#HIMSS24 Musings – Empowering Physicians, Nurses & Patients with Unified, Continuous Patient Monitoring, Simulation and Artificial Intelligence (AI)

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, and especially my friend Brian Norris MBA, RN, FHIMSS , who is a licensed nurse, morphed into a Chief Nursing Informatics Officer (CNIO), Healthcare CIO/CTO and Value-Based Care (VBC) Thought Leader who I am indeed fortunate to call my friend – God bless them!

'Nurse, Physician & Caregiver Empowerment' was a Key Theme at the 2024 HIMSS National Conference in Orlando, Florida.

Having just returned from the 2024 HIMSS National Conference focused on the 'Future of Healthcare' in Orlando, Florida, from the 11th to the 14th of March, 2024, which was smaller than previous conferences especially from the pre-Pandemic era, it is time to reminisce and call out some of the pre-eminent themes and key takeaways from this year’s conference.

A recent study by Brigham and Women’s Hospital investigators published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine (JGIM) , based on a survey of over 15,000 physicians and 11,000 nurses as well as more than 5,000 other clinical staff such as pharmacists, nursing assistants, therapists, medical assistance or social workers and over 11,000 non-clinical staff including housekeeping, administrative staff, lab technicians or food staff found that although much focus has been place on physician and nurse burnout, the COVID-19 pandemic increased stress across the entire healthcare workforce [1].

Approximately 50 percent of all respondents reported burnout, with the highest levels among nurses (56 percent) and other clinical staff (54.1 percent) reporting burnout. Intent to leave the job was reported by 28.7 percent of healthcare workers, with 41 percent of nurses, 32.6 percent of non-clinical staff and 31.1 percent of clinical staff reporting the sentiment. The intent to leave was higher for both physicians and nurses in an in-patient setting compared to out-patient settings [1].

The prevalence of perceived work overload ranged from 37.1 percent among physicians to 47.4 percent in other clinical staff.?And this work overload was significantly associated with both burnout and intent to leave the job [1].

Given these sobering, jaw dropping statistics, witnessing 'Nurse, Physician and Caregiver Empowerment' as a key theme at the #HIMSS24 National Conference, brought to life thru unified, continuous patient monitoring, virtual nurse-clinician-patient engagement, as well as analytics+artificial intelligence (AI) to automate time-consuming administrative tasks like note taking via voice-to-text transcription enabled by Generative AI, with automated data entry into Electronic Health Records (EHRs), all of which were amply in evidence on the #HIMSS24 exhibition floor, was intuitive and re-assuring from an innovation perspective.

I had the opportunity to shoot short video vignettes of some of these innovative solutions on the #HIMSS24 show floor with my new vlogging camera, and have embedded these Instagram reels in the narratives below (for the very first time) that I hope, will be valuable for my audience.

Approximately 50 percent of all respondents reported burnout, with the highest levels among nurses (56 percent) reporting burnout. Intent to leave the job was reported by 28.7 percent of healthcare workers, with 41 percent of nurses reporting the sentiment. The intent to leave was higher for both physicians and nurses in an in-patient setting compared to out-patient settings.

Instagram reel manifesting the vibe on the exhibition floor at the 2024 HIMSS National Conference at the Orlando Convention Center.

1. Unified Continuous Patient Monitoring with Simulation to empower Anesthesiologists, Clinicians and Nurses from Masimo and Philips Healthcare?

I had the ability to check out unified, continuous patient monitoring of cardiovascular patients on Masimo scanners with sensors that offered up a holistic view of the patient’s brain, heart and lungs juxtaposed against his / her vital signs on a giant monitor above the patient which could be accessed by a bed side nurse or clinician, an anesthesiologist preparing to sedate the patient, or remotely in a patient monitoring control room as captured by me in these photos and the instagram video below.

Masimo's Clinical Patient Monitoring Systems and Sensors on display at #HIMSS24. Courtesy: Masimo.

