with the year’s remaining rollouts pushed to 2023.

The Veterans Affairs Department will be delaying future rollouts of the Cerner Millennium electronic health record system amid ongoing technical issues and a pending inspector general report detailing significant patient harm as a result.

The commercial EHR system was first deployed at Mann-Grandstaff VA Medical Center in Spokane, Washington in October 2020, after several delays. Following yet more delays while the incoming administration reviewed the program, the system was deployed at additional medical centers in the northwest in March of this year and in Ohio in May. But persistent outages—including at least 11 in the last three months—and technical issues have led to worsening care for veterans, prompting VA leadership to reevaluate the rollout schedule.

In an internal VA email distributed Wednesday and obtained by Nextgov, officials told staff an upcoming deployment at Boise VA Medical Center originally scheduled for this week—June 25—is now set for July 23.

“These additional few weeks will give Boise time to complete important staff training, give Oracle Cerner the time to finish the site’s scheduling grids, and ensure provisioning of staff,” the email states, noting, “This decision was made with input from [Veterans Health Administration] stakeholders, including site and [Veterans Integrated Services Networks] leadership.”

Similarly, the planned deployments at Puget Sound VA Health Care System set for August and VA Portland Health Care System set for November are being pushed out at least until March and April of next year, respectively, as VA and Cerner work to strengthen the system.

“In evaluating Puget Sound’s and Portland’s readiness for deployment, VA made the decision that, at this point, the system wasn’t yet stable enough to support current large-site deployments,” the note to employees states. “The date was changed to give Oracle Cerner additional time to put important system enhancements in place and make the necessary improvements to ensure system stability, consistently securing the 99.9% uptime Service Level Agreement.”

After Boise in July, the next deployment will now be Ann Arbor, Michigan in January—originally planned to go live this year—along with medical centers in Battle Creek and Saginaw.

“Therefore, there will be a period of six months between the deployment in Boise in July and the next deployment in Ann Arbor in January,” officials wrote. “During this short interim, we will not be idle; there is much work to do as we head into the busy schedule during the 2023 calendar year.”

Eleven Outages in Three Months

Various parts of the Cerner Millennium system running at VA medical centers have gone down or otherwise been out of service at least 11 times from April to June, according to documents obtained by Nextgov detailing each incident.

The severity of incidents ranged from limited access to dental records on May 10; a 1-hour downtime on May 1 that prevented clinicians from checking in or discharging patients; a nearly 7-hour outage of the PowerChart module on April 26 that prevented clinicians from updating patient charts; and multiple nationwide outages that knocked the entire system offline for extended periods.

After an outage in April prevented clinicians from accessing the systems for nearly three hours, VA officials told Nextgov there was no evidence at that time the outage led to any patient harm.

During such downtimes, clinic leadership submit “trouble tickets,” in which they note incidents that led to undue patient harm and can suggest a likely cause—such as an EHR outage.

“From what we know now, there haven’t been any reported to us,” Adirim said at the time. “The two outages … we are not aware, nor has it been reported to us that there has been any harm to patients.”

When prompted, Adirim clarified that reports might have been filed but those have yet to be fully investigated.

“There might have been reports but there were no patient safety incidents that we’re aware of,” she said.

A review by the VA Inspector General is said to include proof that previous outages and issues have harmed veterans in at least 148 cases, according to details in a draft document reported by the Spokane-based Spokesman-Review.

Further, that report states VA leadership was made aware of ongoing issues and risk to patients in October 2021 but opted to continue with additional rollouts.

The IG has yet to release the report publicly

“Although we are still waiting for the VA’s Office of Inspector General to release its report … the draft findings raised in media coverage over the weekend are seriously troubling and contradict what we have heard from VA officials during public testimony,” Chair of the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs Mark Takano, D-Calif., and Technology Modernization Subcommittee Chair Frank Mrvan, D-Ind., said in a statement Wednesday.

The congressmen noted they previously asked VA to delay rollouts at major facilities and asked for additional information about patient safety.

“We have already begun discussions with VA on the performance of Cerner and requested an official briefing on the forthcoming report,” they said. “Once released, we will be reviewing the findings closely in order to determine if there are any contractual or legal repercussions of these draft findings.”

VA medical center staff also expressed their frustrations with the system in a November 2021 survey, with two-thirds of employees at Mann-Grandstaff saying they were considering quitting over the system.

A representative from Oracle, which recently purchased Cerner and its EHR business, told Nextgov their team is working with VA on the structural and technical changes needed to shore up the system.

“Since acquiring Cerner just two weeks ago, Oracle engineers have already been on the ground making technical and operational changes, with an emphasis on patient safety, to ensure the system exceeds the expectations of providers, patients and the VA,” Deborah Hellinger, Oracle senior vice president of global corporate communications, said in an email Thursday. “We intend to bring substantially more resources to this program and deliver a modern, state-of-the-art electronic health system that will make the VA the industry standard. We have a contractual and moral obligation to deliver the best technology possible for our nation’s veterans, and we intend to do so.”

Article link: https://www.nextgov.com/it-modernization/2022/06/va-electronic-record-system-not-yet-stable-enough-planned-rollouts/368528/

Artificial intelligence use is booming, but it’s not the secret weapon you might imagine.

ALEXA O’BRIENJun 21, 2022 4:14

From cyber operations to disinformation, artificial intelligence extends the reach of national security threats that can target individuals and whole societies with precision, speed, and scale. As the US competes to stay ahead, the intelligence community is grappling with the fits and starts of the impending revolution brought on by AI.

The US intelligence community has launched initiatives to grapple with AI’s implications and ethical uses, and analysts have begun to conceptualize how AI will revolutionize their discipline, yet these approaches and other practical applications of such technologies by the IC have been largely fragmented.

As experts sound the alarm that the US is not prepared to defend itself against AI by its strategic rival, China, Congress has called for the IC to produce a plan for integration of such technologies into workflows to create an “AI digital ecosystem” in the 2022 Intelligence Authorization Act.

The term AI is used for a group of technologies that solve problems or perform tasks that mimic humanlike perception, cognition, learning, planning, communication, or actions. AI includes technologies that can theoretically survive autonomously in novel situations, but its more common application is machine learning or algorithms that predict, classify, or approximate empiric-like results using big data, statistical models, and correlation.

