I was recently privileged to have been part of the annual Health IT Summit, organized by the Institute for Health and Technology Transformation (iHT2).
It was aptly titled "Unleashing the Power of mHealth and Telemedicine." With the recently proposed changes in healthcare legislation, events of this nature serve to engender cogent conversation with regard to the administration, management and delivery of healthcare.
Some of the core issues discussed, in addition to the attendant legal nuances sure to be germane to delivery and management, include hCloud - managing healthcare "within a Cloud", data consolidation, scalability, datacenter integrity, disaster recovery, corporate security as well as expected ROI (Return On Investment).
With regard to disaster recovery, there seemed to be a consensus that Cloud Computing could be a "remedy" for that.
Panelists included William Spooner, Chief Information Officer at Sharp Healthcare, Alan Snell, MD, MMM, Chief Medical Informatics Officer at St. Vincent Health and Indiana Health Information Exchange, Laura McCrary, EdD, Executive Director at KHIN (Kansas Health Information Network) and a host of other highly accomplished IT, business and medical professionals.
As a precursor to deploying an mHealth or Telemedicine initiative, some of the issues/questions to ponder, from a strategic perspective include the following:
a) Does the initiative create an economic situation that improves process execution?
b) Does it make sense financially?
c) Risk Management.... Balancing Risk....
d) Best Practices that are scalable and platform agnostic?
e) First respondents to test scalability in a Cloud environment....
Furthermore, what about workflow with regard to EMR and other adjacent functionalities? A case study for datacenter integrity?
Much along the lines of the expected Return on Investment, which is probably one of the most critical things to consider in all of this, it was suggested that evidence-based content providers develop guidelines geared towards the following:
a) Well documented safety and quality improvement
b) Proven efficiency gains
c) Best Practices for team members across all experience levels
d) Support for Best Practice adherence and documentation
While the healthcare sector (in the past) tended to be slow in embracing technological advancements with regard to HIE, advances in mobile technology has been key to the development of evidence based content, in the healthcare vertical.
Convergence in the HIE space is seen to be a trigger for the mHealth/Telemedicine business model and while most panelists considered hCloud to be a "disruptive technology", there seemed to be a general consensus that it might indeed be a "necessary evil."
Finally, support for existing infrastructure with regard to increased redundancy, most panelists agreed, would be paramount.
For more information on the seminar please visit:
http://www.ihealthtran.com/2011seapresentations.html
or you may contact:
Matthew Raynor, MBA
Marketing Manager
Institute for Health Technology Transformation
(561) 748-6281 - Office
(561) 801-6576 - Mobile
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