Health Care IT

FEBRUARY 2017 | FUTUREOFHEALTHCARENEWS.COM

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Health Care IT “Shark Tank” star Robert Herjavec considers how sturdy our health care cybersecurity is today, and where the new threats are coming from.

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which health IT trends Carla Smith of HIMSS says patients should expect in 2017

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more stories online, including what experts call digital health care’s biggest obstacle

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2 | FUTUREOFHEALTHCARENEWS.COM | IN THIS ISSUE

Healthy Bonds Delve deeper into the relationships hospitals are forging to achieve a more informed, customizable quality of care. Page 3

A Glimpse Ahead Life is already simpler for some patients. See where, and how, clinicians are realizing the future of health care today. Page 7

Empowered Patients Before your next visit, check out the ways you can prevent a diagnostic error — a common medical mishap. Online

4 Health Trends to Watch in 2017 Whether it’s using your smartphone to skip the waiting room or tracking and sharing pertinent data with clinicians from the comfort of your home, health IT will likely impact your care this year.

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Carla Smith M.A., FHIMSS Executive Vice President, HIMSS

arly in the year, m a ny people reflect on what’s ahead in our lives and our health.

Personally, my focus is on making smart, cost-effective decisions that support my family’s health.

My passion and my career are all about making sure the right health information gets to the right person at the right time, so people can make the right decisions. Here are four trends I’ll be watching in 2017.

1. Protecting electronic health information from the bad guys. We’re facing a challenging situation: health information must be available when a patient

or caregiver needs it, yet securely protected from curiosity seekers or those who mean us harm. In light of cyberattacks and other compromising situations, the health sector is keenly focused on securing and protecting our health data.

3. Patient-generated data makes its way into clinicians’ electronic records. Whether home-based blood glucose levels, weights or vital signs, patients are generating more and more data about their own health status.

2. More patients benefit from virtual visits with their clinicians. Telemedicine allows patients and caregivers to connect via video, phone or email, a wonderful tool for patients who are far away from those who can provide the best possible care.

In 2016, 15 million Americans virtually connected with their doctor, nurse or other caregiver.

I won’t be surprised to see that number double in 2017.

In 2016, 15 million Americans virtually connected with their doctor, nurse or other caregiver.

Using smart devices that securely share this information with clinicians, patients can improve the quality of the care

they receive, expand their access to excellent care, and reduce the overall cost of care.

4. Patients benefit from connected, coordinated care.

The ability to securely, appropriately and consistently share electronic patient health information with those who need it is known as interoperability. With widespread interoperability, the right information is available to the right people at the right time. It means clinicians and patients can securely send and receive health information across town, a region, and states — ensuring patients, clinicians and loved ones have the information they need to have, when they need it the most. n

Publisher Mac Harris Business Developer Stephanie King Managing Director Luciana Olson Content and Production Manager Chad Hensley Senior Designer Kathleen Edison Designer Adriana Moreno Copy Editor Sean Ryan Production Coordinator Tiffany Kim Contributors Russell Branzell, James Diabri, Dash Lunde, Carla Smith Cover Photo Lesley Bryce All photos are credited to Getty Images unless otherwise credited. This section was created by Mediaplanet and did not involve USA Today.

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WHAT’S TRENDING | MEDIAPLANET

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Why the Human Element Is Key to Health Care IT When your business is saving lives, IT deployment shouldn’t add to your burden. Building the right relationship with a loyal provider can save you time and money in the long run.

By Dash Lunde sponsored

stands the critical role they play in ensuring that our care providers have reliable technology that allows them to provide high-quality patient care,” explains Dee Emon, VP and CIO at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center.

Cellini, who has worked with Wake Forest as an account executive since they hired his company two years ago, describes eliminating the pain point of long wait times. “We took that out of the equation with customer-owned inventory,” says Cellini, “We found the products and established five custom configurations for [Wake Forest], and we have these pre-customized products available right when they’re needed.”

H

ealth care professionals are highly specialized and crucial to our society.

“These people have full-time jobs,” says TJ Reusch, Director of Healthcare Sales at Insight, “They save lives and run organizations that save lives.