While AI that can mimic humanlike sentience remains theoretical and impractical for most IC applications, machine learning is addressing fundamental challenges created by the volume and velocity of information that analysts are tasked with evaluating today.

At the National Security Agency, machine learning finds patterns in the mass of signals intelligence collects from global web traffic. Machine learning also searches international news and other publicly accessible reporting by the CIA’s Directorate of Digital Innovation, responsible for advancing digital and cyber technologies in human and open-source collection, as well as its covert action and all-source analysis, which integrates all kinds of raw intelligence collected by US spies, whether technical or human. An all-source analyst evaluates the significance or meaning when that intelligence is taken together, memorializing it into finished assessments or reports for national security policymakers.

In fact, open source is key to the adoption of AI technologies by the intelligence community. Many AI technologies depend on big data to make quantitative judgments, and the scale and relevance of public data cannot be replicated in classified environments.

Capitalizing on AI and open source will enable the IC to utilize other finite collection capabilities, like human spies and signals intelligence collection, more efficiently. Other collection disciplines can be used to obtain the secrets that are hidden from not just humans but AI, too. In this context, AI may supply better global coverage of unforeseen or non-priority collection targets that could quickly evolve into threats.

Meanwhile, at the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, AI and machine learning extract data from images that are taken daily from nearly every corner of the world by commercial and government satellites. And the Defense Intelligence Agency trains algorithms to recognize nuclear, radar, environmental, material, chemical, and biological measurements and to evaluate these signatures, increasing the productivity of its analysts.

In one example of the IC’s successful use of AI, after exhausting all other avenues—from human spies to signals intelligence—the US was able to find an unidentified WMD research and development facility in a large Asian country by locating a bus that traveled between it and other known facilities. To do that, analysts employed algorithms to search and evaluate images of nearly every square inch of the country, according to a senior US intelligence official who spoke on background with the understanding of not being named.

While AI can calculate, retrieve, and employ programming that performs limited rational analyses, it lacks the calculus to properly dissect more emotional or unconscious components of human intelligence that are described by psychologists as system 1 thinking.

AI, for example, can draft intelligence reports that are akin to newspaper articles about baseball, which contain structured non-logical flow and repetitive content elements. However, when briefs require complexity of reasoning or logical arguments that justify or demonstrate conclusions, AI has been found lacking. When the intelligence community tested the capability, the intelligence official says, the product looked like an intelligence brief but was otherwise nonsensical.

Such algorithmic processes can be made to overlap, adding layers of complexity to computational reasoning, but even then those algorithms can’t interpret context as well as humans, especially when it comes to language, like hate speech.

AI’s comprehension might be more analogous to the comprehension of a human toddler, says Eric Curwin, chief technology officer at Pyrra Technologies, which identifies virtual threats to clients from violence to disinformation. “For example, AI can understand the basics of human language, but foundational models don’t have the latent or contextual knowledge to accomplish specific tasks,” Curwin says.

“From an analytic perspective, AI has a difficult time interpreting intent,” Curwin adds. “Computer science is a valuable and important field, but it is social computational scientists that are taking the big leaps in enabling machines to interpret, understand, and predict behavior.”

In order to “build models that can begin to replace human intuition or cognition,” Curwin explains, “researchers must first understand how to interpret behavior and translate that behavior into something AI can learn.”

Although machine learning and big data analytics provide predictive analysis about what might or will likely happen, it can’t explain to analysts how or why it arrived at those conclusions. The opaquenessin AI reasoning and the difficulty vetting sources, which consist of extremely large data sets, can impact the actual or perceived soundness and transparency of those conclusions.

Transparency in reasoning and sourcing are requirements for the analytical tradecraft standards of products produced by and for the intelligence community. Analytic objectivity is also statuatorically required, sparking calls within the US government to update such standards and laws in light of AI’s increasing prevalence.

Machine learning and algorithms when employed for predictive judgments are also considered by some intelligence practitioners as more art than science. That is, they are prone to biases, noise, and can be accompanied by methodologies that are not sound and lead to errors similar to those found in the criminal forensic sciences and arts.

“Algorithms are just a set of rules, and by definition are objective because they’re totally consistent,” says Welton Chang, cofounder and CEO of Pyrra Technologies. With algorithms, objectivity means applying the same rules over and over. Evidence of subjectivity, then, is the variance in the answers.

“It’s different when you consider the tradition of the philosophy of science,” says Chang. “The tradition of what counts as subjective is a person’s own perspective and bias. Objective truth is derived from consistency and agreement with external observation. When you evaluate an algorithm solely on its outputs and not whether those outputs match reality, that’s when you miss the bias built in.”

Depending on the presence or absence of bias and noise within massive data sets, especially in more pragmatic, real-world applications, predictive analysis has sometimes been described as “astrology for computer science.” But the same might be said of analysis performed by humans. A scholar on the subject, Stephen Marrin, writes that intelligence analysis as a discipline by humans is “merely a craft masquerading as a profession.”

Analysts in the US intelligence community are trained to use structured analytic techniques, or SATs, to make them aware of their own cognitive biases, assumptions, and reasoning. SATs—which use strategies that run the gamut from checklists to matrixes that test assumptions or predict alternative futures—externalize the thinking or reasoning used to support intelligence judgments, which is especially important given the fact that in the secret competition between nation-states not all facts are known or knowable. But even SATs, when employed by humans, have come under scrutiny by experts like Chang, specifically for the lack of scientific testing that can evidence an SAT’s efficacy or logical validity.

As AI is expected to increasingly augment or automate analysis for the intelligence community, it has become urgent to develop and implement standards and methods, which are both scientifically sound and ethical for law enforcement and national security contexts. While intelligence analysts grapple with how to match AI’s opacity to the evidentiary standards and argumentation methods required for the law enforcement and intelligence contexts, the same struggle can be found in understanding analysts’ unconscious reasoning, which can lead to accurate or biased conclusions.

