We Need to Talk: What Influential Leaders Want to Hear at CHIME18

There’s a lot of talk in the health IT industry. Talk about the biggest challenges — whether it’s securing patient data or recruiting the best people — and how they can be overcome.

But let’s face it, sometimes that “talk” focuses on the latest buzzwords and magic bullets, rather than on what leaders really want to know. To that point, healthsystemCIO.com decided to go right for the source and reach out to some of the top minds in the industry.

We asked, “What is the number one topic you want to learn more about and/or discuss at CHIME, and why?” The responses are featured below:

Tressa Springmann, CIO & SVP of Performance Improvement, LifeBridge Health

“My focus will be creating constructive capacity to fund the future! In short, I’m interested in any/all ideas of innovation, process improvement (PI) and workforce development to find creative solutions to better position my organization’s ability to deliver care and evolve into the digital future in this cost-constrained environment.”

Aaron Miri, CIO, Dell Medical School & UT Health Austin

“What I’m most curious about is around cybersecurity with regard to ePHI management. What steps are peers taking to hold business associates and the numerous consumers of ePHI accountable? Too often, the covered entities are left holding the bag because appropriate diligence wasn’t undertaken. We have to step up our game and treat ePHI as the financial currency of healthcare.”

Renee Broadbent, SVP, Population Health, Holon Solutions

“As a leader, what I’m most curious about is the direction of population health and value-based care, specifically around all the regulatory pieces. Specifically, those around interoperability and the future of risk-based ACOs. The proposed changes by CMS will definitely force the hand of all ACOs to make choices and I think it will potentially have the reverse intended effect. My concern: what is the ripple effect of that, along other efforts of linking and connecting clinically integrated networks?

Randy McCleese, Rural Health Advocate and Former CIO

“Health IT leaders need to be discussing the myriad healthcare and related regulations that are coming out of Washington. The volume of regulations seems to be increasing and the opioid crisis is only adding to the things that CIO’s need to be working on. Another item CIOs need to discuss is how to keep or get technology in general — and health IT, specifically — on the minds of Boards and provider executives. There seems to be a lot of decision-making happening in healthcare that doesn’t take changing technology into account.”

Tim Stettheimer, VP of Education, CHIME

CIOs and other senior IT leaders gathering at CHIME will receive a wealth of information and insights about best practices from across the globe — and how to leverage those best practices in their own organizations. And the biggest discussions? We face crisis points in funding, talent, and security, as well as data sharing and analytics. So the talk is all about making a difference through sharing innovative approaches and technologies beyond where we have ever been before.

David Muntz, Principal, StarBridge Advisors

I believe the discussions should focus not on the newest technology trends, but on challenges to the roles and responsibilities of the CIOs. Some of those include, but are not limited to, new entrants into the healthcare sector, particularly from the retail space; mergers and acquisitions; frustration of clinicians with EHRs; the emergence of CDOs and CHIOs; and the expanding responsibilities of CMIOs, CNIOs, and CISOs. Many of the responsibilities traditionally associated with the CIO have been moved to new roles, some of which no longer report to the CIO (as they shouldn’t). Opportunities abound for healthcare CIOs willing to redefine themselves, to lead the evolution.

Cara Babachicos, SVP & CIO, South Shore Health System

For me, there are two that stand out: hosting technology beyond the walls of the hospital (i.e. SAS), and securing biomed and IoT devices. Both of these items have a fair amount of security challenges, but they speak to the where technology is moving.