They’re very important to not just their organizations but to society as a whole. That takes a lot of time and a lot of effort.” While advances in technology continue to make the job easier, staying on top of IT trends while forming implementation and deployment strategies that fit the unique needs of a health care facility can be unnecessarily time-consuming and detract from the important work of saving lives.

An overwhelming marketplace With so many manufacturers, so many new products and new designs, the IT world seems to change every day. Working with a company that specializes in IT solutions will give you pre-built knowledge, experience and manufacturer relationships.

“One of the key things is an understanding of the health care space,” says Reusch, who oversees a team of health care IT specialists, “We see a lot now going into patient engagement. How do you

change the experience for your patients as they’re coming in? How do you change the experience for the patient so they don’t even have to come in to your facility?”

But not all IT providers are created equal. Health care facilities are on a tight budget, so some IT companies try and impress their clients with promises that can’t be kept. “Margins are tight in

this industry,” says Rudy Cellini, a health care IT account executive, “A lot of folks have adopted the unsustainable strategy of knocking the price out of the park to begin with, but then, six months later, they’re driving the price up again, causing a hospital to go back to the drawing board.”

With a job that’s hard enough, starting from scratch with your

IT solutions shouldn’t be part of your workload.

Finding a loyal collaborator A loyal health care IT specialist will have a grasp of the technology that practitioners need to make their lives easier, but they’ll also be flexible and consistent so IT doesn’t become a hassle for practitioners. “Our Insight team under-

Building a relationship When it comes to this kind of collaboration, the human element always comes first. “We weren’t just looking for a vendor,” says Emon, “We were looking for a strategic business partner that would be invested in understanding the unique needs of our academic medical center and larger health system.”

When it comes to building a strong health care IT system, the most important factor is having a collaborator who is loyal, consistent and good at understanding your needs.

“It’s not just about the personalization of medicine in the future,” says Reusch, who puts strong client relationships above anything else, “We’re attempting to help personalize the entire business channel of IT for each of our clients — that very feeling of it being a customized solution.” n

4 | FUTUREOFHEALTHCARENEWS.COM | CHALLENGES

MEDIAPLANET

Why Are Health Care Cyberattacks Getting Worse?

Cybersecurity experts agree: the weakest link in any computer system is the user.

By James Diabri

A growing problem In its Cyber Security Intelligence Index, IBM branded 2015 the “year of the health care breach.”

“We all believe that when we give our data to our medical provider, a sacred trust and protection exists,” Herjavec offers. “We don’t have a choice. We need treatment and have to share significant personal, medical and financial details.”

So what makes health care such a hot target? To Herjavec, who founded his global information security firm in 2003, “Health care delivery and management has become extremely dependent on information systems. There are significant information processing requirements and investments made each year, and it can be difficult to keep them all up-to-date, patched and refreshed.”

This tradeoff is usually driven by the increasing role technology plays in medical treatments, as well as the sustained pressure to keep nonclinical costs down. Reliable security solutions are often deemed too expensive or cumbersome to implement, leaving large pools of data unsafe.

The result is “a higher-than-average legacy

‘debt’ of outdated systems, un-patched operating systems and older browsers,” Herjavec says.

Not if, but when While proper protection can come with a hefty price tag, the price of an attack is indisputably higher. According to IBM, the average cost of a data breach across all industries was $3.8 million in 2014 — up 23 percent from 2013. Yet in the health care sector, the cost was $363 per record breached, more than twice the overall average of $154 per record.

“Security needs to be a top priority because it’s not if you will be attacked, but when,” urges Herjavec. “Just like a large public enterprise organization, health care providers have to prioritize a proactive approach to security — balancing people, process and technology to improve the protection of their informational assets and patient information.”

The path to safety As the cybersecurity leader points out, however, health IT is adapting to combat these attacks: “Improvements in auditing and monitoring have taken security in health care a very long way. By leveraging user behavior analytics and improved identity management tools, health care providers are better able to determine who has access to what data, when, for how long and why.”

When choosing a security provider, Herjavec recommends working with someone who understands your objectives and has a clear, disciplined approach to security.

