Reducing the Gap between Cancer Research and Treatment

A breakthrough project is creating a community of experts and organizations to share critical information on cancer research which many believe has the potential to help transform cancer into a chronic, manageable disease within a decade. The project was funded by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and is managed by Booz Allen Hamilton, a leader in healthcare consulting for the federal government.

The effort—called the cancer Biomedical Informatics Grid, or caBIG—is a virtual infrastructure that connects data, research tools, standards, scientists, and organizations to form "a World Wide Web of research" that is accelerating all aspects of cancer prevention, detection, and care by reducing technical and collaborative barriers.

The caBIG project is creating a "pathway for a new model in biomedicine," said Kenneth Buetow, director of the NCI's Center for Bioinformatics. The project earned the 2006 Computerworld Honors 21st Century Achievement Award for Science. As noted in the Computerworld Honors Program Case Study: "caBIG has been supported by the NCI as a key enabler of its vision to eliminate suffering and death due to cancer."

Launched in 2003 as part of a multi-year National Institutes of Health contract with Booz Allen, caBIG was developed in collaboration with 50 NCI cancer centers and 30 other organizations. Booz Allen serves as the contractor/program manager for the project and is assisting these cancer centers—including Sloan-Kettering and the Mayo Clinic—in implementing technologies that revolutionize research and strengthen collaboration and advances in the health arena.

"caBIG promises to reduce the gap between research and treatment," says Chalk Dawson, Booz Allen's principal on the project.  Data sets and information will be available to anyone in biomedical research, and caBIG infrastructure and tools have wide utility beyond cancer.  Clinical data and technology enable collaborative science, which is changing the paradigm of how clinical research is conducted—and Booz Allen is on the cutting edge of it.

caBIG is already extending to a wider community, including the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and pharmaceutical companies, further benefiting cancer patients and accelerating research to substantially reduce the suffering associated with the disease.

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The Re-Greening of Iraq: How Government-Contractor Collaboration Helped Restore Critical Wetlands

The Iraq Marshlands Restoration Program (IMRP) is an example of what U.S. government engagement can achieve, even in the most demanding of circumstances, when backed by appropriate contractor expertise and committed host-country institutions.

The marshlands of southern Iraq were once a major flyway for billions of birds, a source of fish and dairy products for much of Iraq, and a natural filter for the waters of the Persian Gulf. But the wetlands were heavily drained as retaliation for their inhabitants' uprising against Saddam Hussein following the Gulf War. When Allied forces entered Iraq in 2003, the marshes were only 7 percent of their original size and the area's population had dwindled from 500,000 to 125,000.

In 2003, the international development firm DAI began work on the USAID-funded project, which aimed to tackle the environmental and developmental challenges facing the marshes and their people. Over the three-year contract, the program:

• Trained provincial government employees and university staff skilled in and able to apply the fundamentals of marsh restoration and wetland management;
• Identified committed provincial government employees who will carry forward agricultural and livestock efforts and a cadre of veterinary graduates, previously unemployed, who have experience working with livestock directly in marsh villages;
• Created ownership by the Marsh Arab tribes, as evidenced by their adoption of program interventions, particularly in agriculture, livestock, and public health; and
• Demonstrated the potential of a complex, multidisciplinary USAID program led and operated exclusively by Iraqis in-country, and cited by the Department of State as a model for others in sustainable development.

At the national level, IMRP developed the first hydrologic model for the Tigris and Euphrates river basin, established a marshlands monitoring system, re-established water and soil laboratories in the Ministry of Water Resources in Baghdad and at the University of Basra, and helped the government articulate a comprehensive marsh restoration policy. At the regional level, it worked in five priority areas: integrated marsh management, agriculture, livestock and dairy, fishing, and primary health care. To cite a few examples of IMRP's quantifiable achievements, the program:

• Increased cultivated land for sorghum and barley from 4,860 hectares to 21,590 hectares;
• Planted eight nurseries with over 1,500 palm seedlings;
• Served 21,000 patients through two health clinics;
• Restocked 300,000 fish fingerlings; and
• Treated 9,972 animals through veterinary extension services.

Even during the most dangerous periods in the South, the IMRP team actively fulfilled its mandate, never ceasing its operations or its visits to the marshlands from Basra, despite great personal risk.

At its 2007 annual meeting, the American Anthropological Association awarded DAI's Peter Reiss and his team its prestigious Lourdes Arizpe Award, an honor that, in the association's words, "combines a practical component (results) with a knowledge-based component (advancement of knowledge)."

Today in southern Iraq, the majestic wetlands are returning. Fish have been restocked, and date palms, barley, and sorghum flourish. Approximately 58 percent of the marshes have been re-flooded, and wildlife has begun to return. And work in the marshlands continues. Iraqi scientists have taken over some of the program activities and are continuing the effort to bring the marshes back to life.

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High-Flying, High-Tech Fire-Fighting Machines Save Forests, Lives and Money

In May 2007, America's wild fire season in Florida was off to an early and destructive start. And Firewatch, the U.S. Forest Service's practical and highly successful fire-fighting technology, was on the front lines helping to limit damage and save lives.