Article link: https://www-wired-com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/www.wired.com/story/ai-machine-learning-us-intelligence-community/amp

Particularly relevant given January 6th and the state of political discourse in Congress and at all levels of government.

by Gary Hamel April 14, 2015

Pope Francis has not tried to hide his desire to radically reform the administrative structures of the Catholic Church, which he sees as imperious and insular. The Church is, essentially, a bureaucracy, full of good-hearted but imperfect people – not much different than any organization, making the Pope’s counsel relevant for leaders everywhere. Pope Francis’s 2014 address of the Roman Curia can be translated into corporate-speak. It identifies 15 “diseases” of leadership that can weaken the effectiveness of any organization. These diseases include excessive busyness that neglects the need for rest, and mental and emotional “petrification” that prevents compassion and humility. The Pope also warns against poor coordination, losing a sense of community by failing to work together. A set of questions corresponding to the 15 diseases can help you determine if you are a “healthy” leader.close

Pope Francis has made no secret of his intention to radically reform the administrative structures of the Catholic church, which he regards as insular, imperious, and bureaucratic. He understands that in a hyper-kinetic world, inward-looking and self-obsessed leaders are a liability.

Last year, just before Christmas, the Pope addressed the leaders of the Roman Curia — the Cardinals and other officials who are charged with running the church’s byzantine network of administrative bodies. The Pope’s message to his colleagues was blunt. Leaders are susceptible to an array of debilitating maladies, including arrogance, intolerance, myopia, and pettiness. When those diseases go untreated, the organization itself is enfeebled. To have a healthy church, we need healthy leaders.

Through the years, I’ve heard dozens of management experts enumerate the qualities of great leaders. Seldom, though, do they speak plainly about the “diseases” of leadership. The Pope is more forthright. He understands that as human beings we have certain proclivities — not all of them noble. Nevertheless, leaders should be held to a high standard, since their scope of influence makes their ailments particularly infectious.

The Catholic Church is a bureaucracy: a hierarchy populated by good-hearted, but less-than-perfect souls. In that sense, it’s not much different than your organization. That’s why the Pope’s counsel is relevant to leaders everywhere.

With that in mind, I spent a couple of hours translating the Pope’s address into something a little closer to corporate-speak. (I don’t know if there’s a prohibition on paraphrasing Papal pronouncements, but since I’m not Catholic, I’m willing to take the risk.)

Herewith, then, the Pope (more or less):

____________________

The leadership team is called constantly to improve and to grow in rapport and wisdom, in order to carry out fully its mission. And yet, like any body, like any human body, it is also exposed to diseases, malfunctioning, infirmity. Here I would like to mention some of these “[leadership] diseases.” They are diseases and temptations which can dangerously weaken the effectiveness of any organization.

1. The disease of thinking we are immortal, immune, or downright indispensable, [and therefore] neglecting the need for regular check-ups. A leadership team which is not self-critical, which does not keep up with things, which does not seek to be more fit, is a sick body. A simple visit to the cemetery might help us see the names of many people who thought they were immortal, immune, and indispensable! It is the disease of those who turn into lords and masters, who think of themselves as above others and not at their service. It is the pathology of power and comes from a superiority complex, from a narcissism which passionately gazes at its own image and does not see the face of others, especially the weakest and those most in need. The antidote to this plague is humility; to say heartily, “I am merely a servant. I have only done what was my duty.”
2. Another disease is excessive busyness. It is found in those who immerse themselves in work and inevitably neglect to “rest a while.” Neglecting needed rest leads to stress and agitation. A time of rest, for those who have completed their work, is necessary, obligatory and should be taken seriously: by spending time with one’s family and respecting holidays as moments for recharging.
3. Then there is the disease of mental and [emotional] “petrification.” It is found in leaders who have a heart of stone, the “stiff-necked;” in those who in the course of time lose their interior serenity, alertness and daring, and hide under a pile of papers, turning into paper pushers and not men and women of compassion. It is dangerous to lose the human sensitivity that enables us to weep with those who weep and to rejoice with those who rejoice! Because as time goes on, our hearts grow hard and become incapable of loving all those around us. Being a humane leader means having the sentiments of humility and unselfishness, of detachment and generosity.
4. The disease of excessive planning and of functionalism. When a leader plans everything down to the last detail and believes that with perfect planning things will fall into place, he or she becomes an accountant or an office manager. Things need to be prepared well, but without ever falling into the temptation of trying to eliminate spontaneity and serendipity, which is always more flexible than any human planning. We contract this disease because it is easy and comfortable to settle in our own sedentary and unchanging ways.
5. The disease of poor coordination. Once leaders lose a sense of community among themselves, the body loses its harmonious functioning and its equilibrium; it then becomes an orchestra that produces noise: its members do not work together and lose the spirit of camaraderie and teamwork. When the foot says to the arm: ‘I don’t need you,’ or the hand says to the head, ‘I’m in charge,’ they create discomfort and parochialism.
6. There is also a sort of “leadership Alzheimer’s disease.” It consists in losing the memory of those who nurtured, mentored and supported us in our own journeys. We see this in those who have lost the memory of their encounters with the great leaders who inspired them; in those who are completely caught up in the present moment, in their passions, whims and obsessions; in those who build walls and routines around themselves, and thus become more and more the slaves of idols carved by their own hands.
7. The disease of rivalry and vainglory. When appearances, our perks, and our titles become the primary object in life, we forget our fundamental duty as leaders—to “do nothing from selfishness or conceit but in humility count others better than ourselves.” [As leaders, we must] look not only to [our] own interests, but also to the interests of others.
8. The disease of existential schizophrenia. This is the disease of those who live a double life, the fruit of that hypocrisy typical of the mediocre and of a progressive emotional emptiness which no [accomplishment or] title can fill. It is a disease which often strikes those who are no longer directly in touch with customers and “ordinary” employees, and restrict themselves to bureaucratic matters, thus losing contact with reality, with concrete people.
9. The disease of gossiping, grumbling, and back-biting.This is a grave illness which begins simply, perhaps even in small talk, and takes over a person, making him become a “sower of weeds” and in many cases, a cold-blooded killer of the good name of colleagues. It is the disease of cowardly persons who lack the courage to speak out directly, but instead speak behind other people’s backs. Let us be on our guard against the terrorism of gossip!
10. The disease of idolizing superiors. This is the disease of those who court their superiors in the hope of gaining their favor. They are victims of careerism and opportunism; they honor persons [rather than the larger mission of the organization]. They think only of what they can get and not of what they should give; small-minded persons, unhappy and inspired only by their own lethal selfishness. Superiors themselves can be affected by this disease, when they try to obtain the submission, loyalty and psychological dependency of their subordinates, but the end result is unhealthy complicity.
11. The disease of indifference to others. This is where each leader thinks only of himself or herself, and loses the sincerity and warmth of [genuine] human relationships. This can happen in many ways: When the most knowledgeable person does not put that knowledge at the service of less knowledgeable colleagues, when you learn something and then keep it to yourself rather than sharing it in a helpful way with others; when out of jealousy or deceit you take joy in seeing others fall instead of helping them up and encouraging them.
12. The disease of a downcast face. You see this disease in those glum and dour persons who think that to be serious you have to put on a face of melancholy and severity, and treat others—especially those we consider our inferiors—with rigor, brusqueness and arrogance. In fact, a show of severity and sterile pessimism are frequently symptoms of fear and insecurity. A leader must make an effort to be courteous, serene, enthusiastic and joyful, a person who transmits joy everywhere he goes. A happy heart radiates an infectious joy: it is immediately evident! So a leader should never lose that joyful, humorous and even self-deprecating spirit which makes people amiable even in difficult situations. How beneficial is a good dose of humor! …
13. The disease of hoarding. This occurs when a leader tries to fill an existential void in his or her heart by accumulating material goods, not out of need but only in order to feel secure. The fact is that we are not able to bring material goods with us when we leave this life, since “the winding sheet does not have pockets” and all our treasures will never be able to fill that void; instead, they will only make it deeper and more demanding. Accumulating goods only burdens and inexorably slows down the journey!
14. The disease of closed circles, where belonging to a clique becomes more powerful than our shared identity. This disease too always begins with good intentions, but with the passing of time it enslaves its members and becomes a cancer which threatens the harmony of the organization and causes immense evil, especially to those we treat as outsiders. “Friendly fire” from our fellow soldiers, is the most insidious danger. It is the evil which strikes from within. As it says in the bible, “Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste.”
15. Lastly: the disease of extravagance and self-exhibition. This happens when a leader turns his or her service into power, and uses that power for material gain, or to acquire even greater power. This is the disease of persons who insatiably try to accumulate power and to this end are ready to slander, defame and discredit others; who put themselves on display to show that they are more capable than others. This disease does great harm because it leads people to justify the use of any means whatsoever to attain their goal, often in the name of justice and transparency! Here I remember a leader who used to call journalists to tell and invent private and confidential matters involving his colleagues. The only thing he was concerned about was being able to see himself on the front page, since this made him feel powerful and glamorous, while causing great harm to others and to the organization.

