Council: System data migration creates a “single source of truth” for DHS, HHS, and other authorized mission partners. Image: Billion Photos/Shutterstock.com
By: FEDweek StaffCooperation between the CDC and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services for contact tracing during the pandemic proved to be a successful example of data sharing between federal agencies, says a summary from the Chief Data Officers Council.
The CDC had “identified gaps in available contact tracing data, which impeded domestic public health authorities’ ability to notify travelers about their potential exposure,” it says. In response, USCIS’s parent DHS “sought to supplement data holdings with other existing sources of contact information subject to legal and privacy limitations.”
“To facilitate this disclosure of USCIS data to CDC, USCIS implemented a capability through which another DHS component could query and retrieve data authorized for sharing. USCIS processed and shared nearly 7,600 transactions per week with the CDC in early 2021,” it says.
“USCIS continues to migrate source system data to a data lake environment, so data are accessible, secure, and standardized for sharing. This migration creates a “single source of truth” for DHS, HHS, and other authorized mission partners,” it adds.
Key lessons learned are (in its words):
* Data sharing agreements should be scoped with future needs in mind: With the appropriate legal, privacy, policy, and technical safeguards, data sharing agreements should be developed to accommodate a variety of exigent circumstances that may arise in a particular mission space.
* Use a consistent data sharing policy and process: By engaging with legal, privacy, policy, and technical experts early in the effort and following USCIS’ data sharing policy and process, the team was able to overcome some of the challenges related to limited authorities and data governance processes.
The summary and points of contact for further information are at cdo.gov.
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