Healthcare IT Insights

This year we’re participating in the Midwest HIMSS Fall Technology Conference where the official theme will be centered around Virtual Healthcare as the show title indicates “Virtual Healthcare: Keeping IT Real.“

HIMSS holds particular value for participants looking to gain insight on healthcare information and management systems from reputable experts. I always value the educated attendees HIMSS offers, from both a networking and thought leadership perspective. That alone typically makes it worth my while. 

This year six Midwest area HIMSS chapters are co-hosting the Fall Technology Conference. The conference has expanded with pre-conference events including the 3rd Annual Midwest Nursing Informatics Symposium, CPHIMS Workshop, and CIO Executive Dinner. Also this year, our own Marc Danziger will be co-presenting with our client, Florida Hospital’s David Oakley on the topic of Social Media in healthcare. The presentation title is “Setting Healthcare Strategy in a Web 2.0 World”.

I know, given the current economic conditions, a potentially crucial 2009 is on the minds of all of us in the healthcare industry. Leveraging proven web 2.0 technologies in healthcare “Healthcare 2.0” to cut waste (we know at least 1/3 of all healthcare costs are waste) has never been more crucial, and will no doubt be a thoroughly discussed issue at this year’s Midwest HIMSS event. There will be many healthcare organizations at the conference not only looking to refine their current business practices, but also because they want to figure out how they can leverage these new processes to immediately cut costs. If you are planning on attending you can register for the Midwest HIMSS conference here. Hope to see you there!

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The internet and specifically Web 2.0 has the potential to transform the healthcare industry by reducing traditional barriers associated with time and place. The same technologies that drive popular consumer sites such as Facebook, iGoogle and Amazon are changing the expectations of patients, physicians and even employees in the healthcare industry.  “If I can book air travel, lodging, rental car and even golf from the comfort of my family room sofa, why must I still call back between 8am and 5pm,  Monday through Friday to make an appointment, ask a question about a bill or request a refill on a prescription?”  Evidence suggests that we are already in a state of transition as legacy application vendors promote new “web based” versions while other high end clinical information systems include extensive web based patient portal functionality as part of their packaged offerings.

 Marketing Departments in most healthcare organizations find themselves in the eye of this transformational storm.  Customer and user expectations have rapidly increased while most IT Departments have not adapted to the realities of these technologies – sadly many have not yet recognized that there is an issue.  Web 2.0 is not a silver bullet, but it has great potential to enable organizations to respond rapidly to a wide range of needs. 

What are you thoughts on leveraging web 2.0 technologies in healthcare? It is still largely under utilized from my perspective, but I’m sure the blog-o-sphere has some examples of successful uses.