Friends, these diseases are a danger for every leader and every organization, and they can strike at the individual and the community levels.

____________________

So, are you a healthy leader? Use the Pope’s inventory of leadership maladies to find out. Ask yourself, on a scale of 1 to 5, to what extent do I . . .

• Feel superior to those who work for me?
• Demonstrate an imbalance between work and other areas of life?
• Substitute formality for true human intimacy?
• Rely too much on plans and not enough on intuition and improvisation?
• Spend too little time breaking silos and building bridges?
• Fail to regularly acknowledge the debt I owe to my mentors and to others?
• Take too much satisfaction in my perks and privileges?
• Isolate myself from customers and first-level employees?
• Denigrate the motives and accomplishments of others?
• Exhibit or encourage undue deference and servility?
• Put my own success ahead of the success of others?
• Fail to cultivate a fun and joy-filled work environment?
• Exhibit selfishness when it comes to sharing rewards and praise?
• Encourage parochialism rather than community?
• Behave in ways that seem egocentric to those around me?

As in all health matters, it’s good to get a second or third opinion. Ask your colleagues to score you on the same fifteen items. Don’t be surprised if they say, “Gee boss, you’re not looking too good today.” Like a battery of medical tests, these questions can help you zero in on opportunities to prevent disease and improve your health. A Papal leadership assessment may seem like a bit of a stretch. But remember: the responsibilities you hold as a leader, and the influence you have over others’ lives, can be profound. Why not turn to the Pope — a spiritual leader of leaders — for wisdom and advice?

• Gary Hamel is a visiting professor at London Business School and the founder of the Management Lab. He is a coauthor of Humanocracy: Creating Organizations as Amazing as the People Inside Them (Harvard Business Review Press, 2020).

Article link: https://hbr.org/2015/04/the-15-diseases-of-leadership-according-to-pope-francis

• JANE EDWARDS. JUNE 13, 2022

Raj Iyer, chief information officer of the U.S. Army, said the service intends to spend $1.4 billion by fiscal year 2023 on the modernization of its enterprise resource planning systems used to manage its financial, logistics, human resources and training activities, Breaking Defense reported Friday.

He told reporters during a briefing Thursday the military branch will award multiple other transaction authority agreements that will run between 12 and 18 months to build prototypes for enterprise business systems and then award a production contract following the downselection process.

“Some of the things that we will be looking for as part of … this prototype is to look at how modular the architecture is, again, to make sure that is future-proofed,” said Iyer, a 2022 Wash100 Award winner.

“We’ll be looking at the ability to support data exchange through APIs and micro-services … We’ll be looking at the system being cloud native from the get-go and making sure that we can fully benefit from a future modern architecture … We’ll be looking at how flexible the solution will be in terms of its ability to implement Army-unique processes where we have them without the need to customize commercial-off-the-shelf products,” he added.

Iyer also discussed how the Army will spend its FY 2023 budget request of $16.6 billion for information technology and cybersecurity.

Iyer will headline GovCon Wire Events’ 2nd Annual Army IT and Digital Transformation Forum on Wednesday, June 15. Join this forum to hear from military, government and industry leaders on how the Army pursues innovation and advances digital technology adoption to help the force fight and win the battles of tomorrow.

Article link: https://www.govconwire.com/2022/06/raj-iyer-army-to-invest-1-4b-in-erp-system-modernization/

Bernard Marr

ContributorJun 20, 2022,01:13amEDT https://www.gstatic.com/readaloud/forbes/player/web/api/iframe/index.html?