Firewatch uses rehabilitated Army helicopters equipped with cutting-edge technology to fight wildfires. Firewatch has saved numerous lives and prevented millions of dollars in damage—making it one of the federal government's most successful and cost effective programs. This high-tech Department of Agriculture program relies on helicopters that are specially equipped to provide aerial support to local, state, and federal firefighters. Each helicopter is configured with electro-optical sensors that see through smoke and haze, infrared detectors to expose the smallest hotspots, and data links that relay real-time video and topographical maps to firefighters on the ground and in command and control centers.

DynCorp International supports the Firewatch program by providing pilots and global mapping technicians, and maintaining and fueling the helicopters. U.S. Forestry Service Air Tactical Officer Stan Kubota, who works closely with the Firewatch crew, points out: "It allows us to maneuver troops into place and get ahead of the fire and be in place to stop it."  The combination of technologies used by the Firewatch program allows crews to "see hotspots the size of a quarter from 8,000 feet in the air," says John Browning, who works for DynCorp as the Firewatch program director.

By identifying the precise location of spot fires, the Firewatch crew can save firefighters on the ground hours—if not days—of searching for small fires which can turn into major disasters that endanger lives and property.

"In wind driven fires it is difficult for ground crews to see where the fire is burning. Aerial views are helpful, but when smoke is thick, only the infrared technology can identify exactly where the fire is," Kubota says. "We can detect spot fires before they threaten the lives of crews or become large fires."

The mapping ability Firewatch provides not only gives commanders crucial information, but gets it to them much faster than before, veteran Forest Service pilot Morgan Mills, who helped develop Firewatch, told the San Diego Union Tribune.

"To map a fire without airborne capability, you've got to walk a person around it," Mills told the paper. "That can take a long time—maybe hours, maybe half a day, maybe two days." Now that information can be in commanders' hands within 15 minutes, Mills said.

Once the small fires are located, precise GPS coordinates are then relayed to ground crews in real time. With Firewatch, instead of dousing acres of land with water or fire-retardant in hopes of suppressing a fire, crews can pinpoint exactly where the drop should be made, saving thousands of dollars and crucial time.

The annual fire season has started in Florida. It will work its way west and north, before coming down the west coast to end with the Southern California fires in late Fall. Firewatch helicopters and crews are in high demand. Last year, Firewatch logged 800 flight hours. "We get stretched pretty thin. People are realizing we have this capability and the need for our infrared and video downloading capability is a top request," said Browning. "Each region really needs its own helicopter."

In January, a Blue Ribbon Commission appointed by California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to study the state's current fire services concluded that new technologies such as those employed in the Firewatch program saved millions of dollars. "Fires are kept smaller and less destructive, which means significant cost savings to the state for fighting the fires and to residents for loss of life and property," the commission's 2008 report stated.

Firewatch is an example of a government-industry partnership that saves lives, saves money, and protects sensitive environments. It's the kind of "win-win" program that merits far closer attention—and even more support.

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The Clean-up at Rocky Flats: Billions Saved in a Government/Contractor Partnership

Last June the Environmental Protection Agency announced that it had certified the clean-up of the former Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant in Colorado. This was a major step forward in converting a significant part of the previously contaminated nuclear bomb production facility to a wildlife refuge. The conversion had been authorized by Congress in 2001 as part of the Rocky Flats National Wildlife Act. The clean up was completed nearly decades ahead of schedule with a cost avoidance of billions of dollars.

The massive clean-up and restoration work, which included removal of buildings, removal of contaminated soil, transfer of plutonium to other facilities was managed by the U.S. Department of Energy; the project was carried out by a team led by contractor, CH2M Hill. In announcing the clean-up in 2006 the Department of Energy (DOE) said that they and CH2M Hill, "successfully partnered in a 10-year effort to complete the largest, most complex environmental cleanup project in United States history and converted an environmental liability into a community asset, completing the project nearly fifty years and $30 billion below initial estimates." As DOE's Rocky Flats Project Manager, Frazer Lockhart, put it, "this is what happens when you get the best of government working with the best of industry."

In recognizing the successful clean-up, the Project Management Institute (PMI), the world's leading not-for-profit association for the project management profession, awarded its 2006 Project of the Year to DOE's Rocky Flats Environmental Technology Site. In commenting on the award, Lockhart said that "Kaiser-Hill (now CH2M Hill) performed a first-class job for the government, and the public-private partnership between DOE and Kaiser-Hill paved the way for our success...We faced countless challenges on this first-of-its-kind project and this award is a tribute our joint efforts." Lockhart and his team also received a Service to America Medal from the Partnership for Public Service in recognition of their great success.

Finally, as Assistant Energy Secretary James Rispoli commented at a Senate hearing on the clean-up, "This contract (which included financial incentives for speed and performance) was clearly the flagship in being innovative in this approach."  Thus, the combination of innovation, hard-work, collaboration and efficiency succeeded in getting an extraordinarily challenging job done.