“Your provider should be transparent with you in terms of how your data is processed, analyzed and stored,” he sums. “Clear mechanisms need to be in place so you understand how escalations and breaches would be handled and supported. You want a provider that can demonstrate excellence and consistency in delivery.” n

PHOTO: Lesley bryce

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ccording to a new industry forecast by Experian, health care organizations will be the most targeted sector in 2017, with new, sophisticated attacks emerging daily.

“Health care organizations are a prime target for cyberattacks,” confirms Robert Herjavec, dynamic entrepreneur and star of ABC’s Emmy Award-winning hit “Shark Tank.” He explains: “Patient records are identity documents that contain personal data as well as credit card and payment information. When compromised, these records can be used for identity theft, financial fraud against the patient, or to defraud insurance providers.”

“I will respect the privacy of my patients, for their problems are not disclosed to me that the world may know.”

– Hippocratic Oath

HEALTHCARE HAS ALWAYS BEEN ABOUT

PATIENT TRUST Today, patient data is more vulnerable and valuable than ever.

The threats are real and persistent. From medical identity theft through the potential to disrupt our critical infrastructure.

Patients must trust that their medical information is secure in order to receive the best care possible.

One rogue employee. One bad click on a link. That’s all it takes.

When it comes to protecting patient data and growing trust between patient and provider, we are all in this together.

FairWarning protects patient data and ensures compliance in EHRs, Cloud and Big Data.

• Protecting more than 175 million patient encounters annually • Used by over 8,000 hospitals and healthcare facilities worldwide

Visit us at the HIMSS Cybersecurity Command Center Presented by FairWarning Booth 376-A For more information, please visit www.FairWarning.com 727-576-6700 | Solutions@FairWarning.com © Copyright 2004-2017 FairWarning, Inc. | All rights reserved.

Various trademarks held by their respective owners.

www.FairWarning.com

6 | FUTUREOFHEALTHCARENEWS.COM | INDUSTRY PERSPECTIVE

What Experts Expect from Cutting-Edge Health Care What’s an advancement in health IT that’s improved patient engagement?

T

TJ Reusch Director, Healthcare Sales, Insight

he digital availability of patient health records. It has changed the conversations that are occurring with clinicians. It allows patients to have their information with them wherever they choose to go. It has also created a greater sense of ownership for one’s own health care.

R Carla Smith, M.A., FHIMSS Executive Vice President, HIMSS

eal-time, secure access to electronic health information. More than half of U.S. hospitals have implemented patient portals that allow patients to pay bills, review test results and access their personal health record. Today, about a third to one-half of a hospital’s patients use those portals. I believe patient and consumer demand for realtime, secure access to health information is about to increase dramatically.

I Kurt J. Long Founder and CEO, FairWarning

mproved patient treatments through big data and cloud technologies have powerful momentum in advancing patient treatments and outcomes that can only be stopped by a loss of patient trust.

Patient information sharing and overall trust in the health care industry are keys to seeing uninterrupted breakthroughs in using these data analysis technologies, and in growing patient engagement.

W David Widmann President and CEO, Konica Minolta Healthcare Americas, Inc.

hile in its infancy, use of telehealth is expected to grow rapidly, accelerated by new technologies and more patients demanding the convenience associated with virtual visits. We recognize the importance of promoting patient engagement and the role telehealth can have in facilitating virtual care. The future includes telehealth becoming routine as a means to deliver high quality care at a lower cost.

What is the biggest obstacle facing the health care industry?

What role can health care IT play in overcoming this?

Big data. As technology grows, so does the data — at an exponential rate. And as the baby boomer generation continues to age, the number of people receiving health care will be another compounding factor. How do you gather, manage and control this much data and, more importantly, how do you use it to improve people’s health?

With the right strategies and tools, health IT can support big data and use it to save lives.

It is important that health IT get involved in every aspect of the health care process, and be in front of the process instead of reactionary.

This s a big change for a lot of organizations, but those that figure it out soonest will reap the greatest rewards.

Protecting health information while simultaneously ensuring the right people have access when they need it. Research from 2015 and 2016 reveals that health care providers realize the imperative to achieve this goal, yet must overcome budget challenges and the lack of qualified staff to tackle the problem.

