Choosing conferences given my wide variety of interests is proving to be an impossible task. After attending The Health Information Information Management Systems Society conference a few months ago, I certainly caught the Health Information Technology Conference bug. Also as an aside I am sad I missed last weeks American Telemedicine Association Conference.
I certainly have the luxury of being connected with thought leaders in these spaces on social media. Spending a lot of time talking with people on social media and reading articles about the opportunities and challenges of Health IT has become a hobby of mine but talking with people face to face is key.
One of the increasingly important places to start is the developer community; the coders, those in the back end cooking up the Health IT magic behind the scenes. Earlier this week this community gathered at the 1st HIMSS/Health 2.0 #Dev4Health conference. This promised to be a conference that was “”created by innovators for innovators to bring together hundreds of developers, innovator leaders, designers, and tech enthusiasts to share and accelerate new ideas to enable healthier communities through hands-on demonstrations, education, and networking.”
Sounded like a wonderful place to hang out. I was a little worried that as a social worker I might not be welcome but …
@markolschesky preaching the value of getting rapid feedback. Even in the hospital cafeteria. @3PillarGlobal #Dev4Health
— Elisabeth Beller (@edbeller) April 30, 2018
Social workers are tackling problems huge problems but I continue to feel there is a disconnect between the technology that supports our work and the boots on the ground doing the work. I certainly wanted to share my frustration about this but also explore what opportunities exist to speak with developers and to reduce this gap. From the care coordination perceptive this slide certainly resonated….
If you have ever tried to get your medical records, this twisty and frustrating path should look familiar #Dev4Health pic.twitter.com/DkwJL6r6mU
— Veronica M. Combs (@vmcombs) May 1, 2018
Personally I am lucky enough to not have to navigate the mess but have spent a bulk of my career helping people navigate intake, transfers of care, and complex care coordination. In the last several years I have been increasingly interested in how we can use technology to make these experiences for patient’s better. It was also discussed how provider to provider communication (even with technology) can be limited…
Stan Huff, MD on sharing data btwn EHRs:
40% of systems sharing data
30% of docs can find it
20% of the time data is integrated into the workflow
10% of the time the data affects patient care
#dev4health— Veronica M. Combs (@vmcombs) May 1, 2018
With the emphasis of social determinants of health and population health, it hard to imagine that social workers and other care management professionals don’t deserve a seat at the table. So here is the “problem” and what is the solution. My own bias is to have a social worker take a look :). However these tweets highlight the need for a multidisciplinary collaboration. My thoughts after attending HIMSS and looking through the #Dev4Health tweets…
- Hug Your Local Developer– Ok… we are not all huggers but how about a handshake. If, your health IT personnel are not part of your staff meetings, invite them. The bigger challenge in cloud-based programs where the tech support is not on site. Inquiring about a user/workflow committee at that company my help. Don’t be afraid to reach out not only with challenges but what you find is effective.
- Be Solution-Focused: Like a good social worker, be solutions-focused. Yes there are a lot of barriers to tech implementation but there are also great solutions. Focus on what works and try to build off that.
- Build your own solution: You might be so fed up with the system you are in that you may want to build your own solution. A company like Cloudmine is great example of someone that can help you build solutions from the ground up or customize your existing health tech solutions to include more tools.
- Consider a Certificate or Degree In Health Informatics: This is where you have to be really fed up and/or really interested in working deeper into developing Health IT solutions. My friends at GradSchools.com have a nice list of programs and at HIMSS I spoke briefly with the folks at University of New England who look to have a wonderful online program.
I will continue to do my best as a social worker to share more tips and solutions along the way. If you are interested in this topic I would encourage you to see what else the developers and innovators at #Dev4Health were discussing…