HIMSS Accelerate Health Podcast

In this episode, members of the HIMSS Nursing Informatics Committee discuss the effects of open information sharing on clinical workflows and on nurses in particular. Although of great benefit to patients, our panel points out that the immediate sharing of notes and other information with patient families is leading to an influx of queries and requests that some staffing models aren't yet prepared for. It may also introduce the possibility that some clinicians may self-censor the notes they enter, which used to serve as a form of intra-team communication. HIMSS member experts from a variety of institutions weigh in on this important topic which will remain challenging as the industry adapts to the new 21st Century Cures Act rules roll out.

As part of the HIMSS 22 Startup Spotlight series, we speak with Eric Olsen, Founder, COO and Chairman of Babson Diagnostics. Babson is revolutionizing the testing experience for customers, bringing clinical, laboratory grade testing to more locations and using smaller samples than traditional diagnostic testing. In this conversation we explore a bit of Babson's history, what they are changing about the customer experience, and what the diagnostics industry is feeling in the fallout from Theranos. Be sure to visit Babson at HIMSS 22 in Orlando.

As part of the HIMSS 22 Startup Spotlight series, we speak with Anshu Sharma, Co-Founder and CEO of Skyflow. Skyflow provides an API for secure information exchange, protecting user information while still allowing for effective authentication and data use. Please join us as we hear how Skyflow was founded and the problem they have set out to solve for the healthcare industry. And be sure to visit Skyflow at HIMSS 22 in Orlando.

The 21st Century Cures Act (Cures Act) was signed into law on Dec. 13, 2016. The bipartisan legislation has provisions for the development and delivery of drugs and medical devices, acceleration of research into serious illnesses, addressing the opioid crisis, and improving mental health services. High impact provisions relevant to healthcare providers, health IT developers, and patients focus on improving health information access and exchange.

In this episode, guest host Melanie Turner, Associate Vice President of Application Services at UAB Health speaks with John Travis, the Vice President for Regulatory Research and Strategy with Cerner Corporation. This episode features perspectives from a Health IT vendor and health care provider regarding the changes that the law requires, focused in particular on the Information Blocking rules recently promulgated by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT to support the Cures Act.

In the first episode of 2022, the Accelerate Health team again turns the microphone over to a guest host for the second installment of our three-part series on Nursing Informatics. In this episode, Regina Wysocki, Senior Clinical Informatics Specialist at Texas Children's Hospital and member of the HIMSS Nursing Informatics Committee interviews her colleague Kaitlin Perera, a Clinical Informatics Specialist at Texas Children's.

Kaitlin tells us about her journey from nursing into the informatics specialty, and tells a tale relatable to many IT professionals: an interest and knack for using technology helped her become a super-user of a new system, and that first step opened up a whole new career path.

Kaitlin talks about her first-hand experience with some of the core issues facing clinicians, including moving between hospitals that use different EHRs and losing accumulated super-user experience and the efficiency that it brings. Later in the interview, Regina and Kaitlin discuss continuing education and how there comes a level in one's career where some advanced training or an advanced degree in informatics becomes a requirement.

Finally, the interview explores a bit about how individuals can help drive change within an organization and how technology is becoming pervasive in healthcare and is increasingly at the center of the care experience.

In this episode, we begin a three-part exploration of Nursing Informatics as a career and a profession. The series begins with Dr. Angela Ross interviewing Dr. Nelita Iuppa about her career path and trajectory in nursing informatics. Health and medical informatics is the science of how to use data, information, and knowledge to improve human health and the delivery of health care services. Both Dr. Ross and Dr. Iuppa are members of the HIMSS Nursing Informatics Community Steering Committee.

This series is intended to highlight the roles of informaticists in clinical care and highlight the critical need for informaticists as healthcare continues its digital transformation. Nurse informaticists play a critical role in healthcare's digital transformation, continuing their traditional role as the primary human interface between patients and the rest of the healthcare system. No other career offers an opportunity to so directly apply technology in a compassionate and patient-centered way.

Dr. Iuppa begins by reminding us that, while technology can be learned, nurse informaticists bring their clinical skills and compassion to their roles in ways that other informaticists can't. Dr. Iuppa describes her education and the path she took to her current role, including early formal education that laid a foundation for building her career. She discusses the role of mentors and mentoring, and how important it is to care for the colleagues around you.

The episode concludes with a discussion of some of the challenges that nurses can face in an informatics career and also the joys of having a dual role in the exciting frontier of technology alongside the traditional caring role that nurses everywhere fill.

In this episode, host Rob Havasy speaks with Israel Krush, the co-founder and CEO of Hyro.ai, a company producing AI-based conversation agent technology. Hyro was a featured company in the HIMSS 21 startup showcase, but came to Rob's attention when he saw a large sign at the Hyro booth that said, "Chatbots Suck!" Intrigued, he struck up a conversation and this interview is the ultimate result.

The interview begins with a founder's lesson in managing complexity as Israel discusses standardizing their model around one single EHR system with the right integration points, rather than struggling to manage complex integrations while also trying to perfect conversation AI technology.

The conversation then turns to the evolution of conversation agent tech - from its early research in the first part of the 2000s to its growing deployment in call centers today. Part of this is understanding the role of emotions in guiding the outcome of human-to-human conversations versus human-to-machine conversations, including the understanding that chatbots, by and large, are focused on a task and aren't distracted or swayed by emotional connections to the callers they interact with.

The conversation winds up by taking a look at how COVID not only changed the demand for tools like conversation agents among hospitals but whether or not changing workforce pressures have made permanent changes to the market dynamics. Then about how hospitals can use effective and efficient agents to demonstrate to patients that they have competent IT systems. And it ends with an anecdote about what voice styles might prove to be more effective in real lif use.

In this episode, Jonathan Kumar, the CEO of Samaritan joins host Kerry Amato and gives us a view of Samaritan's work to help homeless individuals access services.

Jonathan begins with a description of the platform that Samaritan has created to match individuals in need with services and the support of giving individual samaritans who pledge their direct help, including a description of the organizations they partner with to reach the most vulnerable individuals. He continues with a success story from the first user of the Samaritan platform and what the definition of success really is when working with populations living on society's margins.

The conversation then turns to Samaritan as a company and discusses a bit about their recent deal with United Healthcare and a bit about the economics that make Samaritan's business model possible. It then turns to leadership and some challenges and lessons from navigating Samaritan through the pandemic.

The interview closes with a bit of advice from Jonathan about how to pursue an idea and the unique blending of not-for-profit and for-profit interests that make the Samaritan platform unique.

On a special edition of the Accelerate Health podcast,  we continue our series of spotlights on unique digital health startups that are changing the face of healthcare.

This week, Masry Sheridan speaks to Indrajit Choudhuri , Founder of Medicardia Health.  Medicardia is building the health platform of the future to enable "high-performance cardiology." Medicardia HealthChart provides a platform for more closely connecting cardiologists and patients and delivering virtual care more easily.

Indrajit shares how their technology grew out of a personal experience and a realization that so many other people would face the kinds of uncertainties and roadblocks that he faced.
 
Learn more about Medicardia, click here.

On this week's episode of the Accelerate Health podcast, Kerry Amato speaks with Paul Riser Jr., the Managing Director of Technology-Based Entrepreneurship at TechTown Detroit. TechTown Detroit  Detroit’s entrepreneurship hub that is a non-profit business service organization that provides programs, education and resources for early- to -growth-stage small businesses and tech entrepreneurs. Paul discusses the reasons why healthcare innovation is a huge economic producer and  the importance of reinvesting back into your community resources to grow a more connected and inclusive world.