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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.

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Hackensack University Medical Center is tapping new technologies to achieve more effective medication adherence, according to Hackensack UMC’s director of pharmacy Nilesh Desai. Hackensack UMC has been an early adopter of technologies and processes to advance medication safety and nurse workflows, Desai explained, along with interoperability between automated dispensing cabinets and EHRs. [Also: 11 essential quotes from notable HIMSS keynotes] Nurses are responsible for interacting with the automated medication dispensing cabinets, and the time they spend at the cabinets can be reduced significantly via more interoperable systems, for instance. Desai will discuss the hospital's progress in this realm during a HIMSS16 session titled “Impact of an ADC System on Medication Administration.” See all of our HIMSS16 previews Medical administration systems must be able to address patient-specific medications and offer robust inventory and data management processes, Desai said. Hackensack UMC tapped Omnicell, a provider of medication and supply management solutions and analytics software for healthcare facilities, to deliver automated medication management solutions throughout the 775-bed hospital. Twitter: @HealthITNews 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.

Telehealth provider VirtuMedix is homing in on emergency care. The company's software, as such, comprises a dashboard for tracking patients while they await consultation, as well as features enabling patients to log-in, view their medical record, and state the reason for a particular visit, according to Kannan Sreedhar, group vice president and general manager of VirtuMedix. Sreedhar said that VirtuMedix will be showcasing the latest version of its platform at HIMSS16 beginning in late February. [Also: 11 essential quotes from notable HIMSS keynotes] EMS physicians, for example, can use telemedicine technologies to give patients the ability to access provider organizations in an on-demand fashion, according to VirtuMedix group vice president Kannan Sreedhar. On the other side, patients can enter e-mails or mobile numbers to get messages alerting them when physicians are ready for their consultations, Sreedhar explained, adding that certain features enable patients to conduct online payments. “A parent might have three kids at home and one has an ear infection, and there’s the need to go to an emergency room, where a person might have to wait for three or four hours – that’s the usage of healthcare resources today,” he said. “But when a parent has the ability to use her smartphone or iPad and connect from home with physicians via telehealth, then she does not need to go to the hospital, and an emergency care physician can diagnosis the ear infection and send a prescription to the parent’s local pharmacy.” See all of our HIMSS16 previews According to a study by the American Academy of Family Physicians 15 percent of clinicians are using telemedicine tools today and 78 percent said they believe telemedicine improves access to care. VirtuMedix will be exhibiting at the HIMSS16 booths of partner organizations Allscripts and IDS, where it intends to showcase the latest version of its VirtuMedix platform. Twitter: @SiwickiHealthIT 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.

Atlantic Health cut operational costs $70 million in three years by effectively using predictive analytics, according to MaryPat Sullivan, chief nursing officer at Overlook Medical Center in Summit, New Jersey. “We have so many IT tools in the hospital setting,” Sullivan said, “but they’re only good if they actually get adopted." Overlook is part of the five-hospital Atlantic Health system. Sullivan spearheads healthcare literacy, diversity, and implementation of programs for pre-hospitalization, acute care and care transitions in the nursing department. When Overlook began its EHR transition, Sullivan’s team interviewed staff members to determine what data meant for them. While Sullivan thought culture change would hinder implementation, her staff actually embraced the transition. [Also: 21 awesome photos from past HIMSS conferences] “It’s a real find that staff were not only believing in the data, but were making decisions based on it,” she said. Sullivan will deliver a presentation titled “Reining in Labor Costs with Predictive Analytics,” at HIMSS16 later this month. Sullivan’s team spent a lot of time educating staff to help with the transition, she said, and found nurses felt “empowered to control their environment and to be good stewards to plan and evaluate.” Her team used business analytics to predict hospital productivity and analyze labor costs. By comparing data from previous years, Sullivan could create the best possible schedules to reduce costs and get the most from her staff. “We took the budget and the business analytics and married them,” Sullivan added. “It gives staff the control over their working environment and work in a way to maximize patient outcomes.” Even though it’s only Atlantic Health System’s first year with the data, there’s already been a big reduction in overtime and premium usage. See all of our HIMSS16 previews “There’s a million moving parts to this, but in terms of data, we’ve seen a quarter of a day length of stay less, and earlier morning discharges,” Sullivan said. Sullivan’s team is working toward the next steps of using the data to benefit the health system and apply the data concepts to other departments, like critical care. The session “Reining in Labor Costs with Predictive Analytics” is scheduled for March 2 from 8:30 – 9:30 a.m. in the Sands Expo Convention Center Palazzo E. Twitter: @JessiefDavis 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.

Orion Health at HIMSS16 will unveil a data platform aimed at enabling precision medicine and a new management app geared towards participants in the Medicare Shared Savings Accountable Care Organization Program. The new iteration of Amadeus, for instance, is meant to help providers move from the "who" of population health to the "what" of precision medicine, an Orion official said. By aggregating, storing and helping interpret data, the technology can help health organizations better devise treatment plans geared specifically to the patients deemed to be in need of particular attention. [Poll: What topics will define HIMSS16?] Meanwhile, Orion will also be touting its new MSSP Management app at the conference. By integrating data into the reporting and monitoring workflows while keeping tabs on quality measure thresholds, the tool aims to help ACOs wring value from the Medicare Shared Savings Program. What’s more, the company will be spotlighting client success stories at the show.  Arizona-based ACO Scottsdale Health Partners, for its part, will discuss how adopting Orion's data exchange, and population health tools have helped it tackle the Triple Aim. And executives from Cal INDEX, the biggest state HIE in the United States, intend to talk about how it has been able to mix clinical and claims data and, in turn, deliver those to clinicians at the point of care. Twitter: @MikeMiliardHITN 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.

Execs will point to specific examples where interoperability has worked in other industries and what healthcare can learn from how well those scale.

All but seven U.S. states have either passed or are working on legislation that would establish a state-sponsored, all-payer claims database – and that’s among the reasons these databases are in the spotlight for their promise to improve the way providers and insurance companies manage patient populations. This year at the HIMSS16, in fact, John Freedman, MD, president of Freedman Healthcare, and Linda Greene, vice president of Freedman Healthcare, will lead a session intended to shed light on what APCDs are and where they’re headed in the future. See all of our HIMSS16 previews APCDs as “large-scale databases that systematically collect medical claims, pharmacy claims, dental claims (typically, but not always) and eligibility and provider files from private and public payers,” said officials at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation in a recent report. “States with APCDs are responding to a need for comprehensive, multi-payer data that allows states and other stakeholders to understand the cost, quality, and utilization of health care for their citizens.” “While enormous attention is focused on EHRs and the health record data they contain – deservedly so – the other data world of claims data has been quietly creating applications for public health, price transparency, performance improvement, population health management and health services research,” Freedman said. [Also: 21 awesome photos from past HIMSS conferences] Instances of all-payer claims databases, in fact, have tripled in the past decade. “The impacts of APCDs on healthcare are just starting,” he continued, “and they will be profound.” The session,“Implications of Expanding State All Payer Claims Databases,” will be held on March 3 from 1 - 1:30 p.m. in the Sands Expo Convention Center. Twitter: @HealthITNews 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.