Connected Health

Info-blocking ruled the day, while APIs, FHIR, artificial intelligence and virtual reality were also prominent themes at this year’s Global Conference.

(Sponsored) Healthcare organizations are turning to video streaming to communicate better with patients and caregivers.

After introducing the Accelerate-Redesign-Collaborate strategy two years ago, Sheba Medical Center in Tel Aviv, Israel’s largest hospital, has become a serial producer of digital innovations.   “This strategy really fuels everything that is happening in Sheba today, and we are seeing that medical centers in other countries, especially in the US, are now trying to copy our model,” Sheba CMO and CIO Eyal Zimlichman recently told HIMSS Insights.   An open innovation campus sits at the heart of the ARC strategy, with five topics of focus, including digital innovations in surgery, VR/AR, personalised medicine, AI/ big data, and telehealth/ mHealth, and a chairman responsible for each of them.   Meanwhile, 30 new innovation projects are being launched every year, receiving $50,000 each over a rapid development cycle of ten months, a “virtual currency” used to obtain access to digital development capabilities, and staff can apply for these grants.   “We have been through three annual cycles of this now, and many of those who have applied for the nearly 100 grants are in fact physicians,” Zimlichman added. The third issue of the HIMSS Insights eBook, launched during the HIMSS19 conference taking place in Orlando this week, puts the spotlight on digital health leaders that have made innovation possible around the world.   It seeks to show that innovation is not as much about management or allocating funding, as it is about overcoming obstacles.   Find out more about Sheba’s approach to bringing innovation into healthcare here.   Healthcare IT News is a HIMSS Media publication.  

Sanofi, BNP Paribas and AXA are also among the groups calling for women innovators to develop tech tools that advance access to care.

Connecting data between the public health department and hospitals in Shanghai has resulted in improved services for patients, says Tongyu Zhu, director at the Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center.

Shada AlSalamah, a visiting scholar at MIT, says blockchain technology allows for the flow of information between treatment points regardless of geographic location to ensure patients get the treatment they need and deserve.

Robert Istepanian of the Institute of Global Innovation at the UK's Imperial College sees clear evidence that mHealth is valuable in treating chronic diseases. However, standards, governance and integration still need work.

Connected Care initially will be aimed at improving stroke outcomes by connecting patients in ambulances or ERs to neurologists.

(Sponsored) The AMA's award-winning tools help alleviate the problem of physician burnout, improving clinical workflows and removing patient-care barriers, says Laurie McGraw, SVP of Health Solutions at the AMA.