#COVID19, #HIMSS20 and the Digital Transformation of Healthcare

I would like to dedicate this blogpost to our fearless Doctors, Clinicians, Nurses, Technicians and First Responders in the US of A and across the World, as they put their health and their lives at risk to heal and save the rest of us, in the days and weeks ahead – God bless them!

Introduction

These are indeed unprecedented times for us. The 2020 HIMSS National Conference, which would have been my 11th HIMSS conference in a row, was cancelled for the very first time in 58 years, as was every other conference across this country and the world at large! It was done for all the right reasons, given the malevolent COVID-19 novel corona virus and its catastrophic impact from both a public health and economic perspective, the likes of which have not been seen since the great depression! The Pandemic rudely debilitated what has been one of the largest economic expansions we will have witnessed in our lifetime, whose impact will unfortunately be felt long after the Pandemic has disappeared from our midst!

Matter of fact, while the economic impact of the Pandemic has resulted in almost every industry from travel to retail and CPG being demand constrained with likely contraction even after the outbreak has been contained, Healthcare is the only industry that will see 20-50% expansion, predicated on the extent of the COVID-19 cases by county, state or country across the world! This expansion will likely persist beyond the Pandemic given real concerns re: a second wave of the Pandemic in fall of this year, and the global need to be prepared and not be caught off guard!

Just how dramatically things have changed since the outbreak dawned on me this week when my face-to-face visit with my endocrinologist at Baylor Scott and White was changed to a tele-health visit 48 hours prior! Since the embedded tele-health app within their Epic Patient Portal did not work as expected, the engagement was facilitated over Facetime via my iPhone which worked well, especially since I was doing a fairly good job of managing my conditions and at monitoring my vital signs – this will likely be a way of life for ‘Patients like me’ in the foreseeable future. Conclusion of my tele-health call triggered an email informing me that I had been charged for my co-pay and my Health Plan for the balance, which was fairly reassuring and also signaled a high level of healthcare IT competence.

In this forward-looking perspective, I will endeavor to discuss the strategic implications of the disruption and the resulting digital transformation of healthcare that will change business, clinical and healthcare delivery processes long after the COVID-19 Pandemic is behind us. Unless the rest of the world can come together to address the source of this Pandemic (and just about every other Epidemic we have seen) at its source, we will likely devote enormous amounts of investments, resources and innovation to preparing for the next Pandemic, which will potentially replace a Nuclear Armageddon as our most potent existential threat, given the crippling and economically devastating impact of this one, that we will not forget in a hurry! [Ref 1 and 2]

What are the most immediate implications of the COVID-19 Pandemic for Hospitals, Healthcare Providers and Public Health?

Figure 1. STRATEGY BLUEPRINT: COVID-19 and its implications and challenges for Healthcare Providers and Public Health Agencies.

Figure 1 above is a strategy blueprint articulating the 12 most pressing strategic challenges confronting hospitals, healthcare providers and public health agencies at this time. This is not exhaustive by any stretch of the imagination, but a compelling list of challenges that provide a construct to discuss implications and the opportunities for digital transformation that will likely be far reaching and will persist long after this pandemic is behind us.

In this blogpost, I will discuss each of these challenges, its implications and the strategic digital transformation (including artificial intelligence, analytics, telehealth/tele-medicine, remote patient monitoring et al) that will likely be adopted by healthcare providers and public health, to preclude recurrence in the event of another epidemic, pandemic or a disease outbreak, in the foreseeable future. I will also conclude each of these sections with some strategic open-ended questions re: your current readiness to deal with the challenges presented by these unforeseen disruptions, that may inform your strategy and scenario, planning and execution in the days, weeks and months ahead.

Function / Department: Strategic, Scenario and Policy Planning and Epidemiology

1.  Track Pandemic/ Disease Outbreak, deploy surveillance and enable rapid response

The ASIAN FLU in 1956 killed between one and four million people worldwide. SARS in 2002 infected 8,098 and killed 774 in seventeen counties. H7N9 emerged ten years later to strike at least 1,223 people and kill four out of every ten of them. Now, the milder, yet more infectious COVID-19 has sickened more than 700,000 across the globe, resulting in 30,000+ deaths and counting!!!! [Ref 1 & 2]

 Aggregating, transforming and reporting on data pertaining to the outbreak of a disease or a Pandemic like COVID-19 is mission critical to tracking the outbreak, surveillance and the rapid response to contain the Pandemic or Disease.