One is to create a health-focused, voluntary, universal, scalable information privacy and security framework, and then assembling the right stakeholders to adopt it. Second, the public and private sector can partner to resolve the shortage of skilled, health-knowledgeable cybersecurity personnel by providing the training the health sector needs.

Health care providers are getting squeezed on all sides, by regulatory enforcement, being targets for litigation, unprecedented levels of mergers and acquisitions, cost cutting and the media’s attention on high visibility data breaches. As providers are forced to do more with less, and facing uncertainty and consolidation, they also face greater cyber threats. The stakes have never been higher to incorporate security into patient care.

Building trust. If ATMs routinely had financial information stolen from them, people wouldn’t use them. Health care won’t be any different. The industry is behind the times in data security and is the top target for data breaches. Health care needs to incorporate patient information security and privacy as a part of holistic medicine and build secure systems.

Value-based reimbursement, to be effective, requires the collection of large amounts of data and communication. With health care IT data historically in silos across systems, collaboration and coordination of care faces significant hurdles, such as viewing patient data in a unified manner. Furthermore, with the ubiquitous adoption of electronic health records, physicians are demanding all patient data be available centrally in the EHR.

The health care IT industry continues to advance technologies that support interoperability and increase adoption and collaboration across disparate IT systems. Enterprise solutions, whether in a large, integrated delivery network or in a small community hospital, are required. As an example, solutions could entail making all images and patient data available in a central archive across systems with a universal viewer.

SPOTLIGHT | MEDIAPLANET

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How Health IT Is Bringing Us Closer to Optimal Care Our health care system is well into its digital transition, and some of the updates that transition has brought to the patient experience set a higher bar for our nation’s clinicians.

Last month, lost in the hubbub over the future of the Affordable Care Act and stock trades, there was an interesting exchange between Tom Price, M.D., and the senators who were key to considering his nomination as the head of the Department of Health and Human Services.

Estimating EHRs During his hearings, Price was asked about the impact that the Meaningful Use program and, by extension, electronic health records (EHRS) have on physician productivity.

“Electronic health records are so important because, from an innovation standpoint, they allow the patient to have their health history with them at all times and … whatever physician or provider to have access to that,” Price declared. “We in the federal government have a role in that, but that role ought to be interoperability — to make sure the different

systems can talk to each other, so it inures to the benefit of the patient.”

Price also spoke to the value of telemedicine, calling it an “exciting innovation” and “absolutely vital.”

How things are changing Politically, many aspects of health

care are headed into unknown territory. But with health IT, we can build off of the sentiment of Price’s statements and look at the big picture. We’ve spent more than a decade constructing the foundation of a digitized health care system, and in many corners

of the nation, we are seeing the fruits of that labor.

Consider Tenet Healthcare’s IMPACT program, Improving Patient Care Through Technology, which is focused on ensuring the right information gets to the right caregiver at the right time.

By streamlining clinical documentation, Tenet has also given valuable time back to nurses so they can spend more time at the bedside. Carolinas HealthCare System, another great example, uses telemedicine to conduct virtual psychiatric visits, as well as provide care for stroke and other complicated conditions in rural communities.

Another successful case can be found at the University of Colorado Hospital. In 2015 they deployed a cloud-based, predictive analytics tool that tapped into scheduling data from the EHR and led to dramatic cuts in wait times at a busy infusion center — 15 percent overall and 33 percent during peak hours.

All of this while daily volume rose 7 percent. The changes also spurred higher patient satisfaction scores and enabled the hospital to trim staff overtime by 20 hours per month.

These are a select number of the many positive strides being made to improve patient care. By spreading these best practices through educational awareness, we can transform care for the better. n

By Russell Branzell, President and CEO, College of Healthcare Information Management Executives

reshape healthcare IT

Konica Minolta can help you:

• Manage diagnostic imaging needs • Implement smart telehealth technologies • Reduce costs with document workflow automation • Enhance security and compliance For more information visit ReshapeHealthcareIT.com

JOIN US AT HIMSS17 BOOTH #1071 FEBRUARY 19 – 23, ORLANDO CONVENTION CENTER Register for a Chance to Win a Complementary Seat at a 2017 Certified Cyber Security Architect (CCSA) Course!* *Course exam fee of $495 not included.

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