Traversing the halls at HIMSS19 can leave attendees feeling overwhelmed, and the challenges facing the healthcare industry, and IT in particular, can be massive and vexing. However, many of my conversations in Orlando this week can be characterized as being significantly optimistic. There’s no lack of positive vibes that the importance of the industry is on the upswing. It’s easy to lose sight of the fact that the industry is dealing with problems that are nice to have, far different than the ones that drove people crazy 10 years ago. What do I mean? The problem of 10 years ago—why don’t healthcare organizations buy and use electronic health records? Today’s problem—now we have all this data from electronic health records; what are we going to do with all of this stuff? There appears to be broader acceptance of the fact that information technology will be an integral part of efficient, intelligent, cost-effective healthcare delivery in the future. Now, we are merely grousing about having the wrong nail for the job, when at least we have a hammer that we can use to do the pounding. The value of information technology has sometimes taken time to acknowledge, but when the uptick comes, it can be dramatic. Some 12 years ago, Roy Schoenberg was taking a shower when the idea for a company that provided telemedicine connectivity and services came to him. At that time, providing healthcare via a telephone was an idea that had wandered in the wilderness with little […]
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