Women In Health IT

While healthcare entities are waiting for EHR vendors to make data more interoperable, a raft of emerging technologies are enabling information exchange in ways that work effectively today, according to Lisa Moon, a partner with the Timmaron Group. 

Now that the healthcare industry is mostly digitized, leading hospitals like THR are looking at how to use technology as an enabler for improving health, CHIO Ferdinand Velasco said. 

Healthcare consultant and caregiver Max Stroud said patients need more than a portal because live interactions can uncover things technology alone cannot. 

Eight in 10 U.S. patients would welcome some aspect of virtual healthcare, but only 1 in 5 providers is meeting that need.

I recently had an opportunity to advise an IT department on the team’s overall lean initiative. While no two organizations have the same lean journey, there are common challenges. Visual management and huddle components can give a lean management system a boost. Here are some of the common challenges you can expect to encounter and tips for success: “Perfect is the enemy of good” – You must be willing to experiment and get messy. Visual boards take many shapes and forms. Do they help you focus on the right work and metrics as a team? It’s less important that they look pretty to the outside observer. Standard framework with room for variation – Even if there is a standard for what all huddle boards in your organization should look like and include, there must still be room for variation by unit or team. What’s important to one team may not be important to another. If you’re ready to get started and wonder if there will be an organization standard at some point, don’t wait for it. Just get going and adapt later if a standard appears. Find metrics that are meaningful – Ask yourself a few questions. What problems are you trying to solve? What do you need to measure to track progress and show improvement? Shining a bright light on a specific metric may cause some angst but if it is one that needs to be measured to improve, shine away. You are there to solve problems – Be sure your huddles are not a place where people feel beat up. Create a culture of improvement that is blame-free, transparent, metric driven and focused on doing better for your employees and your customers. Be willing to tell the “ugly story” about something that doesn’t work as well as it should. Figure out how to improve it, implement the changes, and measure the results. Celebrate your wins – carve out a place on your board where you can highlight successes and celebrate what you’ve done as a team. Be creative and have some fun with it – I’ve seen huddle boards that take on a sports team and car racing themes. The potential for team ownership is that much greater when people can have some fun with it. If you’ve got a huddle board story or picture to share, I’d love to hear about it. This post was first published on Sue Schade's Health IT Connect blog.  

The healthcare consultant on what her social media followers are looking for, the patient engagement disconnect, and what she’s most excited about seeing at HIMSS17. 

The gender gap has grown wider, even among executives, during the last decade. But why? 

Burwell will become the first woman to be president of the university. 

Shareefa Albulmonem, head of eServices, Office of the CIO at King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Center in Saudi Arabia, is one of seven women being honored by HIMSS with a Most Influential Women in Health IT Award. The women will be recognized at a reception and awards dinner, both on February 20 at HIMSS17 Here, in her own words, is Shareefa Al Abulmonem’s reaction to learning she was among the seven winners: I am not sure if it’s just me or does life have some amazing surreal moments … After walking out of a meeting, I received a message in my inbox that stated something around my HIMSS Most Influential Women in Health IT Award nomination.  I never expected to win as there are many deserving women in healthcare and I thought I was just being informed of the nomination process. I passed the phone over to my boss who was standing next to me in the hospital. He read it and let out a loud cheer that made everyone in the hospital corridors stop and wonder what just happened. In his haste, he congratulated me for being shortlisted and said “inshallah we hope you win.” The phone got passed to one of my employees and after reading it she told me, “Shareefa, you won!” How could I win?!  It’s probably a mistake so I checked for other emails from Carla Smith or HIMSS where they might be apologizing for the mix-up. Nothing. I called my husband and told him, I think I need to go shopping as I am experiencing one of those surreal moments. On the way home I read the email from Carla a couple of times and came to the conclusion, “Wow, I won!” That’s when all of the achievements that brought you to this point start replaying in your mind. I would like to dedicate this award to all the women of healthcare in Saudi Arabia. The transformations we are making together symbolize the importance we place on women’s health and the importance of a healthy nation. It gives us an opportunity to be role models to the younger generation as to the changes we would like to happen. Alhamdulillah, the Zahra Breast Cancer Association has grown to become the regional face of women’s health, and I was just a member of an extraordinary team who shared the same vision. My career has been full of individuals who were mentors and guides for me throughout and I would like to thank them all. Saudi Arabia is an evolving country and to be an active part of the country’s transformation is a blessing. I believe technology drives majority of the advancements we are currently witnessing throughout the world, and the same applies in healthcare. King Faisal Specialist Hospital & Research Center – KFSH&RC has given me the platform to leverage and implement technology for the betterment of health, patient and citizen care.  T The launch of SEHATY, KFSH&RC Patient Portal, and the praise it received opened numerous other opportunities to build on continuum of care and to be able to constantly engage the patient in the management of their health. There are endless possibilities of how technology can be utilized in the appropriate and various ways in healthcare. This award has given me a boost on how much more effort lays ahead, so thank you for sharing this surreal moment with me, but I really need to get back to work!

The grant will be awarded over the next decade and will help expand the UW’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation as a global population health hub.