Below are the first 10 and last 10 pages of uncorrected machine-read text (when available) of this chapter, followed by the top 30 algorithmically extracted key phrases from the chapter as a whole.
Intended to provide our own search engines and external engines with highly rich, chapter-representative searchable text on the opening pages of each chapter.
Because it is UNCORRECTED material, please consider the following text as a useful but insufficient proxy for the authoritative book pages.
Do not use for reproduction, copying, pasting, or reading; exclusively for search engines.
OCR for page 35
4
Outside Perspectives
Two speakers at the workshop were selected to be somewhat “out-
side the box,” said planning committee co-chair Scott Mugno, with the
intention of showing how similar issues in disparate sectors can be ad-
dressed with universal processes or approaches. One outside perspective
came from an information technology specialist at the Federal Reserve;
the second came from a former high-ranking Israeli government official.
KEEPING PACE WITH DATA COLLECTIONS IN A
RAPIDLY CHANGING ENVIRONMENT1
Peter Purcell, Banking Supervision and Regulation, Federal Reserve
Board, pointed to some interesting common threads between the fields of
finance and biosurveillance. One is that people count. “Unless you have
the people in the field who have an intellectual curiosity to look at the
information and get insight and share that, you really don’t have any-
thing.”
The other common thread is the way that data have changed over
time. The Federal Reserve has decades of experience collecting financial
data, analyzing it, understanding what it means for the economy, and
making it publicly available. But before the 2008 financial crisis, which
changed the nature of data and data reporting, it relied largely on static
reporting. It engaged in interagency collaboration through memoranda of
1
This section is based on the presentation by Peter Purcell, Banking Supervision and
Regulation, Federal Reserve Board.
35
OCR for page 36
36 BIOSURVEILLANCE INFORMATION SHARING AND COLLABORATION
understanding. Information security was a critical consideration. Stand-
ardized reporting formats allowed effective monitoring and analysis.
Even before the crisis, the world was changing, said Purcell. Data
started moving and becoming available much faster. Business processes
underwent significant modifications to respond to a changing economic
environment. Previously, most reports were quarterly or annual. In the
new environment, analysts needed to examine data on a day-to-day basis
while still maintaining information security.
After the crisis, new data needed to be monitored and evaluated on
an ongoing basis. Large quantities of detailed and aggregate data had to
be submitted to new modeling and prediction tools. Improved collabora-
tion and communication were necessary across the agencies while con-
tinuing to move quickly. “You can’t collaborate casually anymore; you
need to have a thoughtful approach to managing massive information. At
the same time, you need to be flexible to capture new information you
never thought you’d need to go after, because the public policy response
to something that’s happened Thursday needs to be announced before the
markets open on Monday, and it needs to be secure.”
Data collection and analysis need support from leadership, Purcell
said, and Federal Reserve Chairman Benjamin Bernanke has been
providing this support. In recent testimony, Bernanke said, “we have be-
gun an enhanced quantitative surveillance program for large bank hold-
ing companies that will use data analysis and formal modeling to help
identify vulnerabilities at both the firm level and for the financial sector
as a whole. This analysis will be supported by the collection of more
timely, detailed, and consistent data from regulated firms” (Bernanke,
2010).
Analysis and communication also requires trust, said Purcell. Memo-
randa of understanding can define protocols, but leadership and collabo-
ration are essential for people to keep from getting overwhelmed. People
cannot fight fires year after year without eventually burning out, he said,
which means that systems and procedures need to be in place to take the
pressure off them.
Discussion
In response to a question about the Paperwork Reduction Act, Purcell
noted that the collection of information has changed drastically in recent
years. The broad mandate still holds to not add a burden to respondents
OCR for page 37
37
OUTSIDE PERSPECTIVES
that is greater than the public value obtained from the information col-
lected. “That is still good public policy.”
A workshop participant pointed out that one way to secure data from
others is to make those data more useful to them—for example, by
providing an integrated view of the data. Purcell pointed out that the
Federal Reserve often tries to provide data that are useful to financial
organizations, though it also has the statutory authority to collect data to
do its mission.
With regard to overlapping authorities, roles and responsibilities
evolve over time, especially as people adjust to conflicting directives.
But it is also possible through law or presidential directives to define
who does what.
INFORMATION SHARING: THE ISRAELI EXPERIENCE2
“We must share information,” said Isaac Ashkenazi, National Lead-
ership Preparedness Initiative, Harvard University. “The price for not
sharing might be costly in terms of blood, property, and lifestyle, and in
many cases in Israel it is a survival issue.” The 1991 Gulf War exposed
many weaknesses in civil defense, including limited coordination, inade-
quate communications, and a lack of information sharing. The Home
Front Command was established in 1992 with the responsibility for pre-
paredness and response to home front emergencies.
