Kshemendra Paul
CDO, Department of Veterans Affairs
In his role, Kshemendra Paul has been tasked with modernizing and energizing the data and analytics community, building on the Department of Veterans Affairs’ history of innovation and leadership, and elevating the focus on data as an enterprisewide strategic asset.
This focus has resulted in the creation of the VA data strategy, outlining the agency’s vision and path forward. Additionally, the agency has launched the VA enterprise data management directive, which highlights policy, roles and responsibilities.
“We’ve built momentum broadly with several pathfinder efforts, including deploying an operationally useful, accessible and scalable Common Information Model,” Paul says.
The CIM validated the idea VA can curate and integrate data once, and then accelerate value creation and enterprise integration through broad, appropriate and ethical reuse of this authoritative data to better serve veterans and their families, survivors and caregivers, he says.
Paul’s priorities for his team are to “ensure we are fully operationalizing our data” to remain nimble and responsive and deliver veterans world-class care.
To that end, he and his team are scaling their CIM and assessing their common operating platform to determine the best set of technical solutions going forward.
The team is also strengthening collaborative efforts with the Defense Department by developing a joint VA and DOD data and analytics strategy. This includes development of a pilot joint data catalog focused on data sharing during the time when service members leave the military and transition to VA.
“At VA, data is our superpower,” Paul says. “Unlocking that data allows us to improve access, advocacy, excellence and outcomes of our nation’s veterans.”