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October 06, 2021

GAO Covid-19 Vaccine Tracker Dashboard

By the Cloud Adoption Center of Excellence

Using interactive, real-time reporting to understand fast-tracked potential vaccines.

The Cloud Adoption Center of Excellence (CA CoE) partnered with the U.S. Government Accountability Office’s (GAO) Innovation Lab to create an interactive dashboard to track and support Covid-19 vaccine candidates in an effort to speed up vaccine development.

stock image of virus Source: ows.gaoinnovations.gov/manufacturing

The Client

The GAO Innovation Lab was formed as an arm of the Science, Technology Assessment, and Analytics team at the Government Accountability Office and is a hub for data science and emerging technology insight.

Creating a Powerful Cloud Environment

In February 2020, the CA CoE partnered with the GAO Innovation Lab to help establish and operationalize its Cloud environment as well as a webpage, GAOinnovations.gov, advancing their cloud capabilities and showcasing their prototyping of emerging technologies.

Cloud based Vaccine Development tracker dashboard

The Operation Warp Speed* vaccine tracking dashboard is the GAO Innovation Lab’s first application showcase built using their powerful, new cloud capabilities. The CoE team helped launch the vaccine tracking dashboard on February 11, 2021, meeting an aggressive three-week time frame for developing the web platform. The dashboard:

  • Tracks the technology readiness level of each COVID-19 vaccine.
  • Highlights vaccine development process, manufacturing challenges, federal partnerships, private industry partners, funding and future plans.
  • Provides ever-evolving visuals and interactive reporting.
  • Is data and graphically rich, with information about where each of the vaccines is in its lifecycle, the scientific approaches used by the vaccine, and basic information on the phased approach to vaccine creation and more.

A diagram illustrating the types of work the Innovation Lab is involved with, including: machine learning, natural language processing, digital ledger, graph database, digital content delivery, 5G, cloud services, and the internet of things. The Lab performs its work using a user centric design approach and relies on its core areas of focus, which include: robotic process automation, containerization and orchestration, IT modernization, data governance. Source: ows.gaoinnovations.gov/about

Technical Approach

The CoE guided the GAO through technology solutioning, from architecture through implementation and maintenance planning.

The following implementation strategies were used in this effort:

  • Cloud Native services for Domain Name System, Content Delivery Network, security, and compliance
  • A visual analytics product serving multiple dashboards.
  • Developed based on the U.S. Web Design System, allowing the team to speed up the development process and concentrate on their audience and mission.
  • Accessibility and mobile-friendliness are included in the design system, allowing the teams to easily meet the requirements of the 21st Century Integrated Digital Experience Act.

Outcome and Future

Operation Warp Speed dashboard showcases Covid-19 vaccine development by providing detailed interactive reporting about where each of the vaccines supported by this program are in the development process. The dashboard is, undoubtedly, the first of many innovative applications built on the Innovation Lab’s powerful cloud infrastructure. It demonstrates that the CA CoE and the GAO Innovation Lab are driving the federal community to rethink its analytics, auditing, and cybersecurity practices, to incorporate the latest technological advances.

Role of the CA CoE

The CoE team will continue to support GAO, looking to enhance the Innovation Lab’s public web presence by implementing a cloud application platform along with a content management system to launch future projects.

Part of the model of the CoE is to meet agency partners where they are in their modernization journeys, accelerate their transformation efforts, and give them the right tools and resources to be successful after the engagement ends. To learn more about the CA CoE contact us or visit coe.gsa.gov. Follow us on Twitter @GSACoE to join our ongoing conversations about IT modernization in government. To learn more about our Cloud Adoption offerings, contact us at connectcoe@gsa.gov.

*Note: As of January 2021, the federal government no longer uses the name Operation Warp Speed and the effort has now been transferred to the White House COVID-19 Response Team.

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