 The Center for Systems Science and Engineering at John Hopkins University has launched an online dashboard shown in figure 2 below [Ref 3] that is tracking the spread of the deadly coronavirus as it makes its way across the globe. 

Figure 2. The Live COVID-19 Dashboard delivering insights on the number of COVID-19 induced cases and deaths across the world, by country, from the Center of Systems Science and Engineering at the Johns Hopkins University. [Ref 3]

The live dashboard pulls data from the World Health Organization (WHO) -- as well as the centers for disease control in the US, China and Europe -- to show all confirmed and suspected cases of coronavirus, along with recovered patients and deaths. The data is visualized through a real-time graphic information system (GIS). 

Going forward, it is my prognosis that healthcare providers and health systems will proactively collaborate with the CDC, HHS and CMS to ensure that the plan for similar and unforeseen disease, epidemic or pandemic outbreaks as part of their strategic planning process, to ensure that they will act on advance intelligence and not be caught off guard, as was the case with the COVID-19 outbreak.

Readiness Appraisal to inform your Strategic and Tactical Planning:

• How will you capture and aggregate data from CMS, HHS and other relevant sources to proactively track the outbreak, manage surveillance and rapidly respond when a disease or a pandemic happens?
• Do you have the resources (analysts and data scientists) and AI+ Analytics platforms in place to aggregate, blend and prep data from disparate external and internal IT systems to deliver proactive actionable insights to inform your strategic and scenario planning today?

2.  Identify and secure buffer (additional) facilities and locations for additional hospital beds, especially ICU, ER, OR and observation rooms to cope with this surge.

 Healthcare systems in large metros are facing prospects of NOT having the needed ER, OR and Observation Rooms to deal with the surge of Patients infected with COVID-19. Strategically identifying additional facilities that can be used for additional capacity in the event of a surge will spell the difference between lives lost and saved, when the surge strikes, as is anticipated to happen in NY State, California, Washington and Louisiana.

 New York has about 53,000 hospital beds across the state, with 3,000 ICU beds. Governor Andrew Cuomo has mandated that hospitals increase their capacities by 50%, adding about 27,000 beds. If hospitals are able to increase capacity by 100%, an additional 5,000 beds will be made available. [Ref 4]

Readiness Appraisal to inform your Strategic and Tactical Planning:

•  At this time, do you need additional capacity for additional ICU, ED and OR beds to meet the surge, outside your hospital locations?'
• How will you identify the most promising locations that are easy to access for your patients and their families?
• Are you stratifying your hospital locations/ care facilities across COVID-19 and non COVID-19 patients to minimize chances of infection of patients who do not have the virus?

3.  Recruit retired or soon-to-graduate Physicians, Nurses and Technicians to cope with COVID -19 Surge 

Given the surge of COVID-19 Patients exceeding capacity and providers who are getting infected, hiring retired Clinicians and Nurses to meet this need, would help alleviate the burden and potentially save lives. NY and other states are also recruiting soon to graduate Doctors and Nurses to contribute to the massive effort that is overwhelming hospital systems today.

 Enabling fast track immigration from countries like India and the rest of Asia is also under consideration – 20% of all US medical professionals and nurses are of Indian origin, despite people of Indian origin constituting less than 3% of the US population today.

Readiness Appraisal to inform your Strategic and Tactical Planning:

• Are you thinking of recruiting retired and yet to graduate MDs and Nurses to meet your capacity constraints triggered by the surge?
• How will you identify and recruit qualified and retired Nurses, Clinicians and Technicians as well as those about to graduate to ensure they are qualified and experienced enough to meet your needs?
• How will you integrate and normalize all of the data to match these candidates with your specific needs?

