Accenture Federal Services, the branch of Accenture dedicated solely to United States government entities, was awarded a $3 million, one-year contract by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The contract dictates that the company will help the Office of Health Affairs (OHA) enhance its biosurveillance capabilities via social media analytics, while helping to improve data sharing and collaboration between OHA and its partners.
Put simply, biosurveillance is the monitoring of public health trends and outlying occurrences based on pre-existing, real-time health data that is publicly available and easily obtained. The amount of data and information shared on social media sites is ideal for this purpose, but the rapid pace with which that information is shared, along with the sheer amount of it, makes collection difficult.
As such, the OHA and Accenture will work closely to develop a social media analytics pilot to manage, link and analyze data from social media networks in real time. The goal in this is to help better inform and protect the public if a national health emergency occurs, such as an infectious disease outbreak or biological attack.
“Social media platforms are now an everyday part of peoples’ lives, finding their way into all forms of communication. Rapidly collecting and understanding what information is being shared will help OHA meet its mission to detect and respond to potential threats to national health security,” said John Matchette, who leads Accenture’s Public Safety agency work.
In other recent Accenture news, the company last week launched a new version of its Accenture Foundation Platform for Oracle (AFPO), which helps clients accelerate deployments on Oracle Fusion Middleware. This latest version, version five, adds a handful of new capabilities including integration with Oracle Application Development Framework (ADF) Mobile and Oracle WebCenter.
The company also recently partnered with Siemens Infrastructure and Cities to provide smart metering solutions to utility companies.
Edited by
Brooke Neuman
