HIMSS24 draws together a vibrant and diverse community of healthcare trailblazers from around the world. And it’s all happening right now in Orlando.
Howard Krain | LinkedIn
Attendees include visionary healthcare leaders, innovative disruptors, and dynamic market suppliers, among many, many other movers and shakers.
Perficient’s Howard Krain, is excited to attend again this year, and shared, “HIMSS provides a unique opportunity to network with like-minded executives and learn about the latest trends and innovations within the industry. It brings together experts, vendors, and thought leaders to share insights and showcase cutting-edge solutions.”
Top-of-Mind Topics at HIMSS 2024
Howard outlined key themes he looks forward to exploring with our clients and technology partners at HIMSS this year:
- AI and GenAI: Understanding how it will transform the industry in ways that were not possible before.
- Interoperability: Given the increasing complexity of healthcare systems, achieving seamless data exchange and interoperability remains a top priority.
- Cybersecurity: As healthcare becomes more digitized, the industry faces growing cybersecurity challenges. Protecting patient data and securing healthcare systems are critical concerns.
- Patient Experience: Howard shared, “I am looking forward to hearing Robert Garrett’s keynote where he will discuss his vision and strategies for personalizing the patient experience while leveraging AI to drive transformational change.”
Are you attending HIMSS 2024? We’d love to connect with you this year in Orlando! Let’s make time at HIMSS to envision ways you can drive better outcomes– for your patients, your members, your care teams, and your business.
Perficient combines strategy, industry best practices, and technology expertise to shape the experiences and engagement of healthcare consumers, streamline operations, and improve the cost and quality of care. Learn more about our healthcare expertise, or contact us to learn more.
]]>Cloud adoption is accelerating. By 2020, about half of all healthcare IT workloads will deploy to the cloud, and healthcare decision-makers are continuing to invest in the cloud. The cloud provides the power for key digital transformation initiatives in healthcare, but according to the HIMSS Technology Outlook Survey: The Outlook for Cloud, many leaders are still struggling to realize the full potential of the cloud.
The June 2019 survey explores cloud trends in the healthcare industry and identifies common issues that organizations face before implementing cloud technologies. To successfully leverage the cloud, healthcare providers need to consider innovation, efficiencies, and real-world use cases when selecting their cloud partner.
Overview of HIMSS survey results:
- Eight out of 10 healthcare stakeholders consider cloud a strategic priority for the coming year
- An estimated 39% of healthcare information technology (HIT) workloads are currently deployed in the cloud
- It is estimated 50% of HIT workloads are expected to be deployed in the cloud 12 months from now
- An estimated 79% are making cloud a strategic priority in the coming year
Despite this adoption rate, the study finds that only about 58% of stakeholders are confident they are aligning their spending priorities and technology roadmap to adequately meet their cloud needs.
“There remains some confusion on how to best leverage cloud technologies,” said Joel Thimsen, principal of cloud consulting at Perficient. “Hybrid-cloud and multi-cloud strategies, vendor differentiation, and different implementation and preparation strategies drive the complexity of adopting cloud platforms. With this, it becomes difficult to understand where to start to gain the advantages healthcare organizations seek to enable true transformative change for digital health and data analytics initiatives.”
The cloud is and will remain a crucial piece of IT investment and a foundation for achieving digital transformation and implementing new, innovative technologies. Healthcare organizations are making larger investments – especially in data analytics technologies – in an expanding market. It takes the right strategy and the right partner to make those investments count.
Defining your cloud strategy
We’re a Red Hat Premier Partner – we recently leveraged Red Hat OpenShift to deploy an end-to-end continuous delivery pipeline and a Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) solution that improved the velocity of application delivery at a large healthcare payer. This solution decreased developer onboarding time, increased speed-to-market of application development, and reshaped our customer’s outlook on leveraging cloud technologies for future growth.
We’ve also worked with healthcare providers to develop a holistic view of the patient and member information using cloud technologies. Cloud infrastructure provides the flexibility, scalability, and cost-effectiveness to enable our customers to consolidate volumes of patient data that is historically housed across disparate platforms and systems.