Function / Department: Clinical Operations, Patient Engagement and Human Capital Management (HCM)

4.  Proactively identify the most at-risk Patients and Segments in the Population who are vulnerable to COVID-19 infection

Risk stratify Patients based on Demographic, EMR & Socio-Economic Determinants of Health to proactively identify the most vulnerable patients, seniors etc. who are most at-risk for preferential treatment that will save lives. Adopting both descriptive analytics as well as predictive analytics leveraging machine learning and natural language processing (NLP) is imperative to enabling a risk-based approach to population health segmentation and ensure that the most at-risk patients can be proactive identified for advanced clinical protocols needed to assure optimal patient outcomes.

It is indeed encouraging to see leaders like Apple and Medtronic offer just-in-time (JIT) solutions to enable seniors and at-risk patients to diagnose their condition and risk of COVID-19 in collaboration with their care teams. [Ref 5 and 6]. Even more compelling is the Abbott Laboratories COVID-19 Test which can deliver positive results in as little as 5 minutes, [Ref 7]

Medtronic’s COVID-19 Virtual Care Evaluation and Monitoring Solution uses a virtual assistant to evaluate patients thru a CDC guideline survey for COVID-19 symptoms, while the Respiratory Infectious Disease Health Check helps patients with chronic, co-morbid health conditions who are at the highest risk for complications or mortality associated with COVID-19 track their respiratory infectious disease symptoms and body temperature through daily health checks. 

The program reacts dynamically during the health check to present symptom questions based on the patient’s previous responses and provides patient education to encourage and support self-care. Data is aggregated for clinician review and action if additional intervention is needed. [Ref 5].

Apple has also released a new screening tool and set of resources to help people stay informed and take the proper steps to protect their health during the spread of COVID-19, based on the latest CDC guidance. The new COVID-19 website, and COVID-19 app available on the App Store, were created in partnership with the CDC,1 the White House Coronavirus Task Force and FEMA. [Ref 6]

 The COVID-19 app and website allow users to answer a series of questions around risk factors, recent exposure and symptoms for themselves or a loved one. In turn, they will receive CDC recommendations on next steps, including guidance on social distancing and self-isolating, how to closely monitor symptoms, whether or not a test is recommended at this time, and when to contact a medical provider. [Ref 6]

 Perhaps the most impactful innovation given the massive shortage of testing kits for the COVID-19 and the days it takes to get back test results is the 5-minute COVID-19 Test from Abbott Labs. Abbott has received emergency use authorization (EUA) from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the fastest available molecular point-of-care test for the detection of novel coronavirus (COVID-19), delivering positive results in as little as five minutes and negative results in 13 minutes [Ref 7]. If mass-produced and distributed rapidly across the US and the globe, this can go a long way in addressing the testing related bottle necks and constraints that are a barrier to getting a reliable and accurate picture of the COVID-19 cases across the US.

Readiness Appraisal to inform your Strategic and Tactical Planning:

• How are you leveraging demographic, socio-economic and EMR data to identify the most vulnerable segments of your patient population (seniors, patients with acute conditions and chronic diseases) to prioritize them for COVID-19 testing and treatment, given constrained testing kits and supplies?
• Have you standardized on a single Electronic Health Record at your healthcare system and integrated this with your ERP, HR, Finance and Revenue Cycle Management systems?
• Are you leveraging predictive analytics using machine learning and NLP to risk-stratify your attributed patient population based on their chronic conditions including cancer, COPD, cardiovascular disease, diabetes et al? How well is this working for you today?

5.   Proactively segment and triage Seniors and vulnerable, at-risk Patients via Telehealth / Telemedicine before or at admission to protect Care Givers

Seniors above 65 years as well as patients with chronic conditions like Cancer, Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), Cardiovascular disease etc. are most vulnerable to death if afflicted by the COVID-19 virus and are also locomotion challenged. Leveraging Telehealth/Telemedicine to diagnose and treat them remotely for conditions that are not acute, will lower risks of infection for both these vulnerable patients as well as care givers.

As I have discovered from my personal experience, many health systems require patients experiencing mild symptoms, or those exposed to individuals with confirmed cases of COVID-19, to use virtual visits to check in with their providers. Primary care physicians and specialists are also turning to Telehealth for their regular clinic visits as patients self-quarantine to stem the spread of the coronavirus.

