Innovating Infrastructure

Written by Michelle Stansbury

At Houston Methodist , we pride ourselves on providing unparalleled safety, quality, service, and innovation.?Innovation in healthcare does not come without its challenges and one of the biggest hurdles is creating a robust, scalable and maintainable technology infrastructure to support the many different use-cases, workflows, devices and software used to provide healthcare services.?

As Vice President of IT Applications and Innovation, I serve in a dual role where I oversee many of our innovation projects and initiatives while also managing day-to-day operations of system wide information technology applications.?This unique job structure was implemented for a reason within our Center for Innovation; we want all of our innovation work to be directly tied to hospital operations so that decision making and implementation occur seamlessly.

Hospital infrastructure is often overlooked as a key aspect of the healthcare innovation journey.?In addition to being flexible and easy to maintain, this infrastructure needs to be secure to ensure that patient data remains confidential and that systems are widely available and reliable. It is something we had to learn when trying to deploy innovative solutions in our hospitals.

?Infrastructure consists of several important components including:

1) Network (wired, wireless and voice)

• Build a modern network and voice infrastructure to support IOT devices
• Needs large bandwidths and high-speed networks to support large data, voice, and video communications and transactions
• Supports real-time communication between clinical teams
• Accommodates all devices - desktop, mobile, tablets, etc.
• Enable for consumers, vendor partners, and patients using an omni-channel approach

2) Segmentation

• Separate dedicated networks for specific devices or applications
• Allows for better control over inbound and outbound network traffic
• Reduces the risk of data breaches or unauthorized access to data

?3) Security

• Adheres to regulatory policies and procedures to protect patient and personal data
• Protects against and mitigates cyber threats including continuous system monitoring
• Employs security technologies to protect networks
• Aligns with the National Institute of Science and Technology (NIST) Cybersecurity Framework (CSF) and ISO 27000 standards

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4) Adaptability, Agile and Scalability

• Upgrade systems to support evolving innovation technology trends
• Supports digital transformation by investing in new compute, virtualization and storage systems using hyper-converged platforms for data processing and analysis required by new emerging tech like artificial intelligence, robotic process automation, natural language processing, etc.
• Exchange data and information between different computer systems for mature application program interfaces, HL7 interfaces, and Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR)

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5) Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery

• Develops mature business continuity and disaster recovery processes
• Conducts business continuity and disaster recovery drills and exercises
• Understands the fail-points from a “Systems” perspective
• Ensures team members understand the importance of business continuity

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Houston Methodist was recently named one of America’s Most Innovative Companies 2023 by Fortune , coming in at the #3 spot within the hospitals and health systems category.?Our commitment to creating an innovation culture permeates throughout the entire organization from our executives to our clinicians to our on-site staff, even including much of the work that occurs behind the scenes such as ensuring a strong technology infrastructure.?As we bring in new products and processes to our hospitals which are helping us create the smart hospital of the future, rest assured that there is an entire team of experts working simultaneously and diligently to innovate our infrastructure.??