Tom Sullivan

Did the big conference live up to the predictions? Answer our poll to help us find out.

Whereas a democrat would be more prone to simple tweaks, a republican would opt for tax credits, Romney said, acknowledging that since Obamacare is the law of the land it would would be hard to go back to his preferred model under which the states decide how to insure their citizens.

While the former presidential candidate called the 2016 race anything but over, as for his own entry into the race, the answer is 'no.'

Report to be published on Thursday at HIMSS16 also shows 85 percent of doctors said that using wearables can help patients become more involved.

The funding will go toward patient- and provider-facing apps, as well as a ‘store’ where consumers can download them. 

Project aims to highlight interoperability successes and bring the community together to address challenges.

Can healthcare providers succeed in population health management without buy-in for patients? Not likely, no. There are, however, ways of engaging those patient populations where a little information can go a long way. Take ARcare, for instance, a private nonprofit corporation serving primary care and dental needs in rural Arkansas. Just don’t let the geography fool you. ARcare is a Blue Button participant and a HIMSS Davies Award winner. Among the IT-savvy population health initiatives, ARcare increased clinicians’ ability to treat patients with diabetes. And it did so with common and relatively inexpensive technology: SMS texting. [Poll: What topics will define HIMSS16?] “We use population health management to improve diabetes and hypertension education with interactive SMS with our patients,” ARcare CIO Greg Wolverton said, adding that ARcare uses the HIMSS Patient Engagement Framework. Wolverton will discuss ARcare’s challenges and successes in a HIMSS16 session titled “Consumer-Driven Care and the Push Toward Population Health,” on Thursday. Culled from lessons learned along the way, Wolverton recommends that healthcare organizations moving toward population health management not only recognize the role of messaging tools working in conjunction with electronic health records to coordinate care across various facilities, but also identify agile and scalable efficiencies those technologies can enable. What’s more, laying the technological foundation for consumer-driven care can give healthcare organizations data to better understand how these approaches impact patients and population alike and, from there, optimize care plans for individuals. Finally, there’s the financial upside. “Population health when properly managed can improve patients’ health,” Wolverton said, “and increase operational revenue for providers.” Wolverton’s session “Consumer-Driven Care and the Push Toward Population Health,” is slated to take place Thursday March 3, 2016 from 11:30-12:30 PST in the Sands Expo Convention Center Palazzo E. Twitter: @SullyHIT This story is part of our ongoing coverage of the HIMSS16 conference. Follow our live blog for real-time updates, and visit Destination HIMSS16 for a full rundown of our reporting from the show. For a selection of some of the best social media posts of the show, visit our Trending at #HIMSS16 hub.

3M Health Information Systems plans to unveil the latest module in its 360 Encompass Health Analytics Suite early next week at HIMSS16 in Las Vegas. Physician Compare integrates with the company’s Potentially Preventable Readmissions and Potentially Preventable Complications grouping software, according to materials Healthcare IT News obtained ahead of the launch. Taken together, the risk analysis methodologies enable hospitals to audit doctors to identify avoidable events, notably admissions, emergency room visits, hospital-acquired complications and preventable readmissions. [Poll: What topics will define HIMSS16?] Physician compare brings reports for gauging physicians’ efficiency and performance compared to peers, measuring which resources they use and how those impact outcomes – as well as enabling users to identify tactics for improving physician performance. Another pre-packaged report focuses on what the company called “patient acuity” through avoidable care, admissions and healthcare costs. Released in the summer of 2015, the 3M Encompass Health Analytics Suite also includes State Compare and Patient Compare modules for benchmarking hospital quality performance and patients’ perspective on costs, performance and length of stay. The former is why University Health System in San Antonio, Texas reached out to 3M. Well, that and a little philosophy called the Triple Aim, said Camerino Salazar, senior director of health analytics at UHS. [Also: 21 awesome photos from past HIMSS conferences] “We initially used 3M software to help with reporting for the 1115 state Medicaid waiver,” Salazar explained. “Now that we’ve been operationalizing the analytics dashboard it’s a way to monitor performance and identify the areas where we need to improve quality.” Salazar’s colleague Heidy Colon-Lugo, a senior quality data analyst in the UHS health analytics unit, added that UHS has the Physician Compare module and “physicians can use it to track their own progress,” though the hospital has not yet put it into production at an enterprise level. “We see it as a tool that could be very beneficial on inpatient reporting. It’s on the to-do list – and it’s a gauge for population health management,” Salazar explained because it helps UHS track performance and quality. “If we’re doing a good job of care management and providing timely preventable care, that’s an avenue of keeping people healthy. We’re the downstream so if things are operating well we should see those changes to readmissions, costs, the Triple Aim.” Twitter: @SullyHIT This story is part of our ongoing coverage of the HIMSS16 conference. Follow our live blog for real-time updates, and visit Destination HIMSS16 for a full rundown of our reporting from the show. For a selection of some of the best social media posts of the show, visit our Trending at #HIMSS16 hub.