Washington based Providence St. Joseph’s Health was among the first to treat COVID-19 patients and reported that virtual visits increased 20 to 30-fold in the first few weeks of the pandemic [Ref 8]. The system reported confusion around billing for the virtual visits, and it had to act quickly to spread the correct coding and billing information.

New York is one of the hardest-hit states with COVID-19 cases, and demand for telehealth services has increased 312 percent amid the pandemic. Stony Brook (N.Y.) University Hospital has seen an increase in demand for telecommunications within the hospital and is in search of resources to support those visits. Stony Brook University Hospital has asked community members to donate iPads to connect inpatients to their providers and families. IT is in need of around 100 iPads as of March 25. [Ref 8].

Hospitals and Health Systems that would like to adopt and scale Telehealth across their systems will need to think thru the following challenges from an IT and Analytics perspective:

• Segmenting the attributed population based on risk (seniors above 65, those with chronic conditions like Cancer, heart disease and COPD) to identify them as candidates for Telehealth engagement pre-admission or post-discharge, while validating their eligibility and coverage – leverage data from the EMR and Rev. Cycle Management systems with predictive analytics using machine learning to do so.
• Demand-Supply Matching of Patients with Providers: Telehealth’s sweet spot is following on routine appointments for Diabetes, Cardiovascular disease, COPD, Neurology etc. especially for patients in far flung areas, as well as Tele-ICU where ICU doctors are not available. A key analytics challenge is matching each patient with the appropriate physician or clinician to ensure the best outcomes with machine learning and scheduling algorithms, while also allocating capacity for emergency/ on-demand engagement.
• Billing, Coding, Denials and Reimbursement: Large healthcare systems that have standardized their clinical and RCM processes on Epic, Cerner, AllScripts, Athena Health etc. can potentially handle most of these digitally on one EMR. For smaller hospitals, with fragmented processes, aggregating data from these disparate systems and running analytics re: inaccurate coding, denials, payers who do not reimburse at pre-contracted rates etc. will be critical
• Benchmarking Performance by User Group and across Providers: monitoring, analyzing, measuring, reporting and benchmarking impact on patient outcomes and cost of care delivery across user groups (Diabetes vs. Cardiovascular vs. COPD for instance) and across multiple providers within the same Healthcare Systems, or against thought leaders like the Mayo Clinic, the Cleveland Clinic, Providence Health and Intermountain Healthcare is critical to success and enable continuous improvement.

Readiness Appraisal to inform your Strategic and Tactical Planning:

• Are you currently (or have plans for) leveraging tele-medicine / tele-health facilities to engage with these vulnerable patients? 
• Given the prevailing shortage of ICU and ER doctors, is deployment of tele-health and tele-medicine in the ICU and the ER an option to complement the clinicians and nurses on your staff?
• Do you have the analytics (descriptive and predictive) in place to match them up with the right clinicians and primary care physicians?
• Can you benchmark your tele-health metrics and KPIs across therapeutic areas or user groups with national standards, to enable continuous improvement?

6. Proactively manage Employee (Clinician, Nurses & Tech) Health, Safety and Burnout

Doctors, nurses and technicians will be hugely stressed and overworked trying to meet the demands triggered by the surge, that too without the necessary Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), masks, gloves etc. Protecting them from infection and burnout will be key to success. Monitoring their mental and physical state of readiness while having rest and recuperation rooms as well as additional staff to meet the surge triggered demand maximize staff availability to response to the surge.

Readiness Appraisal to inform your Strategic and Tactical Planning:

• Do you have adequate masks, gloves and PPE needed to adequately protect your doctors, nurses and technicians for them to treat patients infected with COVID-19?
• Do you have plans in place to proactively monitor employee schedules, shifts and number of patients engaged to ensure they get sufficient rest, are protected from COVID-19 infection, and do not experience burnout? How critical is this for you at this time?
• Do you have the ability to map employee schedules, shifts and the number of patients they are seeing, with a risk score, to predict employees most at risk of infection and burnout?