The digital twin is an exciting concept and undoubtedly one of the hottest tech trends right now. It fuses ideas including artificial intelligence (AI), the internet of things (IoT), metaverse, and virtual and augmented reality (VR/AR) to create digital models of real-world objects, systems, or processes. These models can then be used to tweak and adjust variables to study the effect on whatever is being twinned – at a fraction of the cost of carrying out experiments in the real world. 

Businesses around the globe are looking to deploy Digital Twins across a broad range of applications, ranging from engineering design of complex equipment and 3D immersive environments to precision medicine and digital agriculture. However, to date, applications have been highly customized and only accessible for high value use-cases, such as the operations of jet engines, industrial facilities and power plants. Now leading technology companies like AWS are working hard to lower the costs and simplify the deployment of this technology, with AWS IoT TwinMaker, making it easier and more accessible for all kinds and sizes of companies to build their own Digital Twins.

Some truly groundbreaking digital twins have been developed in recent years that are inspiring the industry and helping to push the envelope of what is possible in the fields of science, medicine, engineering, pharmaceuticals, sports, and many more. Here are some of the most interesting and innovative examples.

The Human Brain

Let’s start with the most ambitious! The human brain is, as far as we know, the most complex structure or organism in the universe. Creating a digital simulation of it is incredibly complicated, but that hasn’t put people off trying. The EU-funded Neurotwinproject aims to simulate specific human brains in order to build models that can predict the best treatments for conditions such as Alzheimer’s and epilepsy. There have been other attempts to simulate aspects of the brain in the past, but Neurotwin is the first project that focuses on modeling both the electromagnetic activity and the physiology. Clinical trials using the model are due to start in 2023.

An Entire Human

Ok, so this one is a bit of a pipe dream right now, but the science exists to make it a reality. Former GE CEO Bill Ruh predicts that one day, every human will have a digital twin at birth, which can be used to design bespoke treatments for that person when they become ill, as well as model the impact of lifestyle choices on his or her long-term health. Using that person’s unique genome, it will be possible to predict the effects of different drugs, providing insight into the best treatment options if the person is struck by conditions such as cancer or Parkinson’s disease. This will minimize the wasted cost of failed treatment programs that were never going to work due to the patient’s genetics, and lengthen lifespans.

Los Angeles Transportation 

The Los Angeles Department of Transportation has partnered with the Open Mobility Foundation to create a data-driven digital twin of the city’s transport infrastructure. To start with, it will model the movement and activity of micro-mobility solutions such as the city’s network of shared-use bicycles and e-scooters. After that, it will be expanded to cover ride-sharing services, carpools, and new mobility solutions that will appear, such as autonomous taxi drones. 

The Whole of Shanghai

The Shanghai Urban Operations and Management Center has built a digital twin of the city of 26 million inhabitants, which models 100,000 elements from refuse disposal and collection facilities to e-bike charging infrastructure, road traffic, and the size and location of apartment buildings. Its creator, 51World, uses data from satellites and drones to construct the living model, which, among other uses, is helping authorities to plan and react in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic. It can also be used to simulate the effects of natural disasters such as flooding to aid with response planning. 

A Sports Stadium

Los Angeles’ Sofi Stadium – home to NFL teams the LA Rams and LA Chargers – has its own digital twin, which models not just the stadium itself but also the 300-acre Hollywood Park campus around it. Built as the stadium itself was undergoing construction (starting in 2020), it collects data in real-time from every area of the park’s operations into a single platform that can be used to answer questions from everybody from event organizers looking to use the space, to maintenance and janitorial operations. Users engage with the twin via an “app store” model, where they can engage with applications specific to the features and functionality that they need to work with. 

The World’s First 3D-Printed Bridge

The 12-meter steel bridge spanning the Oudezijds Achterburgwal canal in central Amsterdam is remarkable due to the fact it is the first pedestrian bridge to be entirely constructed via 3D printing. It’s also unique due to the fact it has its own digital twin. A network of sensors is placed across the structure as part of a project led by the Turing Institute. These sensors gather data that is used to build the twin, which can then be used to analyze the performance of the structure as it comes under stress during everyday use. This is particularly important considering it is the first bridge ever to be built using this technology, and more data about the safety and strength of 3D printed structures is vital if it’s going to become a mainstream engineering tool in the future.

Every Tesla Ever Sold

Tesla creates a digital simulation of every one of its cars, using data collected from sensors on the vehicles and uploaded to the cloud. These allow the company’s AI algorithms to determine where faults and breakdowns are most likely to occur and minimize the need for owners to take their cars to servicing stations for repairs and maintenance. This reduces cost to the company of servicing cars that are under warranty and improves user experience, leading to more satisfied customers and a higher chance of winning repeat business.

Article link: https://www.forbes.com/sites/bernardmarr/2022/06/20/the-best-examples-of-digital-twins-everyone-should-know-about/amp/

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By ALEXANDRA KELLEYJUNE 16, 2022

The TMF is accepting proposals from federal agencies looking to modernize digital services with a human-centric design.

$100 million from the federal Technology Modernization Fund will be allocated toward improving customer experiences for civilian end users interacting with U.S. government digital services.

Announced on Thursday, the Office of Management and Budget and the General Services Administration—two agencies that help oversee the TMF—are investing large sums into improving federal digital services. Improving user experience with government services has been one of the priority items on the Biden-Harris administration agenda. 

“Federal service delivery has not kept pace with the needs and expectations of the public. The American people deserve a government that puts people at the center of everything it does,” said Federal Chief Information Officer and TMF Board Chair Clare Martorana. “With this funding, we will deploy secure technology that reduces costs for agencies, eliminates burdens for the federal workforce and those it serves and powers services that meet the public’s expectations.”

Some of the areas the injection of funding will look to tackle include cutting waiting times, avoiding administering duplicative paperwork and streamlining access to government services. 

The $100 million will be dispersed over a group of projects selected from federal agencies, and those interested must apply by September 30, with approved projects selected on a rolling basis.

