Tagged: HIMSS

Healthcare
HIMSS 2011 Day 1-Systems That Work Together Work for Healthcare

HIMSS 2011 Day 1: Systems That Work Together Work for Healthcare

The first day of HIMSS 2011 has come to an end, and it’s certainly been a much different feel than last year. Last year, it was about meaningful use of patient information. But today, attendees seemed to be focusing on a more actionable question – how? As one reporter that I spoke with put it, no one system is going to do it all. Healthcare organizations must realize this. Once they do, their priorities shift to focus on ensuring multiple systems work together. From the patient care perspective, this is where interoperability plays in a big way. I had the opportunity to visit the Interoperability Showcase yesterday, and my tour was focused on an event that happened that needed to be documented and archived in a static form. What struck me most in what the three vendors showed was what was implied – this is an optimal situation, and isn’t something that’s happening now universally when there is IT in place.
Healthcare
HIMSS Day 1, Part II: What About the Cloud?

HIMSS Day 1, Part II: What About the Cloud?

What’s my favorite part about HIMSS? You never know who you’re going to run into. Waiting for the hotel shuttle yesterday, I ended up having a conversation about the future of healthcare IT with none other than the founder of Quality Systems Inc. and NextGen, Sheldon Razin. Sheldon is the classic entrepreneur – he knows so much about a field – healthcare IT – and wants to share it with anyone who’ll listen. So, naturally, he lit up when I asked him, “What do you think is the future of healthcare IT?”
Healthcare
HIMSS 2011 Asks: What’s Next in Healthcare IT?

HIMSS 2011 Asks: What’s Next in Healthcare IT?

Every year, a major theme seems to pop out of the HIMSS Conference & Exhibition. And far after the show ends, it’s that theme that impacts the whole healthcare IT field, from the federal government to community hospitals to vendors. Before heading into the show, I catch up on what the healthcare IT influencers are saying to get a feel for what that powerful theme could be for the industry. And what better way to start than by getting into David Blumenthal’s head? His most recent blog post on the HealthITBuzz blog covered a lot. But what resonated with me was how it kept coming back to empowering healthcare providers with information. One excerpt stuck out the most: “In health care, as in so many industries, information plays a vital role. From diagnosis and treatment of an individual, to the allocation of health organization resources, and even real-time response to public health needs, decisions are guided by the available information…Effective patient care takes more than a good doctor—it takes coordination and a critical mass of data. Health IT provides the infrastructure to support those goals at a new level.” What? “Critical mass of data?” “Available information?” Whatever happened to meaningful use of information?