Earlier this month Prizm Media attended the 2016 HIMSS Annual Conference & Exhibition, the healthcare technology industry’s largest educational and networking conference of the year.
The conference brought together a wide range of healthcare executives, vendors and IT professionals from around the world (40,000+ of them) to find ways to tackle a universal problem – how to improve and transform healthcare through the best use of technology.
To give you a sense of its extensiveness – There were over 300 education programs delivered in a variety of formats and over 1,300 leading health IT vendors showcasing cutting-edge products and services during the week of HIMSS 2016.
The HIMSS community’s forward thinking approaches to improving patient care and population health is hard not to be inspired by. They embody a deep commitment to improving antiquated and disconnected processes. Themes that continue to persist include cyber security, connected health, interoperability, and patient engagement.
The next few blog posts will outline a few areas that stood out to us.
Increasing patient engagement in and out of the hospital is vital to improving health outcomes. When healthcare providers promote and support active patient involvement in decision-making on their care, patients tend to be healthier; own their health and proactively work with their doctor; as well as have better outcomes.
Patient engagement is shown to be the number one predictor of medication adherence.
Medication non-adherence results in an astounding $300B in annual healthcare costs, which includes costs from avoidable hospitalizations, nursing home admissions and premature deaths. Half of all patients do not take their medications as prescribed, and is lowest among patients with chronic illnesses.
The challenge lies in how we use new technology — like apps, patient portals, prescription schedulers, chronic disease tracking devices and healthcare expense planners – to empower patients to take ownership of their health plans.
Patients have become more resourceful. The average American spends 52X more time with health information online than they do with a clinician. HIMSS 16 showcased a number of ‘patient portals’, which would give patients access to their health information record. Patients want greater transparency of lab results, imaging and clinic notes, and there is a lot of potential for these portals to be empowerment tools.
In an industry where in-person care is the norm, new channels for patients to connect with physicians bring healthcare up to speed with how the world today communicates. Telehealth solutions allow patients to talk to a doctor – whether they’re on their lunch break or traveling in a foreign country. Exciting new tools transmit data from consumer devices directly to your doctor in real time, making virtual appointments a close replication of real face-time.
Click here to continue to Part II of this blog post series on HIMSS 2016.