To drive cloud adoption, we can help you look at your organization’s goals and determine a cloud strategy that will help address business-critical initiatives to increase care quality, reduce costs, and improve overall population health.
Perficient and Red Hat collaborated on these survey results.
]]>The healthcare industry is leaning upon cloud more heavily, but there is still mistrust regarding its security, according to research presented at HIMSS 2019.
The insights, shared by HIMSS Media’s Janet King at the conference, show contradictions around cloud in the industry. Security worries persist despite cloud usage growing.
Here are the five key takeaways from the HIMSS Industry Snapshot: Cloud Security in Healthcare.
Cloud continues to take off
Cloud adoption rates by hospitals have continued to increase, almost doubling in the past year. IT workloads in the cloud have reached 39%, up from 21% in 2018, according to HIMSS.
The current trend should continue, too, according to predictions. HIMSS projects that 50% of IT workloads will be in the cloud in 2020 – a peak for cloud usage in healthcare.
Mission-critical cloud
Along with its general growth, cloud is also playing a part in critical work in healthcare. Mission-critical workloads make up 53% of cloud’s usage, according to HIMSS. The other 47% is work that contributes to back-end, non-critical workloads.
The healthcare industry’s investment in cloud supports this. HIMSS reported that 78% were frequently or occasionally investing in new, non-missional-critical cloud applications, while 68% were frequently or occasionally investing in new, mission-critical cloud applications. This growth in both areas reflects the aforementioned adoption rise, as well as cloud’s all-round importance.
Cybersecurity fears
Despite this growth, there are fears regarding the security of cloud. Only 18% of respondents said that they found cybersecurity concerns not limiting when it came to cloud usage. Meanwhile, concerns were somewhat limiting for 56% of respondents, and 26% said they were significantly limiting.
Among the top concerns were data theft by malicious actors, maintaining regulatory compliance, identity/access management, and advanced persistent threats/attacks. The middle tier of concerns expressed were a lack of visibility as to where the data is stored, malware infections, a lack of staff with cloud security skills, an inability to monitor workloads and apps for vulnerabilities, cloud workloads created outside IT, and a lack of consistent controls to secure multi-cloud and on-premises data, shared by one in three respondents, as opposed to one in two for the top concerns.
Also of concern to respondents were insider theft/misuse of data and denial of service attacks. In general, larger hospitals showed greater concerns with regard to these threats.
Unfounded worries?
Only 7% of security incidents in the past year were related to cloud, despite the fears expressed by respondents. In contrast, 65% of incidents weren’t cloud-related, while respondents were unsure about 28% of incidents.
Industry fears about cloud security aren’t being realized, and may even be unfounded, according to these results. With adoption growing, there is a chance that this trust grows if security incidents related to cloud stay infrequent.
Growing trust
Along with the fears not being realized, there is a growing trust in cloud generally in healthcare. While only 7% of respondents said they trust public cloud solutions to keep data secure without hesitation, 55% said they trusted it for some applications or workloads. At the same time, only 18% said they didn’t trust cloud for security.
What people are comfortable storing in the cloud depends if it’s a public cloud solution or not. The majority of respondents trusted the storage of de-identified electronic health records (EHRs) regardless of whether the platform was public, but it was alone in that. There were, however, stronger numbers for non-public cloud solutions. Along with the 88% who trusted non-public solutions for EHRs, 81% were comfortable storing information from general business apps in the cloud, and 80% were comfortable storing medial images.
This trust may signal an eventual change in attitude toward security, especially with further growth predicted.
]]>With more than 45,000 in attendance this year, #HIMSS19 dared to enlighten us on what’s on the horizon in healthcare. This year’s conference was as expansive as ever. There were topics for everyone, including AI, wearables, telehealth, patient engagement, genomics, interoperability, and data & analytics, and Women in Health IT.
What was your favorite part of HIMSS 2019?
