VA CDO Wants Data to be as Reliable as Water, Electricity – GovCIO Media & Research

VA CDO Wants Data to be as Reliable as Water, Electricity  GovCIO Media & Research

Lisa Rosenmerkel said the agency is striving to utilize its data with utility-level reliability to make it easier to get services to veterans. If Lisa Rosenmerkel had one wish for the Department of Veterans Affairs’ data, it would be for it to become as much of an afterthought as water or electricity. “You don’t really think too much about it, right? You just turn on the tap, and water comes out, and you know it’s clean because someone really smart at the water company makes sure it’s clean. Turn on the electricity; it doesn’t hurt your appliances because it’s all managed and coordinated,” said the VA’s CDO Thursday at the Federal Cloud & Data Forum.

“You don’t think about it. You just know it’s going to be there when you need it, and I feel like data can have that same effect.” Overseeing massive troves of veteran information, Rosenmerkel aims to put those datasets to work to better anticipate veterans’ needs for VA services rather than requiring them to repeatedly search for and request services. Achieving that goal requires a combination of cultural change, infrastructure modernization and safeguards to ensure data can provide new insights securely. The burgeoning awareness of artificial intelligence and automation has sparked more conversations within VA about how to better use data. But Rosenmerkel said that