Workforce

Three experts offer suggestions and tips for healthcare CIOs working with clinical communications hardware and software.

Working with WakeMed in North Carolina, the delivery service will deploy a quadcopter along a pre-determined  flight path to deliver blood and other diagnostic specimens.

The health system co-designed a platform that provides multifactorial data analysis and direct-to-physician communication, as well as continuing education material.

At the Georgia health system, a smartphone app is the hub for after-hours communication among physicians, nurses and patients, with caregivers getting more information than ever.

HIMSS Enterprise Board Chair Manish Kohli and HIMSS International EVP Bruce Steinberg discuss the lessons learned from digital transformation successes and failures throughout the world.

During the first year of tele-ICU, the technology helped save 125 lives, reduce ICU length of stay by 34 percent, reduce the sepsis mortality rate, and more.

A group of Kiwi clinicians with a passion for technology driving changes in healthcare has created a Clinical Informatics Leadership Network. The new network is being supported logistically and financially by Health Informatics New Zealand and held its first meeting during the HiNZ 2018 conference in Wellington. It now has 74 members from a range of health professions such as medicine, nursing, allied health, midwifery and pharmacy. It provides an online forum for members to share expertise and ideas as well as national networking events. Network organiser Karen Blake is the regional manager for health informatics at shared services organisation healthAlliance and has worked as a midwife in both New Zealand and Australia. “There have been lots of failed IT projects in health and there’s enough evidence now to demonstrate that clinical leadership is absolutely fundamental to the success of these projects,” she says. “Our IT solutions need to be clinically led to solve clinical problems, as it’s not about solving more and more IT problems.” Similar networks have been set up in Australia and the UK, where NHS trusts routinely have a chief clinical information officer and there is a national CCIO for Health and Care. Fellow network organiser and clinical director information services and virtual healthcare at Waikato DHB Ruth Large says in New Zealand there are a variety of ways that DHB information services use a clinical reference point, but there is no consistent clinical IT role in DHB leadership models. “There has been a gap in terms of clinical leadership around the development of our digital technologies,” she says. Large says CILN members do not need to have IT qualifications or a role involving informatics, but an interest in using technology to drive change, efficiency and good patient outcomes. Large wants New Zealand to avoid the US experience where the wide implementation of electronic health records has seen many clinicians become disengaged, feeling they are entering patient data into computers to “feed the machine”, rather than for improved patient outcomes. “We need a cohesive and supportive voice for clinical IT, otherwise we are just going to get the technologies we are given,” Large says. This article first appeared on eHealthNews.nz.

Joyce Brocaglia, CEO of Alta Associates and founder of Executive Women's Forum, details the need to fill board of director seats with people with security skills as well as diversifying cybersecurity teams.

The major themes at RSA include AI skepticism, challenges with diversity and workforce development, and how to incorporate agile tactics into cybersecurity best practices, says Tom Sullivan, editor-in-chief of Healthcare IT News.

Before finding her niche in cybersecurity, Agio Compliance Director Deana Fuller found herself in a situation familiar to many. She had dreams growing up of becoming a teacher or an attorney, yet found herself working in a profession where she didn’t belong. It was in sub-prime finance, earning bonuses for selling cars that had been repossessed. “My boss told me I needed to be more motivated,” Fuller said. “He said, in five years, you could become a branch manager making $50,000. This was the most motivating thing he could have said.” Fuller’s motivation carried her through several degrees. After getting a bachelor’s degree in English in 1992, she earned an MBA in 2002 and then went to the University of South Dakota School of Law. “I wanted to make more money and do more things,” she said. She found, during a class on administrative law, that she was very good at culling and deciphering information from complicated reports. When she went to work in 2009 for a primary care association as a business development director coordinating group purchasing, her boss asked her to read an Office of the National Coordinator report that had just come out. It was the 700-page ONC report on meaningful use. “My employer said, ‘Read this and tell us what it says,’” she said. She did, and her career moved in the direction of healthcare technology, privacy and security. Fuller has worked as a HIPAA privacy consultant, senior security and privacy compliance analyst, and adjunct professor teaching courses in health information technology management and healthcare law. She is a former senior consultant for A-LIGN, doing General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR, gap readiness assessments, HIPAA and HITECH services and HITRUST assessments. Last year, when Agio needed someone to come in to build up the HITRUST program, Fuller became compliance director and associate director of Cyber Security Compliance, managing data protection. The company offers integrated managed IT and cybersecurity services to the financial services, healthcare and payments industries. WOMEN IN HEALTH IT A woman in the field of healthcare IT may find herself surrounded by men, Fuller said during HIMSS19 last month in Orlando, Florida. Fuller makes her home in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. “We are the minority,” she said. “We need more people, more diversity, other people’s opinions. I think we have more technical acumen than we have been given credit for.” Her recommendations for achievement can be found on her desk, she said. There sits an inspirational talisman of sorts, a plastic, miniature velociraptor that sends the visual message to “collaborate, then attack,” she said. “We can accomplish just about anything when we work together and support one another’s efforts to grow, learn and bring change.” There’s also a “no” button, a “sorry I’m late, I didn’t want to come” pencil holder that tells her to take ownership of her mistakes and a shot glass from “Hamilton” that serves as a reminder not to throw away what could be your best shot for success. “Don’t walk away from an opportunity because it scares you,” Fuller said. “Finally, I would say to honor your team. Without my team, I wouldn’t have had the opportunities or success I have enjoyed.” Twitter: @SusanJMorse Email the writer: susan.morse@himssmedia.com