Malcolm Bertoni, FDA: Conversations on Using Analytics to Improve Mission Outcomes

In the late 1980’s and early 1990’s, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) faced a mountain of criticism. It was thought that the public health safety precautions built into its drug evaluation procedures in reaction to the Thalidomide tragedy two decades earlier were responsible for delaying consumers’ access to vital new drug therapies. Particularly in light of the growing activism around fighting AIDS, critics argued that the FDA procedures were born out of disaster and therefore extremely overcautious.

Making Data Real – Lessons From and For Federal Leaders

In this final installment, we provide highlights from these federal leaders on the most important ingredients for a successful analytics program. (You can watch the video of the panel discussion and listen to each of the seven podcast interviews too.) The executives profiled complex programs in several agencies that have a wide impact on citizens, who benefit greatly from leveraging data as a strategic asset in program operations. What follows are some highlights from those executives on salient take-aways for government and stakeholder groups who are implementing key data-driven programs.

States, Localities Inspire Federal Data-Driven Management

The New York City Police Department launched it vaunted CompSTAT more than a decade ago. This data-driven management approach inspired dozens of other cities and several states to adopt it to run their operations as well.

Business of Government Hour-TV: FDA's IT Strategy


What is the FDA’s IT strategy? How is FDA changing the way it does IT? What is FDA doing to leverage the advances of mobile technologies? I explore these questions and so much more with our very special guest, Todd Simpson, Chief Information Officer, US Food and Drug Administration. Also joining us from IBM is Tim Stitely.

Risky Business

Recovery Act guidance from OMB requires agencies to identify the risk associated with each program and develop a plan of action to reduce such risks. After all, if a program gets 3,100 % increase in funding, like the home weatherization program did, there must be some risk involved!

From Data to Decisions II: Building an Analytics Culture

In our 2011 report on analytics use in the federal government, "From Data to Decisions: The Power of Analytics," we wrote about the tremendous budget pressures federal agencies face at a time when there is great public demand for government to be more effective and efficient. This report’s release sparked an overwhelmingly positive response from agency leaders and federal performance management practitioners who asked, “Where do we go from here?