Featured Member: IBA

Irving Burton Associates, Inc. (IBA) is a woman-owned business (WOB) delivering innovative scientific research and full-lifecycle program management support services to the Department of Defense (DoD) and other federal agencies. IBA provides our clients with research development, scientific, advanced technology, and business operational expertise and experience.

IBA President Mary Dowdall

As a Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI®) Level 3 certified company in Development and Services, we work with federal agencies and departments, supporting their most complex and critical mission challenges. Our federal clients, to whom we provide program management, science and technology (S&T), and advanced technology support services, include Department of Defense (DoD)—U.S. Army Medical Research and Development Command (USAMRDC) Telemedicine & Advanced Technology Research Center (TATRC); Joint Program Committee-1 (JPC-1); Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs (CDMRP); U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command (USAMRMC) Information Management/Information Technology (IM/IT); and the Defense Health Agency’s (DHA) Solution Delivery Division (SDD) and Portfolio and Resource Management Division (PRMD).

IBA was founded in 1979 and has provided innovative service solutions to meet the nation’s most pressing business challenges for more than 40 years. IBA has approximately 115 employees and is headquartered in Falls Church, VA, with virtual regional offices in San Antonio, TX; Frederick, MD; Augusta, GA; and Washington, DC. 
IBA has been a corporate member of the Fort Detrick Alliance for many years, initially joining to utilize the Alliance’s presence as the premier industry networking organization in the Fort Detrick community. Now that IBA has a Frederick Business Development and Client Relations representative, we are working to enhance our collaboration with the Alliance as we foster the reinstatement of the Fort Detrick Chapter of Women in Defense (WID). We are hopeful that we will regain our earlier momentum once stay-at-home orders are lifted and business operations resume safely to a more normal standard.  We already have planned a series of governmental-industry initiatives which will facilitate enhanced professional development, communication, and creative participatory events.

Q: It is the Alliance’s mission to connect businesses to the Federal agencies and Fort Detrick community through networking events and outreach. How has the Alliance assisted you in making these types of connections? What has been the greatest benefit to maintaining your membership?

The value of Alliance membership and the sponsored availability of connecting, both formally and informally, with all members in the Fort Detrick community is recognized as an invaluable means of cultivating new business. Any opportunity to network with both government sponsors and industry partners facilitates our ongoing efforts and capability to present IBA’s credentials and to highlight our interest in supporting the mission of Fort Detrick. The Alliance-sponsored networking events—the breakfasts hosted at Hood College, the recent webinar to discuss contractor challenges in the era of COVID-19, the upcoming network round-robin, last December’s member appreciation event—are all valuable opportunities for us to “brush shoulders” with community partners, make introductions, swap capabilities, share ideas, and learn more about their corporate competencies and contractual footprint as they apply to the mission of Fort Detrick.

Q: How does your company encourage innovation in your workplace? Can you discuss a connection that you have made through the Alliance that has assisted you with innovations in your company or career?

Innovative performance methodologies have become a cornerstone of IBA’s corporate recognition. We embrace, promote, and constantly refine our project management approaches to encourage identification and implementation of the most efficient means of ensuring that projects successfully meet mission objectives, on time and on budget. With a focus on advanced health information technology (HIT) solutions and integration, IBA supports the government through application of innovative approaches to enhance and integrate data and applications to meet the healthcare industry’s Electronic Health Record (EHR) directives, as well as telehealth systems, platforms, devices, and applications. A recent example of our success is the FedHealthIT 2020 Innovation Award recognizing the Forward Operating Base EXpert Telemedicine Resource Utilizing MObile Application for Trauma (FOXTROT), which was delivered by the IBA contract team at the U.S. Army Medical Research and Development Command (USAMRDC) Telemedicine and Advanced Technology Research Center (TATRC) at Fort Gordon, Georgia. FOXTROT is an operationally secure, HIPAA-compliant, cutting-edge mobile application for remotely treating combat-related injuries involving the eye.

With a focus on collaboration, we are constantly seeking partnerships with like-minded industry partners who are able to augment our innovative performance competencies.

Q: What advice would you give to other business leaders in our community, related to Fort Detrick or the Alliance?

IBA has used the networking, communications, and government-industry partnerships offered by the Alliance to facilitate discussions with key stakeholders—both in the federal government contractor community and at the Fort. This sponsorship feature of membership is a reflection of the clout the Alliance has established in bringing value to the Fort Detrick community over its years of operation. Networking is, of course, an essential practice in effective business development and a key component of the capability to communicate and generate interest in a company’s performance competencies as mapped to the government’s business challenges.

Q: From the events you have attended through the Alliance, is there one that has been the most helpful and why?

SmartProc (an Alliance partner event) was a fantastic opportunity to network, learn more about the government’s challenges and acquisition forecasting, and participate in productive panel discussions which provide valuable insight into Fort Detrick’s business practices. Any Alliance events which mimic these communication opportunities will be well attended, as they offer the business community a chance to interface directly with key decision makers.

IBA has been an active participant in the full array of Alliance-sponsored events, including:

• SmartProc Conference
• Innovate and Celebrate
• Summer Networking Social at Big Cork Vineyards
• Doing Business with the Fort
• Hood College Networking Breakfast
• Hood College Career Fair
• Recent Webinars

All these events have been productive opportunities to hear from our government customers, interact with our contracting partners, and learn more about doing business with the Fort.

Q: Looking forward, how can we help you? What types of events or programs would you like to see?

The Alliance’s willingness and support of IBA’s efforts to re-establish the Fort Detrick Women in Defense (WID) Chapter has been extremely beneficial to moving this initiative forward. Once our work schedules transition back to a “normal” working environment, we look forward to rescheduling the presentation on the objectives of the Fort Detrick WID Chapter and moving forward with our collaborative sponsorship of community events.

Q: Would you like to share any news about your company or its recent achievements?

IBA supports two projects that were honored with 2020 FedHealthIT Innovation Awards.:
As previously mentioned, the Forward Operating Base EXpert Telemedicine Resource Utilizing MObile Application for Trauma (FOXTROT), developed at the U.S. Army Medical Research Command (USAMRDC) Telemedicine and Advanced Technology Research Center (TATRC) in Fort Gordon, GA, is an operationally secure, HIPAA-compliant mobile application for remotely treating combat-related injuries involving the eye; and

The Narcotics Ordering Review and Approval (NORA) program, developed at the Joint Medical Logistics Functional Development Center (JMLFDC) within DHA’s Solution Delivery Division, is a web-based application that enables electronic submission, review, and approval of DEA schedule II controlled substances.

Q: How (if applicable) has your company or workplace been involved in COVID-19 prevention through research, supply and product distribution, testing, training, etc.? How can your work on COVID-19 benefit the community or Federal agencies at Fort Detrick?

In conjunction with our ongoing USAMRDC Telemedicine & Advanced Technology Research Center (TATRC) contract, IBA recently assisted in authoring a white paper on a project to develop an AI-based health monitoring platform to determine the readiness status of active service members amid long-term threats such as COVID-19. This same digital platform will provide virtual support to individual service members to either avoid or rapidly recover from the disease.
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In addition, IBA’s contract team at Fort Gordon supports TATRC’s National Emergency Tele-critical Care project. The project’s Writing Working Group has produced the TATRC Tech Watch website (https://www.tatrc.org/www/resources/tech-watch.html)—with multiple news articles related to COVID-19—and a manuscript, “Advanced Digital Health Technologies for COVID-19,” accepted for publication in the Telemedicine and e_Health Journal.

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