Sharing occurs on different levels and involves many different types
of information. It includes the development and communication of in-
formation on national threats, planning scenarios, the national response
framework, the security information that is needed, and the same system
of continuous and joined training. Also, sharing is not automatic, and it is
not a technology problem, he said. It is a deeply embedded psychological
and social engineering problem. Society encourages antisharing strate-
gies, and people are taught to be individualists. Organizations and per-
sonnel are appraised by how well they hoard information and are
evaluated on the basis of their individual missions, which creates a cul-
ture of silos.
2
This section is based on the presentation by Isaac Ashkenazi, National Leadership
Preparedness Initiative, Harvard University; former head of the Medical Services and
Supply Center for the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) and former Surgeon General for the
IDF Home Front Command.
OCR for page 38
38 BIOSURVEILLANCE INFORMATION SHARING AND COLLABORATION
Solving the Problem
Systems approaches are essential to promote sharing, said Ashkenazi.
As such, nations need to develop four key documents. The first is a
summary of prioritized national threats in which the medical community
develops scenarios based on intelligence. The second is a national plan-
ning scenario. The third is a national response framework that details
how the emergency systems will work together. The fourth is a medical
response framework. The United States does not have a national threat
document or planning scenarios informed by the medical community. It
does have a national response framework written by the Department of
Homeland Security, which Ashkenazi deemed an “excellent document.”
But it does not have a medical response framework.
“Information sharing requires a common language,” said Ashkenazi,
as well. For example, acronyms and technical language can get in the
way of understanding. “The provider and the receiver should well under-
stand all information implications.”
Most important, emergency planners need to share information with
the public. “If you share with the public, it means that you know and
trust the public,” Ashkenazi said. If governments cannot share infor-
mation with the public, then they will not be able to share information
within government.
Leaders cannot pass on the responsibility for sharing, Ashkenazi
said. They have a tendency to delegate this responsibility to lower-level
managers, but this increases silos and decreases collaborative efforts. In a
military environment, commanders expect obedience. But in the civilian
environment, obedience does not have any meaning. People can only
trust and build relationships.
An attractive environment for sharing includes such features as
monthly interactions, a rotation of hosting, building trust and relation-
ships, sharing relevant information, and time for play. Groups should
engage in “games, training, learning, crisis games, simulations, drills,
and workshops.”
Obstacles
Ashkenazi observed that sometimes there is too much information,
causing overload. No single organization can control that amount of in-
formation, which means that information sharing can be interpreted as a
OCR for page 39
39
OUTSIDE PERSPECTIVES
failure. Furthermore, only about 25 percent of the information that is col-
lected in Israel is ever used, said Ashkenazi, and only 5 to 7 percent is
used to determine outcomes. “We are collecting more than 90 percent of
the information just to collect it. Start from minimal [needs] and essential
sharing, then define the gaps, gives, and gets.”
Financing for emergency preparedness is siloed, just as information
is. Instead, collaborative funding for emergency preparedness is crucial.
Israel decided to support emergency preparedness in general rather than
supporting organizations, and organizations were funded on the condi-
tion that they shared information. After 2 years of distributing the money
by mission, said Ashkenazi, agencies were working together rather than
in silos.
Finally, one needs to “start with the end and end with the start.” Peo-
ple should start by defining the outcome they desire. They then should
define the information gaps needed to achieve that outcome, find infor-
mation suppliers who can bridge that gap, share and analyze information,
and show success. They also should acknowledge the outcomes achieved
through that information, especially high-stakes outcomes such as pre-
venting a bioterrorist event.
Discussion
In response to a question from the moderator about cross-border in-
formation sharing, Ashkenazi said that Israel shares information even
with its enemies. For example, it shares information about diseases, ter-
rorist groups, natural disasters, and other items of mutual interest. “This
is about saving lives and resilience; this is not about killing.”
When asked about the use of social media in an emergency, Ashkenazi
said that the use of social media is “low threat, high benefit,” in that the
users of social media are generally not in a threatening situation and gain
many benefits from sharing information. But in an emergency, infor-
mation sharing is high threat and low benefit, which reduces the value of
social media exchanges.
Finally, in response to a question about government sharing of in-
formation, Ashkenazi said that discussions need to occur about which
kinds of information the public, law enforcement, the medical community,
and the emergency response system should receive.
OCR for page 40