Didn’t make it to HIMSS 2019? Get a taste of what you missed with these links:
Digital Health / Connected Health
- Telehealth is crucial for delivering better remote care, improving outcomes
- Using AI and Chatbots to improve patient experience
- How AI, intelligent apps and smart devices improve clinician performance
New Products
- AI, wearables, interoperability new products at HIMSS19
- Cardiovascular imaging and IT; Enterprise nurse call platform; Consumer-centric payments
- Patient engagement, RCM, genomics, deep learning among new tech at HIMSS19
Cloud Computing
- Industry Snapshot: cloud Security in Healthcare
- Patient access is a compelling reason to move into cloud-based PACS
Innovation
Perficient Posts Related to HIMSS19
]]>This week in Orlando, FL, #HIMSS19 brings together more than 45,000 health information and technology professionals, clinicians, executives and vendors from around the world.
Agency over your own healthcare data was a running theme in the HIMSS 2019 panel session titled “Personalized Patient Relationships and Connect Care Journeys.”
Ashwini Zenooz, Senior Vice President and General Manager from Salesforce facilitated the session with, panelist Harlan Krumholz, MD, SM Professor of Medicine, Yale School of Medicine and James Lacey, PhD, MPH Prof. & Dir., Div. of Health Analytics, City of Hope. They discussed hot topics such as how to facilitate patient engagement, focusing on the patient journey and how technology can facilitate patients to be front and center of their own health journey.
One of the spotlight topics during this session was on how enabling patients own/manage their healthcare information will be key in moving the industry forward. There is, however, some controversy over this. After all, the typical consumer is not well educated or trained in the realm of healthcare – so surely they can’t be trusted with that sort of information…
Or can they?
Compare the scenario to your bank account. Think of the banking industry where the average individual is not highly educated in the realm of money or finances. How would you react if someone told you that you were not fit to manage your own bank account and that furthermore, they couldn’t even tell you how much you had in your account at any given time, or when your money would be available.
Ludicrous, right?
In this session, it was proposed that it will be essential for consumers/patients to have a hand in managing their own healthcare data in order to truly enhance and support the patient/healthcare journey.
Of course, there are social determinants in getting consumers to share more holistic data and engage in this manner. That is where trust will be key. Trust that their information will be secure. Trust on information will be used and so forth.
With the right platform(s) available, and with patient trust, healthcare could move to a B-to-C-to-B model, versus a B-to-B model for patient data.
]]>It’s time for the HIMSS Annual Conference & Exhibition in Orlando, FL at the Orange County Convention Center. The annual conference is the leading healthcare information extravaganza bringing together 40,000+ health IT professionals, clinicians, executives and vendors from around the world.
Stay up to date and in-the-know by connecting with the HIMSS 2019 Social Media Ambassadors. These experts will share their unique voices and experiences; highlighting some of the best and actionable moments while attending the conference. Also works perfectly if you are unable to attend the conference in person. This is a fantastic way to send and receive crucial networking information.
The list this year is diversified with perspectives from the Physician, Patient, Nurse, Innovator, Futurist, Executive and more. Below are the 20 social media ambassadors for HIMSS 2019.
2019 Class of HIMSS Social Media Ambassadors:
Follow. Engage. Connect.
Andy De | @HITstrategy
Brian Eastwood | @Brian_Eastwood
Brian Mack | @BFMack
Chuck Webster, MD, MSIE, MSIS | @wareFLO
Colin Hung | @Colin_Hung
Danielle Siarri | @innonurse
David Harlow | @healthblawg
Evan Kirstel | @evankirstel
Geeta Nayyar | @gnayyar
Janae Sharp | @coherencemed
Jane Sarasohn-Kahn | @healthythinker
Linda Stotsky | @EMRAnswers
Lygeia Ricciardi | @Lygeia
Martin Jones | @Martinjonesaz
Matt Fisher | @matt_r_fisher
Max Stroud | @mmaxwellstroud
Nick van Terheyden, MD | @drnic1
Rasu Shrestha, MD, MBA | @RasuShrestha
Sean Erreger | @StuckonSW
Tamara StClaire | @drstclaire
You can also connect with the Perficient attendees who will be at HIMSS 2019:
We look forward to seeing you at HIMSS.
]]>Perficient is excited to showcase a comprehensive analytics and data strategy solution developed in partnership with Northwell Health at the 2019 HIMSS Global Conference and Exhibition.