Function / Department: Operations, Strategic Sourcing, Procurement, Inventory and Supply Chain Management (SCM)

7. Maximize ED, OR & Observation Room Utilization & Patient Throughput

Given the anticipated surge of COVID-19 Patients, many Hospitals will be severely capacity constrained on their ICU, ED, OR & observation rooms, as well as ventilators for their ICU beds. Planning for this surge with the flexibility to re-purpose hospital beds into ED beds with additional ventilators and medical devices & diagnostic equipment will be critical for saving lives.

Readiness Appraisal to inform your Strategic and Tactical Planning:

• How are you planning to maximize your current capacity of your ICU beds, ED, OR and Observation Rooms? How critical is this for you at this time?
• Where will you procure the additional ventilators that will be needed to support the ICU beds needed to treat seniors and high-risk patients for 20-30 days per patient? Are you working with the CDC or local manufacturers to source these ventilators?
• Can you leverage your historical data to improve Asset Utilization as well as Patient Throughput, Experience and Satisfaction, to respond to your capacity constraints?
• Are their solutions in place for doing this today? How well are these working for you and your leaders?

8. Accurately forecast Demand for critical Drugs, Devices, Vaccines, Masks, Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) & Supplies for Medical Personnel

 The COVID-19 Pandemic is presenting unprecedented and unforeseen challenges in terms of medical staff, equipment, protective attire, drugs and devices for Hospitals. Leveraging the demand data from previous epidemics (H1N1, Ebola etc.) to forecast demand for COVID-19 with predictive analytics will potentially help address the huge shortages anticipated. Incorporating the demand data from this Pandemic within your ERP or supply chain planning system, augmented with advanced predictive analysis will drive the level of readiness needed to deal with the next disease outbreak or pandemic in the foreseeable future.

Readiness Appraisal to inform your Strategic and Tactical Planning:

• Are you able to leverage historical data from previous Epidemics and disease outbreaks (EBOLA, H1N1, Flu outbreak) to reliably forecast demand for drugs, vaccines, devices, diagnostics equipment, test kits and instruments in the wake of COVID-19 to meet current demand?
• Do you have advanced analytics capabilities to leverage sophisticated demand forecasting algorithms for what-if and scenario analysis, needed for rapid response to the disruption?

9. Balance current Supply Chain Disruption with “Business as Usual”

 The COVID-19 Pandemic is presenting unprecedented and unforeseen challenges in terms of medical staff, equipment, protective attire, drugs and devices for Hospitals. Hospitals need to collaborate with entirely new suppliers and create new supply chains for ventilators, masks, Personal Protection Equipment (PPE), COVID-19 testing kits etc. while managing and balancing this with their existing supply chain to meet the needs of patients not afflicted by COVID-19. As well, maverick (off-contract) buying is a huge challenge costing $ MM facing healthcare providers today, which will likely be exacerbated by the Pandemic. Leveraging self-service analytics to integrate data from the ERP, EMR and procurement and analyze these to pin-point maverick buying will save hospitals $ MM.

Readiness Appraisal to inform your Strategic and Tactical Planning:

• How are you managing the process of identifying and securing new suppliers for masks, testing kits, PPE, gloves etc. while managing your current supply chain?
• Are you using your Group Purchasing Organization (GPO) to identify these suppliers or are you having to identify and manage these contracts yourself
• Are you using the supply chain planning capabilities of your ERP system (Lawson) or the planning and analytics services from your GPO or an outside contractor? Is this meeting your needs given the imperative to rapidly respond to the disruption?
• Are you challenged with maverick / off-contract buying in your hospital or health system? Are you proactively monitoring and managing ”Maverick (off-contract) Buying” to minimize waste and maximize savings related to procurement? 

Function / Department: Clinical, Quality, Safety, Accountable Care Organizations (ACO) and Population Health Management (PHM)

10. Stratify admitted Patients based on 30-day re-admission risk leveraging Predictive Analytics, given constrained capacity

Given the surge on many Hospitals triggered by the large numbers of Patients who are infected with the COVID-19 corona virus, segmenting and stratifying patients based on risk (seniors above 65, multi-morbid patients with acute conditions and chronic diseases) will be critical to saving vulnerable lives that would otherwise be lost.

