As I recently had the opportunity to attend the 2015 Annual Health Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) Conference held in Chicago, Illinois. Many thoughts swirled around my head as I navigated the isles and exhibits – one realization though has become very evident to me – the HIMSS Conference has quickly become the premier event with regards to all medical devices and their connectivity in a virtual healthcare industry. Anymore what “new era” medical device is not hanging on a network, transmitting or receiving information? Smart phone remote access to medical device information and clinicians providing imaging read diagnosis from their mobile devices – sounds like a Star Trek episode from the 70’s?
The most prolific take away for me from my HIMSS experience was the Interoperability Showcase. Featured are a family of four (Mom, Dad, son and daughter) and their individual medical care pathways and the continuum of care throughout those journeys. What made it so relevant to me as an HTM service professional was the connectivity of medical devices encountered and the information data transmission web to so many interacting technologies. I learned so much about what “Interoperability” means in the “new era” healthcare environment. As well as the defining three levels of health information technology Interoperability which are “Foundational, Structural and Semantic” along with the purpose of why this so important for all HTM service professionals to immerse themselves in from a knowledge and understanding perspective.
I encourage every HTM service professional to spend some time researching and learning about Health Information Technology Interoperability and not only what it means by definition but how it will shape their career future in this “new era” of healthcare. A great opportunity to experience this career educational roadshow is coming up in about a little over a month at the 2015 AAMI Conference being held in Denver, Colorado. The HIMSS Interoperability Showcase world tour will make its stop at the AAMI Conference. If you can get there to see the showcase you will not be disappointed!
1 Comment
Great article Al. the biggest challenge that Mainspring has run into with interoperability is getting the OEMs to play ball. In most cases, they are holding the data hostage and looking for ridiculous ransom to share it. OHSU, one of Mainspring’s customers won an award at HIMSS a few years ago for work we did with them to integrate our asset management system, mobile equipment management system, Carefusion Alaris pumps, Epic EMR and Aeroscout RTLS location feeds. Shortly afterward, Carefusion put a ridiculous six-figure number on the table for access to the data, which effectively killed the opportunity for other customers. Since then we have run into the same thing with most of the equipment OEMs. Frustrating.