In this session, Perficient and Northwell Health will discuss how the importance of aligning with business decision makers is integral to a successful analytics strategy and how incrementally building an enterprise data warehouse, and analytics system strengthens that collaboration.
“To meet the demands of its rapidly growing hospital, outpatient ambulatory and physician practices, Northwell Health needed an enterprise solution to bring together disparate data sources to deliver a holistic patient view,” said Jim Kouba, director of healthcare solutions at Perficient. “Through our partnership with Northwell, we helped develop a solution that enabled them to deliver better care throughout the patient’s journey.”
During HIMSS19, Perficient and Northwell Health will present the tools, processes, education, and measures for enabling information and discovery analysis across clinical, financial and operational functions.
The session, “Overcoming Challenges in Creating Self-Service Analytics,” will take place on Wednesday, February 13, from 10 – 11 a.m. EST and is provided as part of the Data Science, Analytics, Clinical, and Business Intelligence track.
“We’re honored to have been invited to speak and present with Northwell Health at HIMSS19,” said Matt Castle, vice president of Industry Services at Perficient. “We are thrilled for the opportunity to share best practices and techniques with leading healthcare providers.”
To learn more about Perficient and Northwell Health’s presentation, please read the full press release here.
]]>In my previous blogs I discussed a variety of non-traditional technology delivery methods including outsourcing and utilization of cloud-based service offerings. My last blog focused on the cloud and that, while healthcare is historically slower than most industries to implement newer technical trends, cloud services in one form or another are used by most providers today and expectations are that further deployment in the cloud will increase dramatically over the next 5 years.
I thought I would write one more blog related to cloud migration about some of the key considerations related to cloud migration.
The first step may sound pretty basic but it is critical in order to select a vendor(s) and make the other necessary decisions. That is to fully understand the strategic business goals of your cloud migration.
For example, is it totally cost driven, is there a need for enhanced application support instead of what can be provided locally, are there leases on building and/or equipment coming up that are driving the timing of a cloud migration or maybe are there data access and collaboration requirement not easily met with the current infrastructure. According to a 2016 HIMSS Analytics survey, the top reason for cloud migration at that time was increased performance and reliability.
Other reasons like the ability to quickly adapt to changing infrastructure needs and cost were also listed as important drivers. You still see these as reasons for cloud migration but we are also seeing the need to deal with increasing amounts of data, requirements for data sharing with outside organizations and access to advanced analytics tools as considerations when considering cloud services.
Once you have determined the overall business goals of the proposed cloud migration and what you hope to achieve from it you can focus on more tactical, although very important, considerations. These can include areas like anticipated bandwidth requirements.
The last thing you want to do is move processing to the cloud and have degraded performance. The applications that typically work best in a cloud environment are those that are not transferring large amount of data.
However, there are ways to quickly access even data-intensive applications but considerations like distance to the cloud hosting site, bandwidth and how data is actually transferred between the locations is much more important for those applications.
Security and privacy are also critical considerations. While cloud vendors are fully aware of HIPAA, and similar-such regulations, and are taking steps through certifications, contractual remedies and technology solutions to better ensure compliance, the provider is still ultimately responsible for this area.
Therefore, it is critical that any consideration of a cloud vendor include a comprehensive review of their security and privacy policies and procedures plus clear documentation of the ability to audit or otherwise ensure all the appropriate steps are being followed.
In addition, you need to consider the mix of public or private cloud services for your organization. Many providers currently run private clouds due to a desire to have “ownership” of the environment and also due to concerns over security provided by public cloud providers.
While this is better than having the processing in-house it still doesn’t fully tap the cost savings and flexibility available through public cloud services. Most organizations are expected to have multiple cloud vendors with a mix of both private cloud hosting as well as utilizing a public cloud based on the specific applications or data stores being considered.
This combination is known a hybrid cloud solution. However, the percentage hosted by public cloud providers is expected to grow significantly as the industry becomes more comfortable with their delivery model.
Defining the appropriate mix of providers in your, most likely, hybrid cloud solution is part of the overall migration strategy.
The key to getting started is understanding the business requirements, the current readiness of your organization for cloud migration and then developing the appropriate migration plan for you. Perficient has assisted many of our customers in this journey.