TMF board members will look at initiatives that focus on modernizing government digital tools and services, bolstered by customer research and data. Selected projects will also include measurable milestones and deliverables to accurately gauge progress. The final digital tool will focus on human-centered design within new federal software. 

“Government technology and websites can and must work better for the people and communities we serve,” said GSA Administrator Robin Carnahan. “Targeted TMF funding focused on making their lives easier when they need government services is a no brainer. It’s also a smart way to invest tax dollars to ensure the American people are getting the most for their money.”

So far, the TMF has dispersed about $400 million in funding across 12 projects from its reserve of $1 billion for the fiscal year, partially spurred into action by President Joe Biden’s executive order on improving federal customer experience signed earlier this year. 

Similar to the TMF’s project funding goals, Biden’s order emphasized intuitive technology to help connect Americans to crucial government services.

Article link: https://www.nextgov.com/it-modernization/2022/06/tech-modernization-fund-launches-fresh-100-million-cx-projects/368273/

By Jackie Gilbert

 June 13, 2022

Updated June 13, 2022

Notice ID: 36C10B21Q0551

“The purpose of this RFI was to gather additional information to help VA determine the most suitable acquisition strategy to maintain and evolve its existing VA Enterprise Cloud (VAEC) which is currently built upon the cloud services of Microsoft Azure Government (MAG) and Amazon Web Services (AWS) GovCloud. This included contemplating the complete replacement of one or both of VA s existing Cloud Service Providers (CSPs) and/or expanding the VAEC to include additional FedRAMP High certified CSPs. Currently, VAEC requires access through the purchase of cloud credits to only FedRAMP High Government Community Cloud (GCC) service providers with VA Authority to Operate for the full suite of Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) models. Further, VA anticipates any expansion effort involving the integration of additional CSPs within the VAEC will be executed through separate brand name acquisitions. VA has architected and operates its enterprise cloud, and any additional CSP would need to be architected in accordance with VA technical requirements. These facts do not restrict competition for other SaaS and PaaS cloud offerings which are outside the scope of the VAEC. Based on the above, the Request for Quotation will be posted to National Aeronautics and Space Administration Solutions for Enterprisewide Procurement Governmentwide Acquisition Contract for limited competition among resellers for the required brand name AWS cloud service capabilities and professional services.”

Read more here.

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Posted September 17, 2021

Notice ID: 36C10B21Q0551

“Background: The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has successfully stood up its own VA Enterprise Cloud (VAEC) over the past 3-4 years consisting of two Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP) High Cloud Service Providers (CSP), Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure. Additional security and tooling has been established on top of these Government clouds. During this time, VA has amassed significant, Veteran-facing and VA-facing cloud IT solutions for its three administrations, the Veterans Health Administration, Veterans Benefits Administration and National Cemetery Administration as well for its Office of Information & Technology and VA Central Offices. Significant investment has been made in customizing workloads for the underlying CSPs. Security controls were inherited by the CSP’s FedRAMP Authority to Operate and VA added security controls to both clouds equally but separately…”

“The vehicles through which VA is procuring its cloud capacity and associated services are expiring in fiscal year 2022. As such, VA is in the planning stages of developing the acquisition strategies to meet these continuing requirements. VA is seeking input from FedRAMP High certified CSPs to determine the impact (i.e., cost, operational, schedule) of replacing one or both of VA’s existing CSPs, and/or the value and benefit (i.e., cost, technical) of expanding its existing VAEC to include additional CSPs. Initial market research and technical analysis efforts have revealed that replacement efforts could result in duplicative costs, schedule and operational impacts. Similarly, introducing any new CSPs into VAEC could result in duplicative costs, and significant time per additional CSP just to replicate all of the required tooling, security controls and monitoring capabilities that are already present within and around VAEC-Azure and VAEC-AWS for successful operation within the FedRAMP High VAEC architecture…”

Read more here.

Article link: https://www.fedhealthit.com/2022/06/va-rfi-enterprise-cloud-capacity-program/

An MIT Technology Review series investigates how AI is enriching a powerful few by dispossessing communities that have been dispossessed before.

EDEL RODRIGUEZ

by Karen Haoarchive page

This story is the introduction to MIT Technology Review’s series on AI colonialism, which was supported by the MIT Knight Science Journalism Fellowship Program and the Pulitzer Center. Read the full series here.

My husband and I love to eat and to learn about history. So shortly after we married, we chose to honeymoon along the southern coast of Spain. The region, historically ruled by Greeks, Romans, Muslims, and Christians in turn, is famed for its stunning architecture and rich fusion of cuisines.

Related Story

South Africa’s private surveillance machine is fueling a digital apartheid

As firms have dumped their AI technologies into the country, it’s created a blueprint for how to surveil citizens and serves as a warning to the world.

Little did I know how much this personal trip would intersect with my reporting. Over the last few years, an increasing number of scholars have argued that the impact of AI is repeating the patterns of colonial history. European colonialism, they say, was characterized by the violent capture of land, extraction of resources, and exploitation of people—for example, through slavery—for the economic enrichment of the conquering country. While it would diminish the depth of past traumas to say the AI industry is repeating this violence today, it is now using other, more insidious means to enrich the wealthy and powerful at the great expense of the poor.

I had already begun to investigate these claims when my husband and I began to journey through Seville, Córdoba, Granada, and Barcelona. As I simultaneously read The Costs of Connection, one of the foundational texts that first proposed a “data colonialism,” I realized that these cities were the birthplaces of European colonialism—cities through which Christopher Columbus traveled as he voyaged back and forth to the Americas, and through which the Spanish crown transformed the world order.

In Barcelona especially, physical remnants of this past abound. The city is known for its Catalan modernism, an iconic aesthetic popularized by Antoni Gaudí, the mastermind behind the Sagrada Familia. The architectural movement was born in part from the investments of wealthy Spanish families who amassed riches from their colonial businesses and funneled the money into lavish mansions.

Related Story

How the AI industry profits from catastrophe

As the demand for data labeling exploded, an economic catastrophe turned Venezuela into ground zero for a new model of labor exploitation.

One of the most famous, known as the Casa Lleó Morera, was built early in the 20th century with profits made from the sugar trade in Puerto Rico. While tourists from around the world today visit the mansion for its beauty, Puerto Rico still suffers from food insecuritybecause for so long its fertile land produced cash crops for Spanish merchants instead of sustenance for the local people.

