HIMSS20

In Orlando, health IT professionals will get an update on what FHIR currently can and can't do - and what to expect from it going forward.

In our Spotlight Series, we take a deep dive around key topics currently front and center in the healthcare industry. The supplements take a look at the conference through a topical lens, including themes, sessions and keynotes.

Update: HIMSS20 has been canceled due to the coronavirus. Read more here. As part of the merger of five independent orthopedic practices to form Virginia’s largest provider of orthopedic and therapy care, OrthoVirginia, a large investment was made implementing a new electronic health record system. A survey gauging physician satisfaction with the system, however, showed an overall poor experience, which led the CIO and CMIO to work together to implement and show measurable improvements across a range of areas, including more efficient usage of the technology. Among the most important decision made was to use provider satisfaction measurement tools, to better understand the most impactful EHR related elements that drive provider satisfaction. A structured onboarding process, including an explanation of the organization’s culture, also helps sets expectations for what will be required of the provider to achieve EHR mastery. "The lack of a clear articulation to the providers about what the EHR can be is a significant and ubiquitous problem," said Dr. Harry C Eschenroeder Jr., CMIO of OrthoVirginia, who is scheduled to address the topic March 12 at HIMSS20 with co-presenter and OrthoVirginia CIO Terri Ripley. He explained there is confusion about what parts of the workflows are driven by compliance requirements and what parts of the EHR can be helpful. "Workflows driven by compliance often frustrate providers and may add little value to patient care," he cautioned. "A well designed EHR can orient the physician to the patient’s situation, teach the patient what is wrong with them, and what they must do to get better." He further noted it can also facilitate communication and coordination of care amongst the providers trying to help the patient. "Providers must understand that they bear a responsibility to master and improve their imperfect EHR for the benefit of their patients," he said. "They need to experience some wins in making their EHR better." Eschenroeder said some methodologies that can be used to successfully implement a continuous education program for physicians include offering “at the elbow” provider education and provider problem resolution based on a personal relationship between the provider and a provider support specialist. "In addition, EHR educational presentations at department meetings can help providers to understand that the EHR is not a dead tool, it is evolving, and their input is critical," he said. Additional methodologies could involve peer to peer teaching and support interactions in provider meetings, and teaching themes for the provider support specialists, so that rounding is more than answering complaints and solving problems. Eschenroeder and his OrthoVirginia colleague Terri Ripley will share their insights during their HIMSS20 session, “Physician Satisfaction with EHR: Is it Possible to Improve?” It's scheduled for Thursday, March 12, from 2:30-3:30 p.m. in room W206A.

Jonah Comstock, editor-in-chief of HIMSS Media, offers some advice for successfully navigating HIMSS20, including some resource guides and webinars.

Update: HIMSS20 has been canceled due to the coronavirus. Read more here. Outdated technology and processes create challenges across an overburdened healthcare system, resulting in increased costs, alienated patients, and inferior outcomes across the healthcare system. However, virtual health assistants and chatbots aim to improve the conversation between healthcare provides, payers and patients and put more information in the hands of the end users, to help healthcare organizations improve processes and reduce costs. "Virtual health assistants can help healthcare organizations improve processes and put more information in the hands of their users," explained Hadas Bitran, group manager for Microsoft Healthcare Israel. Bitran, who will address the topic this week at HIMSS20, said to provide value, virtual health assistants need to be built with healthcare intelligence, including understanding medical terminology, user intents and context, and providing credible answers. "The virtual assistant needs to be integrated to the organization’s assets and extended to support its processes and needs, while maintaining top privacy, security and compliance standards to allow it to handle healthcare use cases and data," Bitran noted. "Virtual health assistants need to be designed to bring enough value to users, be it patients or doctors." She said challenges and pitfalls can include virtual assistants that are designed to be too limited, or can only do one thing. This means virtual assistants need to be able to handle diversion from the conversation and unexpected responses, and they need to constantly learn what the user expectations are. "Especially in healthcare, virtual assistants need to constantly update the content they rely on, and need to understand when they don’t understand or can’t help," Bitran said. "Those challenges and pitfalls need to be considered right from the start, when choosing the technology." Microsoft Healthcare sees a broad range of use cases for virtual health assistants, including cases that involve checking symptoms and finding information about providers, services, locations and coverage. Virtual health assistants could also help with finding information about healthcare conditions, medications and procedures, and improving administrative processes like proactive follow-up, sending reminders and scheduling. "We also see use cases like assessment questionnaires and matching patients to potential clinical trials,” she said. “As virtual health assistants become more integrated with the healthcare system, their role will expand." Mobile technology and connected devices will also allow virtual health assistants to become a productive mean of communication between remote patients, providers and payers, and put more information in the hands of users when and where they need it. Bitran noted one example for this impact is that the broad types of media available to mobile users introduces the need for virtual health assistants to support voice channels, handle visual inputs, and enable contextual handoff to humans over chat, voice or video. She noted that while virtual assistants will not replace medical professionals, the virtual assistants could augment the medical professionals’ work and reduce the burden on them from the system. Bitran will share insights on virtual health assistants in her HIMSS20 session, "Virtual Health Assistants: Best Practices and Real Use Cases." It’s scheduled for Tuesday, March 10, from 3-4 pm in room W414A.

Health systems can develop patient flow analytics, which can result in faster, more comprehensive care and a quicker release from the hospital.

Update: HIMSS20 has been canceled due to the coronavirus. Read more here. The 2020 HIMSS Global Health Conference is set for March 9-13 at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Florida. As the conference approaches, HIMSS is offering weekly updates on how it is handling the ongoing coronavirus situation. "HIMSS20 is proceeding as scheduled," said HIMSS officials in the most recent update. "The health, safety and well-being of our community remains our highest priority." While the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says health risk of coronavirus for the general American public is low at this time, HIMSS is continuing to closely monitor the situation and will be offering regular updates to conference-goers. HIMSS is following the guidance of the CDC and the World Health Organization, and is in close communication with the City of Orlando and with the Orange County Convention Center and area hotels about their protocols and disinfection procedures, it said, and is recommending they adhere to CDC and WHO guidance. "Every year, the global health conference carefully creates an emergency response plan," said HIMSS officials. "This year, we have expanded the reach of our procedures to include the counsel of local health systems." In addition, HIMSS plans to have three medical offices on site at the convention center. One of them will be dedicated to addressing flu-like symptoms and will be staffed with a nurse who will have direct access to the Florida Department of Health and an epidemiologist. Before and during HIMSS20, all attendees will be given health tips and information about safety measures. Meanwhile, HIMSS notes that travel restrictions signed by the U.S. Government on January 31, 2020, remain in effect. "We are in direct conversation with attendees and exhibitors from affected regions to accommodate their cancellations," officials said. HIMSS will continue offer weekly updates to the HIMSS20 community going forward. Healthcare IT News is a HIMSS Media publication.

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