1. Public Health Emergency Response Use Case: Blockchain for a Mobile Workforce
Sachiko A. Kuwabara, PhD, MA
Director, Office of Risk Management and Operational Integrity
Division of Emergency Operations | Center for Preparedness and Response
ACT-IAC Healthcare Blockchain Forum
27 March 2019

2. Use Case: Mobilizing Surge Capacity

3. CDC’s Mission:
CDC works 24/7 to protect America from health, safety and security threats, both foreign and in the U.S.
As the nation’s health protection agency, CDC saves lives and protects people from health threats. To accomplish our mission, CDC conducts critical science and provides health information that protects our nation against expensive and dangerous health threats, and responds when these arise.

4. Deployment of CDC Experts When & Where Needed
Risks to a timely and effective response
Ability to rapidly mobilize surge capacity
Current State: Systems that Support Mobilization
“Siloed” Data
Legacy Systems
Lack of Trust in the Data

5. Challenges Shallow data pool for analytics
Manual data entry (low trust data, entry errors, etc)
Highly ambiguous requirements completion process for deployers
Requirements verified manually (phone, )
Communication difficult, ambiguous contacts
Overwhelming amount of pre-deployment information
Inconsistent, difficult, non-system tracked safety check-ins
Information learned on return not easily used to improve future deployments

6. Opportunities to Leverage Emerging Technology
To make our emergency management systems
More intelligent
More secure
More effective
To collect, analyze, and communicate data
To streamline processes and enable better decision making

7. Why Blockchain?

8. Benefits of Blockchain for Emergency Response?
Allows data owners to retain ownership while still participating in eco-system
Secure, cross-organizational data sharing; facilitates intra-agency participation
Smart contracts drive automated workflow, actions and robust data trail
Immutability of critical data for compliance, safety, analytics, etc.
Automated, high-trust data and immutability create robust foundation for artificial intelligence

9. Goals: Enable more sophisticated, streamlined processes
Enhance our use of data to drive decisions
Improve capacity and efficiency by connecting disparate data systems and modernizing operations
Share and utilize data to enhance coordination, leading to more informed, data driven decision making
Centralized coordination, decentralized execution

10. Proof of Concept

11. Our Approach Start small Human-centered design and discovery
Agile development and rapid prototyping principles
Leverage existing consortiums
Integration with new and existing systems (enterprise solution)
Cross-functional project team
Focus on user experience
Microservices
Expansion strategy

12. Explore Viability of Blockchain Technology
Analyze and map out business process
Prioritize and define exact opportunities to
optimize emergency response process, and
facilitate advanced automation techniques.
Leveraging rapid prototyping principles, work collaboratively with stakeholders to develop a product that,
meets business needs, and
is approachable and easy to use.

13. Web App, Mobile App, DLT
Establish an incorruptible, distributed database
House structured and unstructured deployment data (i.e., readiness state)
Aggregate information from other systems
Build a limited mobile app to show the value of cognitive automation and how it can reduce deployment time

14. Return on Investment
Decrease amount of time required to clear, track and monitor deployed assets
Increase data quality, usability and transparency
Improve feedback loop among users
Expand use of advanced data analytics

15. Next Steps: Scale solution
Focus on access to additional data and deployment insights
Refocus business/Agency mindset
How can data help to answer tough questions and automate the answering of easy ones?
Minimally Viable Product (MVP)
ATO Process & Implementation

16. Considerations

17. Technical Considerations
Public/Permissioned
On chain/off-chain
Scalability, auditability requirements
Operating environment
Authority to Operate (ATO) process
Operating Costs

18. Other Considerations Culture/Organizational Readiness
Decentralized Nature – Rules and Regulations
Governance

19. Balancing Hype with Tangible Experiences
Showcase Technology
Demonstrate Value
Engage stakeholders in incremental process

20. Thank you.