As we stood in front of the intricately carved façade, which features flora, mythical creatures, and four women holding the four greatest inventions of the time (a lightbulb, a telephone, a gramophone, and a camera), I could see the parallels between this embodiment of colonial extraction and global AI development.

The AI industry does not seek to capture land as the conquistadors of the Caribbean and Latin America did, but the same desire for profit drives it to expand its reach. The more users a company can acquire for its products, the more subjects it can have for its algorithms, and the more resources—data—it can harvest from their activities, their movements, and even their bodies.

Neither does the industry still exploit labor through mass-scale slavery, which necessitated the propagation of racist beliefs that dehumanized entire populations. But it has developed new ways of exploiting cheap and precarious labor, often in the Global South, shaped by implicit ideas that such populations don’t need—or are less deserving of—livable wages and economic stability.

MIT Technology Review’s new AI Colonialism series digs into these and other parallels between AI development and the colonial past by examining communities that have been profoundly changed by the technology. In part one, we head to South Africa, where AI surveillance tools, built on the extraction of people’s behaviors and faces, are re-entrenching racial hierarchies and fueling a digital apartheid. 

In part two, we head to Venezuela, where AI data-labeling firms found cheap and desperate workers amid a devastating economic crisis, creating a new model of labor exploitation. The series also looks at ways to move away from these dynamics. In part three, we visit ride-hailing drivers in Indonesia who, by building power through community, are learning to resist algorithmic control and fragmentation. In part four, we end in Aotearoa, the Māori name for New Zealand, where an Indigenous couple are wresting back control of their community’s datato revitalize its language.

Together, the stories reveal how AI is impoverishing the communities and countries that don’t have a say in its development—the same communities and countries already impoverished by former colonial empires. They also suggest how AI could be so much more—a way for the historically dispossessed to reassert their culture, their voice, and their right to determine their own future.

That is ultimately the aim of this series: to broaden the view of AI’s impact on society so as to begin to figure out how things could be different. It’s not possible to talk about “AI for everyone” (Google’s rhetoric), “responsible AI” (Facebook’s rhetoric), or “broadly distribut[ing]” its benefits (OpenAI’s rhetoric) without honestly acknowledging and confronting the obstacles in the way.

Now a new generation of scholars is championing a “decolonial AI” to return power from the Global North back to the Global South, from Silicon Valley back to the people. My hope is that this series can provide a prompt for what “decolonial AI” might look like—and an invitation, because there’s so much more to explore.

Article link: https://www.technologyreview.com/2022/04/19/1049592/artificial-intelligence-colonialism/

Read MIT Technology Review’s series on AI Colonialism here.

In 1988, the anthropologist Joseph Tainter published a book called The Collapse of Complex Societies. In it, he described the rise and fall of great civilizations such as the Romans, the Mayans, and the Chacoans. His goal was to answer a question that had vexed thinkers over the centuries: why did such mighty societies collapse?

In his analysis, Tainter found the primary enemy of these societies to be complexity. As civilizations grow, they add more and more complexity: more hierarchies, more bureaucracies, deeper intertwinings of social structures. Early on, this makes sense: each new level of complexity brings rewards, in terms of increased economic output, tax revenue, etc. But at a certain point, the law of diminishing returns sets in, and each new level of complexity brings fewer and fewer net benefits, dwindling down to zero and beyond.

But since complexity has worked so well for so long, societies are unable to adapt. Even when each new layer of complexity starts to bring zero or even negative returns on investment, people continue trying to do what worked in the past. At some point, the morass they’ve built becomes so dysfunctional and unwieldy that the only solution is collapse: i.e., a rapid decrease in complexity, usually by abolishing the old system and starting from scratch.

What I find fascinating about this (besides the obvious implications for modern civilization) is that Tainter could have been writing about software.

Anyone who’s worked in the tech industry for long enough, especially at larger organizations, has seen it before. A legacy system exists: it’s big, it’s complex, and no one fully understands how it works. Architects are brought in to “fix” the system. They might wheel out a big whiteboard showing a lot of boxes and arrows pointing at other boxes, and inevitably, their solution is… to add more boxes and arrows. Nobody can subtract from the system; everyone just adds.

“EKS is being deprecated at the end of the month for Omega Star, but Omega Star still doesn’t support ISO timestamps.” We’ve all been there. (Via Krazam)

This might go on for several years. At some point, though, an organizational shakeup probably occurs – a merger, a reorg, the polite release of some senior executive to go focus on their painting hobby for a while. A new band of architects is brought in, and their solution to the “big diagram of boxes and arrows” problem is much simpler: draw a big red X through the whole thing. The old system is sunset or deprecated, the haggard veterans who worked on it either leave or are reshuffled to other projects, and a fresh-faced team is brought in to, blessedly, design a new system from scratch.

As disappointing as it may be for those of us who might aspire to write the kind of software that is timeless and enduring, you have to admit that this system works. For all its wastefulness, inefficiency, and pure mendacity (“The old code works fine!” “No wait, the old code is terrible!”), this is the model that has sustained a lot of software companies over the past few decades.

Will this cycle go on forever, though? I’m not so sure. Right now, the software industry has been in a nearly two-decade economic boom (with some fits and starts), but the one sure thing in economics is that booms eventually turn to busts. During the boom, software companies can keep hiring new headcount to manage their existing software (i.e. more engineers to understand more boxes and arrows), but if their labor force is forced to contract, then that same system may become unmaintainable. A rapid and permanent reduction in complexity may be the only long-term solution.

One thing working in complexity’s favor, though, is that engineers likecomplexity. Admit it: as much as we complain about other people’s complexity, we love our own. We love sitting around and dreaming up new architectural diagrams that can comfortably sit inside our own heads – it’s only when these diagrams leave our heads, take shape in the real world, and outgrow the size of any one person’s head that the problems begin.

It takes a lot of discipline to resist complexity, to say “no” to new boxes and arrows. To say, “No, we won’t solve that problem, because that will just introduce 10 new problems that we haven’t imagined yet.” Or to say, “Let’s go with a much simpler design, even if it seems amateurish, because at least we can understand it.” Or to just say, “Let’s do less instead of more.”

