Network Infrastructure
Wes Wright, chief information officer at Seattle Children's Hospital, says a new analytics tool that unobtrusively monitors the performance of his HL7 transactions "gives me peace of mind."
An overarching theme from a vendor's first analytics conference is similar to something that EHR vendors have been saying for years: workflow and organizational culture are at least as important as the technology itself when it comes to healing healthcare through IT.
Now in its eighth year, the annual Health 2.0 Fall Conference has evolved from a showcase for not-ready-for-prime-time apps that wouldn't exist a year later to a self-congratulatory Silicon Valley pep rally to a more mature event that seems to be addressing real-world healthcare problems.
"Just by having an app on your device, (a cybercriminal) can determine your call history, take your contact list info, if they choose to." That's how vulnerable smartphones, tablets and their mobile ilk actually are, Jim Routh said, and it's not just the devices that chief information security officers like him have to worry about.
It is a simple question: "Why doesn't electronic health information flow after the nation spent $26 billion on electronic health records?" Suggesting a 10-year timeframe or arguing that there is progress if you look hard enough just doesn't answer it.
"Freshness" is a word you often hear in the food business. But given the amount of change underway in healthcare, and given how pressure can take a toll on staff members, you could say it's a concern for health IT managers, too.
Texas Health is hardly the only hospital or health network that struggles to convince the CEO, CFO or other board members just how critical funding security initiatives and technologies really is, but it did use a unique approach to get their attention.
Outsourcing company Cognizant, which provides healthcare technology services to providers and payers, will buy health IT software company TriZetto for $2.7 billion in cash, with the intent to better position itself in the market and take advantage of changes taking place in the sector.
With the war already underway, how can hospitals and networks prepare? Chief information security officers share insights about shifting toward more sophisticated information security tactics.
When the Office for Civil Rights knocks on your door, asking about HIPAA compliance, it pays to be ready. And OCR is looking to audit providers ranging from large to small, and across a wide geographical distribution.