3D view of the Patient's brain, heart and lungs unified with his/her vital signs on a giant monitor above the patient's bed, for an unified view by a bedside nurse or clinician, an anesthesiologist preparing to sedate the patient, or remotely in a patient monitoring control room - photos above and video below courtesy Masimo.

?A collaboration between Masimo and Philips Healthcare has enabled integration of Masimo’s clinical monitoring technology within Philips InteliVue monitors, which not only enables simultaneous monitoring of 15 biomarkers, but also the ability to simulate the impact of one or more of these biomarkers rising or falling above or below their stipulated thresholds and their potential impact on other biomarkers in multi-morbid patients.

This is a compelling solution targeting nurses, clinicians and anesthesiologists in bedside or remote monitoring settings, to enable them to monitor, measure, analyze and proactively respond to unforeseen acute events especially in in-patient ER/OR settings, as showcased in my Instagram reel below.

Continuous Patient Monitoring and Simulation for Nurses, Physicians and Anesthesiologists from Philips. Courtesy: Philips Healthcare

2. Empowering Nurses and Clinicians with Automated Mobile Nurse and Physician Clinical Note Taking, Editing and Entry into Electronic Health Records (EHRs) powered by Co-Pilot / Generative AI from Microsoft/Nuance and Epic

From the hype around Generative AI as “the panacea to solving world hunger”, rapidly morphing into healthy skepticism re: widespread adoption given "hallucinations", the adoption of Gen AI in a healthcare context has significantly de-accelerated and is making way for hybrids of more mature modalities including machine learning, natural language generation/processing (NLG/NLP), deep learning and medical robotics.

However, Microsoft’s massive investments in Open AI’s Chat GPT and its evolution into GPT4 powered Co-Pilot embedded in all Microsoft Office products as well as those from Nuance Communications (acquired by MSFT) , and its recent high-profile partnership with Epic has raised expectations in the healthcare industry.

?My friend Brian Norris MBA, RN, FHIMSS and I had the opportunity to watch Co-Pilot powered DAX Express from MSFT/Nuance in action seamlessly capturing nurse and clinician notes via a cell phone running the application, turning it into text while editing out non-relevant content, with the ability to do final edits before automatically entering these notes into Epic’s electronic health record (EHRs) as showcased in this video below.

This is a significant step forward to alleviate nursing, clinician and physician fatigue and enabling them to spend less time on administrative tasks and more time with patients.

DAX Express from Microsoft/Nuance in action capturing clinician's notes on a mobile phone, with the ability to edit and then post automatically unto Epic and other electronic health records (EHRs). Courtesy: Microsoft/Nuance

3. Empowering Seniors and Chronically Ill Patients for 'Hospital at Home' Care with Sensors, Devices, Solutions, Platforms and Services from Best Buy

According to recent studies on ‘Americans aging in place’:

• 77% of adults over the age of 50 prefer to age in place. In 2020, only 1.2 million adults over 65 were residents in a nursing home [2]
• More than half (60%) of Americans age 65 and older lived with their spouse or partner in 2021, while 72% of older men (18 million) and 49% of older women (15 million) lived with their spouses and 27% (15.2 million) of all older adults lived alone (5.2 million men, 10.1 million women) in 2021. These individuals represent 21% of older men and 33% of older women [3]
• Within the past 20 years, the percentage of older adults living in nursing homes has declined while the percentage of older adults living in traditional housing has increased [4]
• 92% of older adults surveyed prefer to live out their later years in their current home, while 8% said they would prefer to live in an assisted living facility [5]

77% of adults over the age of 50 prefer to age in place. 92% of older adults surveyed prefer to live out their later years in their current home, while 8% said they would prefer to live in an assisted living facility. Within the past 20 years, the percentage of older adults living in nursing homes has declined while the percentage of older adults living in traditional housing has increased.

