Healthcare and health informatics is fertile ground for Big Data initiatives. As scientists and clinicians continue to research complex conditions the ability to process and analyse large volumes of data is just another tool in the toolbox.
Interesting to see IBM moving forward in Big Data in Healthcare. This article references ongoing work in researching Multiple Sclerosis (‘MS’).
Very interesting report just publised by PwC: ‘Social media “likes” healthcare, From marketing to social business‘. Can be downloaded from their site.
Embracing social media must make sense for healthcare operators for any number of reasons:
There is an expectation in the buying community that the suppliers will participate in social media.
The report includes some excellent examples of operators (hospitals and insurers) and patients using social media. www.patientslikeme.com is a great example on the patient side.
The hospitals who ‘get it’ now realise that social media is not something to be looked after by marketing or IT. Social business/ social interaction is now part of day to day operations for a modern operator.
Seems to me that the observations about a patient, made by a doctor, nurse, consultant or physio should be captured. They represent the professional’s assessment, judgement, advice, direction. This data should be available and accessible for other professionals responsible for caring for the patient. And, I would argue, this information should be available to the patient.
We have to move on from hand written notes – which are not easily shared, stored, searched against.
And I do not buy the concerns of professionals that entering such data into a computer interferes with patient care. In fact it creates records likely to improve patient care.
Bringing medicine into the age of computers is an excellent blog posting on the subject.
The game should have moved on by now. And the players need to start playing the new game.
And we do need to ensure that software and devices are configured to facilitate electronic health records.
Another report suggesting that healthcare providers are not to the fore in embracing social media.
Interesting that this should be the case. Healthcare provision is hugely dependent on technology. Providers want to develop deeper relationships with customers – ultimately the patients.
Understandable that there is concern over any potential liability associated with providing advice via social media (or any other media).
Perhaps for some time there may have been some expectation that social media constituted another fad? Does not look that way. Platforms such as facebook, twitter, YouTube offer great opportunities for two way interaction between providers and customers.
Seems to me that social media offer all healthcare providers (hospitals, doctors, consultants, dentists, physios, etc) a range of channels through which they can improve the quality and frequency of interaction with their customers. And those who fail to embrace are missing a real opportunity. A traditional web site does not do it any more.
Interesting to read summary of survey on security breaches in healthcare institutions in US (205 surveyed).
The old reliable is the number one source: employees. Not difficult to see how can happen – employee ends up with inappropriate level of access to some patient data.
Two other areas catch my attention:
Interesting piece by a CFO looking to putting his Board straight on likely payback on investment in systems to support EMR.
CFO argues that the payback is not obvious, is not in the short term. The investment may yet make sense in the longer term - enabling healthcare to go where it needs.
These are very real challenges for all CFOs in healthcare – being pushed to support investment originating with clinicians – but under pressure to demonstrate payback to Boards and/or investors.
IT projects in hospitals are no different to IT projects in other industries – in terms of requiring planning, resourcing and support for change management.
This report on roll out of IT systems at Department of Veterans’ Affairs (VA) hospitals in the US speaks to this issue.
If people are working in busy day jobs and you want to implement change (to improve patient safety, operational efficiency), then you must plan for interruption to day to day operations – be that for testing, training, adjusting to new processes. The business case for such change needs to recognise, inter alia, the costs of the change effort itsself.
Interesting to read about development of the Chief Nursing Information Officer (‘CNIO’) role in some US hospitals. In the UK the recent emphasis has been on the development of the Chief Clinical Information Officer (‘CCIO’).
All of this makes sense to me as someone who consults in healthcare informatics – that there should be experienced healthcare professionals driving the thinking , design and implementation of solutions designed to improve patient safety, patient experience and hospital efficiency.
Susan Hamer does not pull her punches in this piece
Interesting piece by Michael Trambert – ‘Cloud-Based Medical Data Exchange: Promising Results So Far’.
Michael references his experience of use of cloud based solutions for exchange of images.
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