Tim J. Edwards

Today, I attended Day 2 of the HIMSS Virtual Conference & Expo. This was the final day of the conference and had a slightly shorter agenda than yesterday.

For me, the highlight of today’s presentations was one from Dr. Albert Villarin called Clinical Decision Support in the Trauma Center: A Practical Guide to Clinical, Administrative and Quality Informatics. The talk centered around an impressive use of technology to improve efficiencies and care in a busy Philadelphia trauma center. As a recovering programmer, I was intrigued to discover they were using Cold Fusion 8 as their primary development language. Apparently, reports of Cold Fusion’s demise were greatly exaggerated.

At the end of the conference, a couple of things stuck-out in my mind. First, the integration of process improvement techniques through healthcare information technology (IT) continues to make significant gains in clinical operations. I’m seeing more use of data analysis for the purpose of improving processes and producing better clinical outcomes. My biggest frustration in IT is when IT is used for IT’s sake; not to make significant process improvements. Thankfully, we are seeing more evidence of the “proper” use of technology.

The second major learning for me was the use of Web 2.0 tools that surrounded and augmented the conference, but were not actually part of the conference. HIMSS had a Twitter account and used Twitter to promote and connect attendees during sessions. Personally, I met many others who shared my interests in HIT and Web 2.0 through the use of Twitter. While the conference structure had a “lounge,” the purpose of the lounge seemed more about sales and not so much about networking. Tweeting on Twitter afforded me the opportunity to talk to others about presentations while they were occurring. In a typical conference setting, that type of cross-talk would be frowned upon. Here, it proved to be very beneficial.

For the next virtual conference, I believe HIMSS should explore adding more Web 2.0 features into their conference structure and encourage more of these connections. When establishing my profile, there were opportunities to enter an Instant Messaging ID, but who uses IM anymore? What if the conference took place in Second Life and had actual speaking avatars and meeting rooms? That would be interesting. Perhaps we could leverage professional profiles in LinkedIn to create your vCard as a way of connecting individuals. They could encourage using Twitter in lieu of the Q&A sessions. Perhaps contests could be established to promote use of these and other tools. After all, how can one learn the benefits of emerging technologies unless there is a meaningful purpose to use them?

I found a lot of value in the conference and look forward to the next one in June. I also hope HIMSS will be open to extending the networking capabilities and would be happy to do my part to help.

Yesterday, I attended the first day of the HIMSS Virtual Conference & Expo. HIMSS is the Healthcare Information Management & Systems Society and they describe themselves this way:

The Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) is the healthcare industry’s membership organization exclusively focused on providing leadership for the optimal use of healthcare information technology (IT) and management systems for the betterment of healthcare.

I’ve been a member of HIMSS for the past couple of years, attended the HIMSS conference in 2006, and received my CPHIMS (Certified Professional in Healthcare Information and Management Systems) certification in May of 2007. Suffice it to say, I believe in this organization and the role they play in healthcare IT.

My background includes spending time in many industries; always in an IT capacity. However, my current position is my first experience in healthcare and HIMSS has played a key role in my education and understanding of the challenges and opportunities within the healthcare industry. As we all know, finding the time for professional development and the budget for travel is becoming an increasing challenge. So, how does a professional find the time and the money to attend training? We attend virtually.

HIMSS offers a virtual conference to their members. The interface is slick and prompted my 17-year-old to say, “Cool” when he first saw it.

Of course, once you get past the glitz of the interface, it all boils down to the presentations which are delivered via WebEx. Let’s face it; a conference is only as good as the presenters and their materials. Fortunately, there were many quality presentations on Day 1, but the highlight was: “Smart Citizens, Smarter Patients: A Primer on Social Media and the Wisdom of Patients” by Jane Sarasohn-Kahn (www.healthpopuli.com). This presentation provided a wealth of information and gave me renewed hope that Web 2.0 and patient-focused care will ultimately improve both the care of patients and promote healthy living.

Now, I’m off to attend Day 2 and perhaps drop-by the vendor area. I’ll post a more complete update later today. If you attend the conference, let me know what sessions you found most useful and I’ll be sure to checkout any good presentations I missed.

News out of Washington today on another Obama cabinet choice:

Former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle has accepted President-elect Barack Obama’s offer to be Secretary of Health and Human Services, Democratic officials said Wednesday.

The appointment has not been announced, but these officials said the job is Daschle’s barring an unforeseen problem as Obama’s team reviews the background of the South Dakota Democrat. One area of review will include the lobbying connections of his wife, Linda Hall Daschle, who has done representation mostly on behalf of airline-related companies over the years. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorize to discuss the matter publicly.

What does the choice of Daschle indicate about the Obama Administration?

As Health and Human Services chief, Daschle will be responsible for helping set health care policy. He supports a government-funded insurance program for the nation’s uninsured.

Daschle has also been the head of the health care working group in the Obama transition team. Democratic officials shied away from a term some are throwing around — “health care czar” — but say Daschle “is likely to play a leading role in the passage of health care reform and the strategy to implement it.”

Other sources lay out substantial work being done by the incoming administration to enable health care reform, all of which indicates Obama does intend to move on this issue in spite of the monumental difficulties, including financial obstacles.

Get ready for some serious change in the health care industry. Goodness knows, we need it.