These patients will need to be isolated in the ICU with ventilators for 20-30 days at a time, while treating and discharging patients at lower risk, to turn around hospital beds and free up capacity for newer patients infected with COVID-19 who are being admitted, as illustrated in figure 3 and elucidated in detail in my earlier blogpost, ‘Precision Medicine and Population Health Management’ [Ref 9]. Machine learning algorithms can be used to proactively identify the most vulnerable population of patients and prioritize them for advanced and more intensive care protocols in the ICUs with ventilators vs. younger patients less at risk.

Figure 3. Risk based Patient Risk Stratification to match constrained capacity with the patients most at risk [Ref 9] 

Readiness Appraisal to inform your Strategic and Tactical Planning:

• Do you have a risk-based approach to Patients and Population Health Management (PHM)? How effectively can you score, segment and stratify your Patients based on their chronic conditions, co-morbidities, allergies etc.
• Are you stratifying your care facilities across COVID-19 and non COVID-19 patients to minimize chances of infection of patients who do not have the virus?
• Are you leveraging machine learning and predictive analytics to proactively identify and segment Patients in the hospital based on risk and prioritize them for advanced care protocols and care coordination?

11. Monitor Hospital Infections (HACs) to improve Quality, Patient Safety & Outcomes

Hospital Acquired Infections (HAIs) or Hospital Acquired Conditions (HACs) and sepsis are real-world concerns, given the massive numbers of COVID-19 afflicted Patients, which would further exacerbate their condition, especially for vulnerable patients - seniors above 65, multi-morbid patients with acute conditions and chronic diseases. Leveraging self-service descriptive and predictive analytics to monitor metrics and KPIs like CAUTI, CLABSI etc. to laser-focus on these metrics and reduce them have been demonstrated to positively impact patient outcomes.

Readiness Appraisal to inform your Strategic and Tactical Planning:

• How well are you monitoring and managing Hospital Acquired Conditions (HACs) today? Do you have a finite set of metrics and KPIs that you are laser focused on?
• How will you proactively monitor quality and safety to minimize risk of infection and Hospital Acquired Conditions (HACs) for your admitted patients? Are there additional metrics pertaining to the COVID-19 corona virus that you need to monitor, measure, analyze and control at this time?
• Are you challenged with fines and penalties associated with Hospital Acquired Conditions (HACs) which are likely to be exacerbated in the wake of the COVID-19 surge?

12. Empower Care Coordinators/ Nurses to monitor the most at-risk Patients post-discharge across the Care Continuum

Vulnerable Patients (seniors above 65, multi-morbid patients with acute conditions and chronic diseases) will be susceptible to additional infections following discharge and need to be proactively monitored for medication compliance, vital signs reporting, follow on appointments etc. by care coordinators. Leveraging analytics to predict Patients most at risk and proactively engaging with them using Telehealth, Remote Patient Monitoring and Videoconferencing will empower Care Coordinators to minimize 30-day re-admission risk while assuring superior patient outcomes. Leveraging Uber and Lyft to transport patients who are economically or physically challenged to make their appointments has been demonstrated to improve compliance.

Readiness Appraisal to inform your Strategic and Tactical Planning:

• How well are you doing today in terms of managing your Length of Stay (LOS) and 30-day re-admission rates, especially for high-risk Patients post-discharge?
• Do you have Care Coordinators in place for Patient Engagement and Monitoring following Discharge from your hospital?
• How are you empowering your Care-Coordinators/ Nurse Practitioners with the actionable insights they need, to engage with high-risk patients post-discharge, to ensure medication compliance as well as doctor’s appointments, to minimize 30-day re-admission risks and penalties?

"The unforeseen disruption triggered by COVID-19 is inducing unplanned growth across Healthcare which finds itself capacity constrained vs. just about every other industry which unfortunately find themselves demand constrained and will likely undergo contraction post Pandemic!"

In closing...

The unforeseen disruption triggered by COVID-19 is inducing unplanned growth across Healthcare which finds itself capacity constrained vs. just about every other industry which unfortunately find themselves demand constrained and will likely undergo contraction post Pandemic!

