Enabling Real-Time Data-Driven Public Policy Decision Making
The Montgomery County Collaboration Council requested a Geo-mapping Tool in order to assess resources for transitional age youth (TAY) who are at-risk of disconnecting or are disconnected from their communities. » Read more
Optimal Solutions Group, LLC (Optimal), was awarded a grant through the Maryland Industrial Partnerships (MIPS) program to develop a health care research and delivery virtual collaborative system to provide researchers, practitioners, and professionals with a platform to share information, best practices, research, publications, and studies. The MIPS program is a branch of the Maryland Technology Enterprise Institute (MTECH), which is run through the University of Maryland. The program aims to “accelerate the commercialization of technology in Maryland by jointly funding collaborative R&D projects between companies and University System of Maryland faculty.”
To complete this task, Optimal developed a system titled Quality Improvement, Innovation, and Dissemination (QI2D). The QI2D is a third-generation (3G) healthcare research and delivery collaborative system that provides a unique platform to provide access and information in one centralized place. It is used to facilitate multidimensional communications and evaluate exchanges on the QI2D using a diffusion of innovation model informing how, why, and at what rate practices or quality improvement innovations spread through practitioner, research, and policymaker populations. The program was executed in two phases: Phase I sought to customize the open-source HUBzero collaboration platform to create the QI2D and recruit key stakeholders and participants for a pilot study. This study was designed to stimulate and monitor real-world usage and guided enhancements and/or marketing approaches for Phase II. The second phase incorporated augmentations to Optimal’s previous collaborative system and included a second pilot study, web-based surveys, and focus groups at the annual Improvement Science Summit to analyze challenges and areas of improvement.
• Key program outcomes, including small business revenue, employment, and payroll growth for each cluster, are benchmarked against similar businesses in the same industry and region.
• Provides a synthetic control group to account for economy-wide, regional, and industry-specific trends and shocks.
• Relies on Bureau of Labor Statistics, Dunn & Bradstreet, and U.S. Census data.
• Surveys are developed for both Web and interactive PDF smartform deployment.
• Controls data collection costs (majority of data collected via the Web), yet also enables clusters to collect data from participants during regularly occurring interactions (e.g., phone, at events).
• Enhances response rate by accommodating participant preferences and circumventing inaccurate e-mail addresses.
• Clusters’ structure is mapped using network analysis, based on strength of relationships and frequency of interactions.
• Allows for a visual representation of the complex “shape” and composition of clusters, complementing statistical analysis and qualitative data.
• Enables the tracking of each cluster’s evolving “shape” and composition over the duration of the initiatives to infer sustainability.
Optimal Solutions Group, LLC (Optimal), has been contracted by the Small Business Administration (SBA) to monitor and evaluate the Regional Innovation Cluster Initiative, which launched in 2010. Optimal has developed survey instruments designed to collect information from the SBA-funded clusters, their small businesses, and large organizations. The surveys are administered via the web and are complemented with interactive PDF surveys towards the end of the data collection period. The surveys collects information on reasons for participation in clusters, satisfaction with cluster services, revenue, employment, progress towards commercialization, and other key outcomes of the program. Optimal also interacts and coordinates with various cluster stakeholders and works systematically to gain an understanding of the assets, features, and barriers of each cluster’s industry of focus. You can find a recent report here: https://www.sba.gov/sites/
In 2014, SBA contracted with Optimal to expand its data collection and analysis efforts to six of the agency’s programs and initiatives, including the Women’s Business Center, SCORE and Small Business Development Center programs, and the Emerging Leaders, ScaleUp, and Regional Innovation Cluster initiatives.
• Developed organizational website content assessment tool to include all Part D content requirements.
• Identifies areas where plans are compliant or need further clarification of posted information. » Read more
• 95% of youth are online and 80% of those use social media.
• Conversations on drug-related behavior take place more on micromedia using different slang terminology than used in person.
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Optimal provides support to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ (CMS’) Office of the Medicare Ombudsman (OMO) to assist in improving Medicare for beneficiaries. Optimal produces the annual Report to Congress (RTC) using real-time storyboarding in support of this contract.
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• Liberia has undergone a long period of bloody civil war that shattered its economy.
• Its principal sector of activity, agriculture, has been damaged and is plagued by low crop yields. » Read more
The United States Department of Agriculture Food and Nutrition Service (FNS), as part of its efforts to reach out to small businesses, awarded Optimal Solutions Group, LLC (Optimal) a contract to conduct the Annual Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) Sponsor Tiering Determination Assessment for 2014. » Read more