]]>#HIMSS18 brought together 45,000+ professionals from around the world for five days of education, innovation and collaboration to help uncover the promise of health information and technology.
After arriving on site, I witnessed thousands of healthcare professionals approaching the convention center and slowly trickling into the vendor hall. The convention hall featured 1,300+ companies and booths with professional displays of lights and visuals, taking days to construct on location.
The vendors were prepared to expand your thinking about the current topics impacting healthcare and health IT today – and share innovative approaches to addressing complex healthcare challenges.
I spent most of my time on the exhibitor floor but was able to sneak away to sit in on a few of the educational sessions to learn more about how digital and data are impacting healthcare.
The Major Trend
The major trends for #HIMSS this year were digital, data and the patient experience. I participated in many conversations on how to streamline efficiency while maintaining simplicity and user functionality and there was a heavy focus on data – specifically access and security. Generating a 360-degree view of patients requires organizations to undergo a digital transformation, a modernization of every aspect of their organization. A superior patient experience requires both front end and back end systems working together to deliver a seamless experience.
Whether you have a passion for education, love a good sales pitch, or desire a need for continuous networking opportunities; HIMSS can provide you with whatever you seek. Attending #HIMSS18 was a great experience and the showmanship was parallel with a Las Vegas production.
Be sure to take the time in the future to attend a HIMSS conference so you too can be where the world connects for health.
]]>Did you hear? The world’s #1 healthcare engagement platform made some exciting announcements at the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) Conference in March 2018.
The HIMSS Experience
After arriving on site, thousands of healthcare professionals approached the convention center and slowly trickled into the vendor hall, ready for the influx of new healthcare knowledge that HIMSS is guaranteed to produce. The convention hall featured more than 1,300 companies and booths with professional displays of lights and visuals, all taking days to construct. This queues up the perfect environment for major announcements; it’s no wonder Salesforce chose this opportunity to announce an important new Health Cloud update.
The vendors came prepared to expand attendees’ thinking about the current topics impacting healthcare and health IT today. The networking opportunities in the vendor halls were endless and nearly every interaction ended with a handshake and a great giveaway prize.
Then, at the top of every hour, the massive group of healthcare professionals started to disperse into the upper floors and conference halls for world-class education, superior programs, and irreplaceable Q&A forum opportunities.
It was here that Salesforce made the announcement that changed the way patients, providers, and healthcare organizations approach managing their data. For the nearly 60% of global healthcare organizations that said they were behind in implementing a digital health strategy or had none in place, this is something to pay attention to.
Introducing the latest Health Cloud
“The enhancements will enable healthcare organizations to provide more connected, intelligent patient engagement and improve outcomes. We also announced a major partnership with Cerner that allows patients to participate in their physician’s decision-making and more easily engage in their own health and care. New Health Cloud Assessments allows providers to manage the progress of outpatient care by delivering personalized surveys to patients and automating next steps based on responses.” This announcement “enables care providers to improve patient experiences and outcomes, from patient acquisition through post-acute and home care.” (Salesforce)
If you didn’t make it to HIMSS, this video interview with Salesforce’s Chief Medical Officer Dr. Josh Newman goes in depth about the latest Health Cloud additions and what healthcare organizations can expect from Salesforce.
Learn More About Health Cloud
Do you want to learn more about Health Cloud? We, as always, recommend turning to Trailhead for the best free, online learning courses. The trail “Deliver Great Patient Care with Health Cloud” promises to show how Health Cloud helps to deliver collaborative, connected support for patients and caregivers and how to set it up for your unique organization.
Did you go to HIMSS? Let us know your experience in the comments below!
This post was coauthored by Garrett Hill.
]]>While there’s been much news coverage in the media recently of companies sending vehicles into space, there’s an electricity in the air as the HIMSS18 conference fuels up for launch this week. You can bet on the Las Vegas show delivering an out of this world conference and exhibition on the latest health information and technology!
The healthcare industry has evolved over time, being at the forefront of many new trends and technologies including Cloud, Big Data, Healthcare Reform and Security. Riding on that momentum we are also seeing exciting new trends becoming more mainstream in healthcare today including Artificial Intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT) and Virtual Assistant technology.