Here is my prognosis of specific segments within the Healthcare and Life Sciences industry that are witnessing and will experience astronomical growth given unprecedented demand for their products and services in the wake of the Pandemic, not only in North-America, but from the 150 countries which have been afflicted by COVID-19:

•  COVID-19 Testing Instrumentation, Kits, Apps and Services from Abbott Labs, Roche Diagnostics, Medtronic, Apple etc.
• Diagnostic and Remote Patient Monitoring Solutions and Services from Medtronic, Honeywell Life Sciences, Philips and Siemens Healthcare, Roche Diagnostics, Biotronic SE, CAS Medical Systems and Spacelabs Healthcare
• Telehealth and Telemedicine Solutions and Services from companies like Teladoc, Amwell, Doctor on Demand, Well Health, Plush Care, Zipnosis, Zocdoc et al
• Pharma, Medical Devices and Diagnostics companies offering drugs and devices especially for chronic and COVID-19 induced respiratory conditions like Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), Emphysema etc.
• Bio-Pharma companies offering therapies and with vaccines in the pipeline for treating the COVID-19 novel corona virus listed in this link
• Medical Devices, Equipment and Supply Manufacturers providing Ventilators, ICU and ER beds, Vital Sign Monitors and other equipment, instruments, personal protective equipment (PPE), masks, gloves and supplies urgently needed to treat COVID-19 patients of which, there is a massive global shortage
• Healthcare Software and Technology companies with IT, Artificial Intelligence and Advanced Self-Service Analytics Platforms and Solutions for Hospital CIOs, CDOs, CAOs, CMIOs, CHIOs and CSOs and their staff
• Companies who supply permanent and temporary staffing to Hospitals and Health Systems Physicians, Nurses, Clinicians, Technicians like AMN Healthcare

In this blogpost, I have endeavored to articulate the primary and urgent challenges confronting hospitals, health systems and public health agencies which is driving strategic digital transformation (including artificial intelligence, analytics, tele-health/tele-medicine, remote patient monitoring et al) that is being adopted by healthcare providers and public health at scale, now and in the foreseeable future. I have also included strategic open-ended questions re: your current readiness to deal with the challenges presented by these unforeseen disruptions, that may potentially inform your strategy and scenario, planning and execution in the days, weeks and months ahead.

•  Was this strategy blueprint and my analysis useful for you, your organization, and your leadership?
•  What is missing in this strategic blueprint and analysis that is top of mind for you, your organization, and your leadership in these trying times?

As always, I welcome your comments and feedback here on this blogpost, and on Twitter at @HITstrategy. 

Disclaimer: The perspective and views expressed in this Blog post are my own and do not represent those of my current or previous employers.

REFERENCES:

1.  ‘To protect the future, hold China to account’, Lewis Libby and Logan A rank in The National Review, March 21, 2020

2.  ‘Why do new disease outbreaks always seem to start in China’, Ross Pomeroy in Real Clear Science, March 2020.

3.  COVID-19 Tracking Dashboard from The Center for Systems Science and Engineering at John Hopkins University.

 4. ‘New York will create more temporary Hospitals to handle surge in COVID-19 Patients’, Alexis Lardieri, USA Today, March 27th, 2020.

 5.  ‘Medtronic expands respiratory remote monitoring solutions in fight against COVID-19’, Medtronic Press Release, March 27th, 2020.

6. ‘Apple releases new COVID-19 app and website based on CDC guidance’, Apple Press Release, March 27th, 2020.

7. ‘Detect COVID-19 in as little as 5 minutes’, Abbott Labs Press Release, March 27th, 2020.

8. ‘What happened at 4 health systems when Telehealth demand spiked’, Laura Dyrda in Becker’s Hospital Review, March 26th, 2020.

 9. 'Precision Medicine and Population Health Management (PHM)', blogpost by Andy Dé, August 2016.

#HIMSS20 #COVID19 #RapidPandemicResponse #SupplyChainDisruption #ArtificialIntelligence #AI #HealthcareAnalytics #AIAnalyticsConvergence #ClinicalQuality #PopulationHealth #ACO #HealthcareQuality #EvidenceBasedMedicine #PrecisionMedicine #PersonalizedHealthcare #ValueBasedCare