Workforce

The consultancy, a Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business, has experience working with the DoD, VA and government healthcare clients and specializes in cybersecurity, agile engineering and more.

For its most recent big healthcare hire, Google has recruited former National Coordinator for Health IT Dr. Karen DeSalvo to serve as its first chief health officer. WHY IT MATTERS The move, first reported by CNBC, is further evidence, as if more were needed, that the Mountain View, California-based technology titan is serious about its ambitions to disrupt the healthcare market. Earlier this month, Google parent company Alphabet hired former FDA Commissioner Dr. Robert Califf – who, like DeSalvo, served during the Obama administration – to be the new head of strategy and policy for Verily Life Sciences and Google Health. And about this time last year, Google tapped Dr. David Feinberg, who had served as CEO of world-class health system Geisinger, to help it develop and expand its healthcare strategy, organizing the various initiatives of Alphabet companies such as Verily, DeepMind and Google Cloud. DeSalvo will report to Feinberg and will be tasked, among other things, with offering advice and perspective about clinician experience, according to CNBC. THE LARGER TREND DeSalvo served as National Coordinator for Health Information Technology from 2014 to 2016 and U.S. Assistant Secretary for Health from 2014 to 2017. During her two-and-a-half year stint as ONC chief, she led a series of successful projects related to EHR certification for the meaningful use program, interoperability advancements, patient access initiatives and more. Since her time in the federal government, DeSalvo has kept her CV well-updated with a series of high-profile jobs. In late 2017, she joined the faculty at Dell Medical School at The University of Texas at Austin, with professorships in both the Department of Internal Medicine and in the Department of Population Health. In March 2018, she was elected president of the Society of General Internal Medicine. She also joined Leavitt Partners, the consulting firm founded by former HHS Secretary Michael Leavitt, as a senior advisor. A longtime leader in public policy, population health, social determinants and patient engagement, DeSalvo was commissioner of health for the city of New Orleans – where she helped to digitize the city's health IT infrastructure after Hurricane Katrina – before being appointed by President Obama to lead ONC. ON THE RECORD On Twitter, many of DeSalvo's health industry colleagues applauded the move: Hear hear! And congrats @Google - you got a good one. @KBDeSalvo weaves “bold” and “insight” in a way that has served the nation well. Looking forward to hearing what you’ll (both) do next! https://t.co/jhPybxm6jx — Jitin Asnaani (@jitin) October 18, 2019 the movement to open up more health data just got a massive shot in the arm! woot! congratulations @KBDeSalvo and to @dtfeinberg for building a great team! https://t.co/M3515KMYNL — Aneesh Chopra (@aneeshchopra) October 18, 2019 Great pick! Congrats @KBDeSalvo @Google https://t.co/yhVyRKQHjl — Farzad Mostashari (@Farzad_MD) October 18, 2019 "I am thrilled to join this great team and excited about the opportunity for impact on health," DeSalvo tweeted in response. Twitter: @MikeMiliardHITN Email the writer: mike.miliard@himssmedia.com Healthcare IT News is a publication of HIMSS Media.

NHS Digital Chief Nurse Caron Swinscoe discusses the recent launch of the HIMSS Nursing & Midwifery Network for England.

Shaw will leave the organisation at Christmas to pursue a consulting career.

Watch the second day of our livestream from AsiaPac19 in Bangkok, Thailand, which includes interviews with healthcare IT industry luminaries, thought leaders and innovators.

The HIMSS Thailand National Digital Healthcare Workforce Development Initiative (WDI) was officially launched on the opening day of the HIMSS AsiaPac 2019 conference on October 7 in Bangkok, Thailand. This Initiative sees the development of a three-year work plan to address the demand of patients for digital healthcare services in light of the Thailand 4.0 digitisation journey, as well as healthcare tourism being one of the key economy drivers. Eight Thai hospitals have agreed to come onboard to be part of the HIMSS Thailand National Digital Healthcare WDI. They are:  Bangpakok Hospital Group Khon Kaen University Hospital Faculty of Medicine Siriraj Hospital, Mahidol University Hua Chiew Hospital Vejthani Hospital Principal Healthcare TPP Healthcare Ramathibodi Hospital Through this collaboration, HIMSS will focus on elevating the digital competency in the Thailand Healthcare workforce through the adoption of Healthcare IT certifications like Certified Professional in Healthcare Information & Management Systems (CPHIMS) and Certified Associate in Healthcare Information & Management Systems (CAHIMS) for capacity building in Healthcare Information core competency and Digital Health technology capabilities. The Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Public Health, Dr. Sukhum Kanchanapimai, was the guest of honour at the conference opening, and he spoke about Thailand’s ongoing efforts in promoting telemedicine, such as the pilot telemedicine project that was implemented in rural areas in eight provinces, which Healthcare IT News reported in March this year. As part of the HIMSS Thailand National Digital Healthcare WDI, HIMSS also announced its intention to enter into a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with True Digital Group, a subsidiary of True Corporation, a leading communications conglomerate in Thailand, to create a HIMSS Digital Health Centre @ True Digital Park. Managing Director and Executive Vice President of HIMSS International Bruce Steinberg and Ekaraj Panjavinin, Managing Director of Digital Solutions at True Digital Group, were on-stage to talk about the collaboration during the opening of the conference. A total of five vendor partners have also come aboard: Abbott and GE Healthcare as Knowledge Partners, Elsevier and Philips as Industry Partners and AXA as Supporting Partner. The purpose of the HIMSS Digital Health Centre is threefold: to encourage more collaboration between different stakeholders in the industry, to accelerate the digital health workforce development and to create more exposure for digital health solutions in general. The collaboration of HIMSS together with local stakeholders in the Thailand healthcare ecosystem with a concerted effort to develop the Thai digital healthcare workforce bodes well for the future of digital health in the country.

Deep Dive: The final installment of the four-part series on cybersecurity offers practical advice on preventing attacks and mitigating their fallout.

Helen Balsdon, assistant director of nursing informatics at Cambridge University Hospitals, says just because the technology exists doesn't mean that it's the right technology for clinicians.

The health system used a new data management platform to combine 15 different provider databases, better enabling patients to schedule appointments online and through a new Patient Engagement Center.