HIMSS is launching the HIMSS Executive Institute, a community of senior leaders at provider organizations that have achieved either EMRAM Stage 7 or Davies Award recognition. “These people represent the most sophisticated providers, the best and the brightest,” HIMSS Executive Vice President Carla Smith said. “These already high-performing executives can participate in the HIMSS Executive Institute to take their IT even higher to ultimately improve health. These are people who want the best for patients and clinicians.” HIMSS Analytics honors health systems with its Electronic Medical Record Adoption Model which recognizes a truly paperless enterprise as Stage 7. JoAnn Klinedinst, HIMSS Vice President of Professional Development explained that a Stage 7 recognition represents a significant accomplishment in technology execution. And Smith added that earning a Davies Award is yet another big step technologically. [Also: 11 essential quotes from notable HIMSS keynotes] HIMSS launched the Executive Institute in November of 2015 and has since conducted monthly webinars on topics including: maximizing value from HIT investments, revalidating Stage 7 status, EMRAM 2.0, HIMSS16.  HEI has 87 members from 49 North American-based providers. HEI’s executive committee, meanwhile, is comprised of nine familiar faces in the health IT fray: Pam Arora, SVP/CIO, Children’s Health Ray Gensinger, MD, CIO, Hospital Sisters Health System Brian Jacobs, MD, CIO & CMIO, Children’s National Health System Kyle Johnson, CIO & System Vice President, Eastern Maine Medical Center John Kenagy, PhD, Senior Vice President & CIO, Legacy Health Don Reichert, CIO, MetroHealth System Patty Sengstack, RN, CNIO, Bon Secours Health System Ferdi Velasco, MD, CHIO, Texas Health Resources Greg Wolverton, CIO, ARcare At HIMSS16, HIMSS Executive Institute members will meet for a number of briefings and private meetings, including a roundtable on cybersecurity challenges particular to EHRs. Members will also have access to the Executive Institute Lounge, get reservations for the SuperNAP Data Center Tour and receive VIP seating at HIMSS16 keynotes. A range of IT executives are eligible to become members, including CIOs, chief information security officers, chief technology officers, chief medical officers, chief health information officers, chief nursing informatics officers, chief clinical innovation officers, to name just a few. Smith said that because EMRAM 7 and Davies winners are two IT-oriented designations, technology professionals are the tip of the spear for Health Executive Insight membership, and the long-term plan is to expand that to any executives at Davies or EMRAM Stage 7 winners. [Like Healthcare IT News on Facebook] “At some point we’re going to be interested in attracting CEOs, CFOs and COOs,” Smith said, “because technology executives often report to them and because those leaders increasingly understand the power of clinical and business intelligence in successfully running their business.” Smith added HEI is global in scope, though in different parts of the world it operates under various names and has other membership criteria. In other countries, for instance, membership is open to senior executives at Davies-winning hospitals as well as EMRAM Stage 6 and 7 achievers. “One of our aspirations is to have face-to-face meetings at member’s facilities wherein they host in-depth tours including education and networking,” Smith said. “It’s the opportunity to interact with your true peers, very high achieving individuals at very high achieving IT shops at providers doing remarkable things.”  Twitter: @SullyHIT This story is part of our ongoing coverage of the HIMSS16 conference. Follow our live blog for real-time updates, and visit Destination HIMSS16 for a full rundown of our reporting from the show. For a selection of some of the best social media posts of the show, visit our Trending at #HIMSS16 hub.

Geeta Nayyar, MD, is the chief healthcare and innovation officer at management services organization Femwell Group Health, the host of Topline MD TV, and the co-founder and chief medical information officer of design-based strategy and analytics firm Abeyon. And at HIMSS16 she will join the ranks of Social Media Ambassadors credentialed to attend and cover the show. We asked Nayyar what she’s most interested in learning more about during the conference, her top health IT prediction for health IT in 2016 and the potential to apply analytics to social media to harness the power of massive networks around the world. Q: What are you most excited to see at HIMSS16? A: I’m looking for some very elegant user-centered design solutions.  Too often the tech products we are putting out in the industry leave the end user’s (doctor or patient) point of view to the end. Keeping the tech simple and elegant can go a long way and with all the patient centered discussion and focus I’m looking to see this play out in more products. Also looking for other non-healthcare industry leaders to help show us lessons learned. The advantage healthcare has is we are so far behind many other industries such as retail and banking. To the extent some of these representatives will be at HIMSS I’m interested in hearing those use cases and extrapolating what they mean to healthcare. Also looking for use cases and proof points, whether that’s a pilot or real life scenario that has played out such that we can glean the lessons learned. And I’m very jazzed to be at HX360 this year. That forum seems ideal for all of the above. Lastly, I always love to see old colleagues and friends and connect in real time. [Also: 21 awesome photos from past HIMSS conferences] Q: What is something about you that even your devout followers don't know? A: I’m a big tennis fanatic and love water sports of every kind.  I have a boating license and love to sail and kiteboard. Q: What is the untold benefit of social media in healthcare today? A: Today, a large number of consumers turn to social media for health information, physician reviews and even data research, making the healthcare industry one of the top industries to attract large numbers of audiences from everywhere on the globe on social networks.  I think we will see the analytics space growing around social media metrics and really help us understand what these networks currently are doing for patients and docs and what more can result from bridging massive networks across the globe. Q: What’s your one health IT prediction for 2016? A: The consumer continues to drive healthcare in 2016. As a result, I think we will see an uptake in telemedicine and remote monitoring solutions and communication solutions bridging docs and patients. I also think Big Data is only getting bigger — so we will see more solutions addressing how to better manage the data unfolding and put it into action. Q: What inspired to apply to the Social Media Ambassador program? A: As a former advisory board member of HIMSS I have always supported bringing different stakeholders in the industry together.  With the Presidential campaign upon us we all know how relevant and timely the state of the healthcare industry remains. The Social Media Ambassador program allows us to bring these different views together and amplify them and make connections for all of those in industry looking for solutions to the universal problems we continue to face.  Also, the program allows folks both present and not present to partake in this discussion and serves as an expansive network to count on both at HIMSS and after.  Twitter: @SullyHIT This story is part of our ongoing coverage of the HIMSS16 conference. Follow our live blog for real-time updates, and visit Destination HIMSS16 for a full rundown of our reporting from the show. For a selection of some of the best social media posts of the show, visit our Trending at #HIMSS16 hub.