Tales from two Los Angeles healthcare organizations--one a technology-rich start-up hospital with an eye on community health, the other a venerable academic medical center doing research on cloud analytics and machine learning--illustrate the diversity of topics that will be covered in the connected health track at HIMSS 2016.
From workflow and adoption to connectivity between mobile devices and enterprise systems, attendees can explore how technological advances and increased access to mobile and wireless technologies help support patient engagement, self-health management and prevention strategies.
Kicking the show off, the annual connected health symposium will focus on "anywhere and anytime" care via telehealth, mobile and wireless tech. The day-long event will explore the impact that connected health technology has on the daily workflow of healthcare providers, as well as:
- Telehealth, remote patient monitoring and on demand e-visits
- Patient generated health data to increase engagement
- Telehealth policy and payments
- How new consumer technology is impacting health and healthcare
- Technology adoption, including policy, payment and cost
- The convergence of patient-directed and managed health with alternative payment models
- The impact of connected health on outcomes, ROI and care quality
It takes place February 29 from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Virtual Care: New Skills for Organizations and Professionals promises to help attendees with the professional skills and organizational capabilities required to deliver virtual care, to recognize emerging opportunities for virtual care delivery and understand the post-implementation impact on people, process and technology. Led by Mark Casselman, CEO of Canada's Health Informatics Association, it will also cover how to describe and analyze health informatics professional role profiles.
The session takes place on March 1, at 8:30 a.m.
The Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT is holding a number of sessions, including one on "privacy and security in an app-enabled world."
Led by Lucia Savage (right), ONC's chief privacy officer, the session will focus on privacy and security issues that arise from the expanding use of smart phones and mobile technologies to access health data. It will cover the 2015 CEHRT rules about consumer-chosen apps and consumer-directed transmission by unencrypted email, as well as other work underway to ensure privacy and security in emerging technologies.
The session takes place March 1, at 11:30 a.m.
A case study session will outline how warehouse club Costco used mobile and other technology to help parents of children in neo-natal intensive care units through the transition to home. The benefit supports engagement and population health goals and had a positive impact on NICU care coordination and care management, according to the session description.
From Hospital to Home: Mobile NICU Program takes place on March 1, at 4 p.m.
Midway through the week, HIMSS will release the results of its 2016 HIMSS Connected Health Survey. It will explore how the industry is using emerging technologies and how healthcare organizations are measuring and tracking their value. Key areas of insight will include provider perceptions on the use and role of telehealth, remote patient monitoring and patient portals in new care delivery models.
HIMSS senior research manager Jennifer Horowitz and HIMSS director of health information systems Thomas Martin, Ph.D. will share the results at a session on March 2 at 10 a.m.
Sajid Ahmed, chief information and innovation officer of the new Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Hospital in Los Angeles will share the organization's efforts to design an all-digital hospital that takes a community-first approach to connected health. Of the $158 million budget provided to build the hospital, nearly half--$70 million--was devoted to IT. But the effort didn't start with the building, the session description notes. Rather, it began "with a holistic needs evaluation of the diverse and underserved local residents."
A Connected Hospital and Connected Community Partnership takes place on March 3, at 2:30 p.m.
As the 2016 show wraps up, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, also in Los Angeles, will share research into how cloud analytics, machine learning and related technologies improve and scale remote patient monitoring for heart failure patients by detecting deterioration days or weeks before symptoms appear, thereby preventing needless hospitalization.
Raj Khandwalla, M.D., the director of cardiovascular education at the Cedars-Sinai Medical Care Foundation, will present at the session, Next-Generation Remote Patient Monitoring for Heart Failure, on March, 3 at 4 p.m.