A few weeks ago, a noteworthy healthcare consulting firm asked for input they could pass on to vendors that would help those vendors understand the relationship imperatives critical to a healthcare CIO, right now, in today’s market. After giving this topic a few days of background thought, I concluded two things: (1) At least 60% of the […]
The ROI of Evidence Based Protocols
A new study from Johns Hopkins reveals the value of standard protocols (aka, clinical practice guidelines) on reduction of central line infections in the ICU– $1.1M per year. If I were CEO of an insurance company or major employer paying for healthcare, my contracts would require my healthcare providers to show proof that they’ve implemented evidence […]
The Inevitability Of ACOs
A recent JAMA article on ACOs is a very common sense, succinct summary of healthcare’s future challenges. As recently described by Francis Crosson, senior fellow at the Kaiser Permanente Institute for Health Policy, and despite the justifiable criticisms of the Affordable Care Act, Accountable Care Organizations cannot fail. They will, in some form, define the […]
Microsoft’s Amalga Has Potential, But Work Remains
With the recent selection of CSC, Microsoft, and HealthUnity by the MetroChicago Health Information Exchange, I’m once again intrigued with the role that Microsoft might play in the HIT market. I suspect the MetroChicago project is more interested in HealthVault, but Amalga is the most interesting product in Microsoft’s struggling healthcare vertical. Amalga is a […]
Intermountain Healthcare and EHRs
Before we go too far in assuming that you need an EHR to achieve what Intermountain has, in terms of lowering costs and improving clinical outcomes, it’s worth drilling down a little further. It is Intermountain’s billing, registration, and case mix systems that enable much of what the organization achieves … and virtually every healthcare […]
The Myth of Academic Medical Centers
Big Myth: Academic medical centers — that is, universities that have a medical school, teaching hospital, faculty practice plan, and receive substantial research funding from the US government — provide the best care at the lowest price. Wrong. They provide great unique care — for example, treatment of rare diseases or complications — and they […]
The Cayman Islands ACO Roadmap
The Cayman Islands are implementing a new care delivery and economic model called “CayHealth” which, at a very high level, seeks to maximize the quality of care delivered while assuring an economically sustainable healthcare system for the Cayman Islands. CayHealth is very similar in nature to the emerging Accountable Care Organizations (ACO) in the United […]
Healthcare Transformation = Sustainable Business Models x EMRs
The Cayman Islands (CIs) are unique in many aspects, but among them is the size of the nation compared to the sophistication of the business and government processes. With a population of only 50,000 people, they are roughly the same size as a rural community in the United States — ranked 201st on the size […]
What if Facebook and Amazon Built an EMR?
Below are my screen mock-ups, based on Facebook’s and Amazon’s user interfaces. I borrow ideas from them because the metaphors fit healthcare quite nicely, but also because the user interfaces on today’s EMRs are abominable, and adoption rates are terrible (without financial coercion) as a result. People flock to Facebook and Amazon by the millions, without […]
True or False: Business Units Will Absorb More IT in 2011
A prediction that the biggest trend of 2011 will be the continued decline of the traditional centralized IT department was presented to me for reaction, based upon an online discussion forum on Tech Republic. Below is an excerpt of the dialogue. Reaction: I only partially agree with this. I’ve seen this cycle before and a totally decentralized IT function does not serve a company effectively when systems and applications must be managed and integrated across business units, especially at the workflow and data-content levels of integration.