Part of an in-depth study of how information technology research and development could more effectively support advances in the use of information technology (IT) in government, Summary of a Workshop on Information Technology Research for Federal Statistics explores IT research opportunities of relevance to the collection, analysis, and dissemination of federal statistics. On February 9 and 10, 1999, participants from a number of communitiesâ€"IT research, IT research management, federal statistics, and academic statisticsâ€"met to identify ways to foster interaction among computing and communications researchers, federal managers, and professionals in specific domains that could lead to collaborative research efforts. By establishing research links between these communities and creating collaborative mechanisms aimed at meeting relevant requirements, this workshop promoted thinking in the computing and communications research community and throughout government about possibilities for advances in technology that will support a variety of digital initiatives by the government.

Part of an in-depth study of how information technology research and development could more effectively support advances in the use of information technology (IT) in government, Summary of a Workshop on Information Technology Research for Federal Statistics explores IT research opportunities of relevance to the collection, analysis, and dissemination of federal statistics. On February 9 and 10, 1999, participants from a number of communities - IT research, IT research management, federal statistics, and academic statistics - met to identify ways to foster interaction among computing and communications researchers, federal managers, and professionals in specific domains that could lead to collaborative research efforts. By establishing research links between these communities and creating collaborative mechanisms aimed at meeting relevant requirements, this workshop promoted thinking in the computing and communications research community and throughout government about possibilities for advances in technology that will support a variety of digital initiatives by the government.

Part of an in-depth study of how information technology research and development could more effectively support advances in the use of information technology (IT) in government, Summary of a Workshop on Information Technology Research for Federal Statistics explores IT research opportunities of relevance to the collection, analysis, and dissemination of federal statistics. On February 9 and 10, 1999, participants from a number of communitiesâ€"IT research, IT research management, federal statistics, and academic statisticsâ€"met to identify ways to foster interaction among computing and communications researchers, federal managers, and professionals in specific domains that could lead to collaborative research efforts. By establishing research links between these communities and creating collaborative mechanisms aimed at meeting relevant requirements, this workshop promoted thinking in the computing and communications research community and throughout government about possibilities for advances in technology that will support a variety of digital initiatives by the government.

This workshop summary was produced in the course of a broader study that is exploring how information technology research can foster new and improved government services, operations, and interactions with citizens. This workshop summary examines how this technology can contribute to more-effective response and recovery efforts to crises such as natural disasters or terrorist attacks, as well as to mitigation and preparedness in order to reduce the impact of these events.

Governments have done much to leverage information technology to deploy e-government services, but much work remains before the vision of e-government can be fully realized. Information Technology Research, Innovation, and E-government examines the emerging visions for e-government, the technologies required to implement them, and approaches that can be taken to accelerate innovation and the transition of innovative information technologies from the laboratory to operational government systems. In many cases, government can follow the private sector in designing and implementing IT-based services. But there are a number of areas where government requirements differ from those in the commercial world, and in these areas government will need to act on its role as a "demand leader." Although researchers and government agencies may appear to by unlikely allies in this endeavor, both groups have a shared interest in innovation and meeting future needs. E-government innovation will require addressing a broad array of issues, including organization and policy as well as engineering practice and technology research and development, and each of these issues is considered in the book.

Pharmaceutical companies, academic researchers, and government agencies such as the Food and Drug Administration and the National Institutes of Health all possess large quantities of clinical research data. If these data were shared more widely within and across sectors, the resulting research advances derived from data pooling and analysis could improve public health, enhance patient safety, and spur drug development. Data sharing can also increase public trust in clinical trials and conclusions derived from them by lending transparency to the clinical research process. Much of this information, however, is never shared. Retention of clinical research data by investigators and within organizations may represent lost opportunities in biomedical research. Despite the potential benefits that could be accrued from pooling and analysis of shared data, barriers to data sharing faced by researchers in industry include concerns about data mining, erroneous secondary analyses of data, and unwarranted litigation, as well as a desire to protect confidential commercial information. Academic partners face significant cultural barriers to sharing data and participating in longer term collaborative efforts that stem from a desire to protect intellectual autonomy and a career advancement system built on priority of publication and citation requirements. Some barriers, like the need to protect patient privacy, pre- sent challenges for both sectors. Looking ahead, there are also a number of technical challenges to be faced in analyzing potentially large and heterogeneous datasets. This public workshop focused on strategies to facilitate sharing of clinical research data in order to advance scientific knowledge and public health. While the workshop focused on sharing of data from preplanned interventional studies of human subjects, models and projects involving sharing of other clinical data types were considered to the extent that they provided lessons learned and best practices. The workshop objectives were to examine the benefits of sharing of clinical research data from all sectors and among these sectors, including, for example: benefits to the research and development enterprise and benefits to the analysis of safety and efficacy. Sharing Clinical Research Data: Workshop Summary identifies barriers and challenges to sharing clinical research data, explores strategies to address these barriers and challenges, including identifying priority actions and "low-hanging fruit" opportunities, and discusses strategies for using these potentially large datasets to facilitate scientific and public health advances.

On May 8, 2009, the symposium, The Federal Statistical System: Recognizing Its Contributions, Moving It Forward was held in Washington, DC. One of the topics considered at that symposium was the health of innovation in the federal statistical system. A consequence of the symposium was an agreement by the Committee on National Statistics to hold a workshop on the future of innovation in the federal statistical system. This workshop was held on June 29, 2010. The original statement of task for the workshop focused on three challenges to the statistical system: (1) the obstacles to innovative, focused research and development initiatives that could make statistical programs more cost effective; (2) a gap between emerging data visualization and communications technologies and the ability of statistical agencies to understand and capitalize on these developments for their data dissemination programs; and (3) the maturation of the information technology (IT) discipline and the difficulties confronting individual agencies in keeping current with best practice in IT regarding data confidentiality. This report, Facilitating Innovation in the Federal Statistical System, is a descriptive summary of what transpired at the workshop. It is therefore limited to the views and opinions of the workshop participants. However, it does not strictly follow the agenda of the workshop, which had four sessions. Instead, it is organized around the themes of the discussions, which migrated across the four sessions.