Given this reality reflected in these tell tale statistics, it was compelling to see at home patient monitoring solutions, platforms and services developed by Best Buy Health , to enable people to get well, stay well, and age well in the comfort of their own homes delivered via three brands – Lively, Geek Squad and Current Health - their platform for care at home from a recent acquisition .

Best Buy Health offers three complementary solutions for Wellness at Home, Aging at Home and Care at Home via a virtual care delivery model comprising medical devices, sensors and a hub to integrate all of the data and communicate with the senior’s or patient’s healthcare care/care coordination team at the hospital. Proactively monitoring these patients help prevent unforeseen events and serve to lower 30-60-90 day re-admission rates as well as length of stay (LOS) while ensuring that seniors and chronically ill patients can be cared for, in the comfort of their homes, with their near and dear ones.

Best Buy has partnered with Health Systems like Geisinger , Atrium Health , OSF Healthcare , Virtua Health , Mass General Brigham , and Baptist Health to deploy its 'Hospital at Home' solutions+services, and is seeing significant traction .

Who amongst us could have ever imagined that the fine folks from the Best Buy Geek Squad who fix your phones, computers, cameras and appliances with a smile, would be wiring up your home for Remote Patient Monitoring (RPM) and 'Hospital at Home' care?!

Please check out the Best Buy exhibit from #HIMSS24 in my Instagram reel below.

Home Health Monitoring Devices, Sensors, Platform and Services for Wellness at Home, Aging at Home and Care at Home from Best Buy at #HIMSS24.

NEOM from Saudi Arabia - The most captivating audio-visual experience at #HIMSS24

The most captivating audio-visual-sensory experience was that from NEOM the futuristic city in Saudi Arabia , (the brain child of Saudi Arabia's crown prince Mohammad bin Salman bin Abdulaziz) offering next generation manufacturing, hospitals, hospitality and entertainment to potentially transcend those offered by the Palm Jumeirah in Dubai, UAE , and turn this into the destination of choice for global companies seeking to penetrate or bolster their presence in the Middle-East. The exhibit at #HIMSS24 was designed to attract partners from the US to invest and collaborate with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in this ambitious project and transform this amazing vision into reality, and definitely got the attention it deserved.

In Summary….

This was my 16th HIMSS National Conference and as always, it offered me a plethora of fascinating and thought-provoking vistas into the future of healthcare innovation, and how technologies such as the ones articulated above, will serve to empower physicians, nurses and patients, alleviate physician + nurse burnout and enable meaningful clinician-patient engagement, culminating in superior patient outcomes.

I came away inspired and euphoric with tons of ideas re: how I can make a modest yet meaningful contribution to improve the quality of life for “Patients like us” and "leave my footprints in the sands of time".

?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.

#HIMSS24 #FutureofHealthcare #PhysicianEmpowerment #NurseEmpowerment #PhysicianFatigue #NurseBurnout #ArtificialIntelligence #AI #LLMs #HealthcareAnalytics #ContinuousPatientMonitoring #TeleHealth #GenerativeAI

REFERENCES

1.????Lisa Rotenstein, Roger Brown, Christine Sinsky and Mark Linzer, ‘The Association of Work Overload with Burnout and Intent to leave the Job across the Healthcare Workforce during COVID-19 ’, Journal of General Internal Medicine, March 23, 2023

2.?? Ratnayake M, Lukas S, Brathwaite S, Neave J, Henry H.?Aging in place. ?Delaware Journal of Public Health. 2022;8(3):28–31.

3.?? 2021 Profile of Older Americans. ?Administration for Community Living. Accessed 12/6/2023.

4.?? Toth M, Palmer L, Bercaw L, Voltmer H, Karon S.?Trends in the Use of Residential Settings Among Older Adults. ?The Journals of Gerontology. 2022;77(2):424-428.

5.??? Older adults’ preparedness to age in place. ?University of Michigan Institute for Healthcare Policy and Innovation. 2022.