AI in healthcare systems such as IBM Watson is providing an increasing amount of cognitive care for both individuals and communities. Many hospitals are using machine learning systems to diagnose/predict conditions in cardiac care, stroke, sepsis, and to help analyze information from monitor sensors/devices. There are now even organizations which foster an open source community approach to increase adoption of machine learning to healthcare.
Perficient and BayCare Health System will be teaming up to deliver an educational session at HIMSS on how BayCare is innovating with IBM Watson to improve transitions of care for high-risk patients.
- Improving Transitions of Care for High-Risk Patients
Featuring BayCare Health System and IBM Watson
Thursday, March 8 | 10:30 AM PT | IBM Booth #6243
In addition to the rise of cognitive innovation, we also have a dramatic increase in the use of Virtual Assistant technologies for healthcare by a steadily increasing number of homes and businesses. Voice-based systems such as Amazon Alexa or Google Home, or even assistive technology mobile apps provide much needed support for the elderly, disabled, and wounded veterans, who may need limited mobility or hands-free access to capabilities such as healthcare information, medical appointment scheduling, medicine reminders, or integration with smart home devices. Companies that provide Virtual Assistant services thru multi-media channels can also capably handle patient appointment scheduling, provide billing and enrollment services, support clinician workflows, and handle prescription renewals.
Lastly, the growth in number and types of IoT devices being introduced is exploding. In healthcare, IoT capabilities include sensor monitoring, medical device integration, medical asset management, all with obvious benefits to patients with special needs and chronic conditions, as well as enhancing screening and preventative capabilities. Yet there are significant challenges to managing the security, privacy and especially the utilization and management of the amount of data being produced by these devices.
Please join us at HIMSS18 this week in Las Vegas where Perficient’s healthcare leadership team will be sharing our real-world experience in these areas at booth #2671. We will also be leading a lightning session on how we completed the first-ever implementation of IBM’s Unified Data Model for Healthcare (UDMH) on the Cloud for a large integrated delivery organization.
All systems are go for the HIMSS18 launch, and we look forward to seeing you there!
]]>It’s time for the #HIMSS18 Annual Conference & Exhibition in fabulous Las Vegas, Nevada at the Sands Expo and Convention Center March 5-9. The annual conference is the leading healthcare information extravaganza bringing together 40,000+ health IT professionals, clinicians, executives and vendors from around the world.
However, if you are unable to attend the conference in person, don’t worry because you can still send and receive crucial networking information. Stay up to date and in-the-know by connecting with the HIMSS18 Social Media Ambassadors. These experts will share their unique voices and experiences; highlighting some of the best and actionable moments while attending the conference.
The list this year is diversified with perspectives from the Physician, Patient, Nurse, Innovator, Futurist, Executive and more. You can follow all of the HIMSS18 Social Media Ambassadors by subscribing to Perficient’s HIMSS18 Social Media Ambassador list. Below are the 20 social media ambassadors for HIMSS18.
2018 Class of HIMSS Social Media Ambassadors:
- Andy De | @HITstrategy
- Brian Eastwood | @Brian_Eastwood
- Brian Mack | @BFMack
- Chuck Webster, MD, MSIE, MSIS | @wareFLO
- Colin Hung | @Colin_Hung
- Danielle Siarri | @innonurse
- David Harlow | @healthblawg
- Evan Kirstel | @evankirstel
- Geeta Nayyar | @gnayyar
- Janae Sharp | @coherencemed
- Jane Sarasohn-Kahn | @healthythinker
- Linda Stotsky | @EMRAnswers
- Lygeia Ricciardi | @Lygeia
- Martin Jones | @Martinjonesaz
- Matt Fisher | @matt_r_fisher
- Max Stroud | @mmaxwellstroud
- Nick van Terheyden | @drnic1
- Rasu Shrestha, MD, MBA | @RasuShrestha
- Sean Erreger | @StuckonSW
- Tamara StClaire | @drstclaire
Follow all of the #HIMSS18 Social Media Ambassadors by subscribing to Perficient’s #HIMSS18 Social Media Ambassador list on Twitter.
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