Simplicity of design sounds great in theory, but it might not win you many plaudits from your peers. A complex design means more teams to manage more parts of the system, more for the engineers to do, more meetings and planning sessions, maybe some more patents to file. A simple design might make it seem like you’re not really doing your job. “That’s it? We’re done? We can clock out?” And when promotion season comes around, it might be easier to make a case for yourself with a dazzling new design than a boring, well-understood solution.

Ultimately, I think whether software follows the boom-and-bust model, or a more sustainable model, will depend on the economic pressures of the organization that is producing the software. A software company that values growth at all cost, like the Romans eagerly gobbling up more and more of Gaul, will likely fall into the “add-complexity-and-collapse” cycle. A software company with more modest aims, that has a stable customer base and doesn’t change much over time (does such a thing exist?) will be more like the humble tribe that follows the yearly migration of the antelope and focuses on sustainable, tried-and-true techniques. (Whether such companies will end up like the hapless Gauls, overrun by Caesar and his armies, is another question.)

Personally, I try to maintain a good sense of humor about this situation, and to avoid giving in to cynicism or despair. Software is fun to write, but it’s also very impermanent in the current industry. If the code you wrote 10 years ago is still in use, then you have a lot to crow about. If not, then hey, at least you’re in good company with the rest of us, who probably make up the majority of software developers. Just keep doing the best you can, and try to have a healthy degree of skepticism when some wild-eyed architect wheels out a big diagram with a lot of boxes and arrows.

Article link: https://nolanlawson.com/2022/06/09/the-collapse-of-complex-software/

The June 2022 report offers recommendations to the private sector, U.S. Congress, and the federal government to build up the nation’s cybersecurity talent pool.

By Christopher Burgess

CSO

JUN 6, 2022 2:00 AM PT

The Cyberspace Solarium Commission 2.0 released its most recent report on June 02, 2022. This iteration re-affirmed the continued need for public-private partnership in cybersecurity, including the development of shared resources and increased investment in a cyber workforce. Additionally, the report included a plethora of recommendations for the U.S. national cyber director’s action concerning educating and developing the national cyber workforce, as well as expanding the hiring authorities for cyber positions, and establishing “special pay rates for the most in-demand roles.” The 43-page report included seven fulsome recommendations for the national cyber director, U.S. Congress, and the private sector, which if adopted would serve to enhance the recruitment, retention, and performance of the nation’s cyber workforce in both public and private sectors.

The report’s review of the current state of affairs highlights what every CISO in both government and private entities knows: There is a talent shortage. The lack of talent, however, doesn’t always equate to less being accomplished. One may envision Lucille Ball and the chocolate confection conveyor belt as an accurate analogy, as over time more and more is expected.

The lack of personnel has and will continue to create a national security concern, “particularly when they occur in critical-infrastructure systems or supply chains upon which that infrastructure exists,” said the report.

For over a decade the forecast of shortages and the impending impact has been the topic of many a story. In its report, the Commission notes that over 600,000 cybersecurity positions across all sectors, including government, remain empty. Not mincing words, the Commission notes, “the cybersecurity community is out of time.”

National cyber director cybersecurity recommendations

• Establish a process for ongoing cyber workforce data collection and evaluation.
• Establish leadership and coordination structures.
• Review and align cyber workforce budgets.
• Create a cyber workforce development strategy for the federal government.
• Revamp cyber hiring authorities and pay flexibilities government-wide.

Congressional cybersecurity recommendations

• Amend the Federal Cybersecurity Workforce Assessment Act of 2015.
• Increase support for the CyberCorps: Scholarship for Service Program.
• Provide incentives to develop entry-level employees into mid-career talent.
• Strive for clarity in roles and responsibilities for cyber workforce development.
• Exercise oversight of federal cyber workforce development in each department and agency.
• Establish cyber excepted service authorities government-wide.
• Expand appropriations for existing efforts in cyber workforce development.

Private Sector cybersecurity recommendations

• Increase investment in the cyber workforce.
• Develop shared resources.

CISO takeaways from the Solarium Commission report

Referencing manpower shortages, the Commission highlights the tendency to count open billets as the primary means to determine understaffing as a shortcoming is spot-on. CISOs will be well served to take on board the recommendation to include in their measurements of the actual need. In doing so they will need to identify what is the optimal number of employees to conduct the tasks at hand. This may create a delta, between the actual number of positions and desired number of positions, thus putting underfunding as a measurable shortcoming. Whether within the government or private sector such a discussion might be contentious as every organization has internal battles for resources.

While my time within government was many moons ago, the feeling was always that within government, largely due to the long administrative tail and complicated procurement paths, the private sector was always a generation or two ahead. There may not be opportunities for CISOs to directly participate in the intra-governmental working groups and committees, yet several national cyber workforce evolution opportunities are available, and CISOs are encouraged to participate.

The report highlights the general lack of diversity within the federal government’s cyber workforce, particularly at the leadership level, characterizing “the average federal worker is more likely to be older, male, and possess a college degree relative to the rest of the U.S. labor force.” This characterization should not be taken as a signal that diversity within the private sector is where it should be, but rather as an observation that the U.S. government is trailing. There is much which can and should be done to keep diversifying the national workforce.

CISOs have enjoyed the existence of the “pay gap” in the race for talent, as only limited parts of the government have the means to create pay flexibility to bring in needed talent. With the recommendation to change the status quo and bring the pay for cyber employees closer to that of the private sector, CISOs may wish to ensure their total compensation packages for their current and future employees are complete. Working for the federal government will be more attractive, as “service to the nation” does fill the narrower pay gap for many individuals. 

The report also calls for congressional action to support the national cyber workforce. While many companies engage lobbyists to bring their corporate messages, wants, and desires to the legislative branch of the U.S. government, direct outreach from practitioners, the CISO, and their staff, provide legislators with a ground-truth view as the lawmakers take on various actions designed to enhance, grow, and sustain the national cyber talent pool.

Article link: https://www-csoonline-com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/www.csoonline.com/article/3663014/latest-cyberspace-solarium-commission-2-0-report-focuses-on-cyber-workforce.amp.html