Technology Transformation

FDA:  For the past 6 years, DRT has helped the FDA to modernize the mission critical systems used to protect the nation’s food, drug, and medical device supplies. As an example, DRT led a multi-vendor team in development of a new system-to-system information interface protocol that provided a ten-fold increase in the capacity of an FDA system to receive medical industry submissions.  DRT organized and led the technical assessment sessions to create a new service, JMS messaging queue, communication protocol, and thread management that worked seamlessly with the existing system.     

FDA:  DRT helped develop FDA’s Enterprise Performance Lifecycle 2.0 enabling their nascent digital services program and adoption of the Agile development methodology.  We developed and employed a requirements elicitation plan at the FDA’s Office of Criminal Investigations’ (OCI) that had the requirements team interview multiple system users from each major user-type.  Touching multiple users for each user-type ensured that the necessary depth and nuance was captured for every user story for the redesign of the OCI Automated Information Management System (AIMS) portal. 

For the FDA’s Food Safety Modernization Act program, DRT developed information taxonomies, conceptual and logical data models, and designed a data warehouse for program reporting. We also integrated Tableau with Salesforce to develop business intelligence tools such as dashboards, reports, and graphs to help with improved analytics and decision making, and to visually correlate complex data sets in a simple and intuitive graphical display.   

CDC:   As stewards of CDC’s ALS Registry Web Portal, DRT constantly seek ways to leverage this critical data for greater effectiveness on behalf of the public health.  Recent enhancements include a tool to allow researchers to request data extracts within specific parameters to use for research studies, and a separate tool to facilitate requests for samples from the National ALS Biorepository (a special subset of the Registry) that can be used with others epidemiological data in disease research.  

CDC: Using industry standard tools such as ArcGIS, DRT provides CDC with Geospatial science support to analyze patterns and trends evident in public health data, and detect deviations within public health surveillance systems. We use environmental data sources and satellite imagery to better understand environmental conditions affecting public health. We also support CDC’s biomedical modeling, health science studies, and public health research efforts including development of the Environmental Burden Index (EBI), the first nation-wide estimate of environmental quality available at the census tract level.

DOJ:  In support of the Department of Justice’s Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS Office) DRT developed the COPS Outreach and Reporting Integration (CORI) system to support the agency’s analysis and understanding of grantee performance.  CORI applies custom algorithms to COPS programmatic and financial grant data to predict grantee actions and project expected grant expenditures.  CORI’s predictions and data analysis allow the COPS staff to proactively focus on those grants with potential issues, thus cutting down significantly on research time.   

EPA:  DRT developed requirements and the data management schemas for the Environmental Protection Agency’s Exchange Network System of Registries (SoR), the backbone of EPA’s nationwide data collection for enforcement of environmental protection law. Working with a diverse group of EPA Program and Regional Offices, states, tribes and other environmental organizations, DRT developed the Reusable Component Services and Web Services Catalog (RCS/WS Catalog) and new XML Registry and Shared System Component Workbench (XML/CW), and collected requirements for the Code Sets Module (CSM), Data Dictionaries Module and Compare Tool (DDM/CT). The need for metadata registries was a complex concept whose value was not readily understood by all EPA stakeholders. DRT integrated education and outreach into our efforts, thus helping to build awareness and support among the diverse potential users of the registries.

SBA:  DRT used Microsoft Dynamics CRM as the engine to provide a single point of access for a wide array of SBA lender, small business and partner case information. DRT’s SBA CRM system consolidated previously siloed legacy CRM tools, facilitated coordinated outreach efforts to SBA customers and partners, and helped SBA collect, measure and report on the effectiveness of their programs.

We developed interfaces with several of SBA’s legacy databases, including integration of partner information, lender and loan data, small business resources, and correspondence management documentation. We also integrated into the SBA Business Development Management Information System (BDMIS) data from several external systems including: HUBZone maps (ESRI map files and data files from HUD and DOL’s Bureau of Labor Statistics; and Census and legacy map information for Indian lands and military bases); GSA’s Federal Procurement Data System; Dun and Bradstreet; and SBA Goaling Report information. The resulting system improved SBA’s program performance reporting and outreach activities to small businesses, lenders and internal stakeholders.