My 8 Key Takeaways from HIMSS23

Attending HIMSS23 in my hometown of Chicago was particularly poignant for me as I am ending my final Director term on the HIMSS Americas Board of Advisors. It has been a privilege to see, firsthand, the benefit of sharing global leading practices to improve the digital maturity across the Americas and beyond. Boosted by the pandemic, digital health is no longer a ‘nice to have’ but rather an essential element underpinning all modern health systems. Here are my 8 key takeaways from HIMSS23:

1. AI is everything everywhere all at once

The state of embedded AI in most solutions has advanced significantly since last year – from automated clinical documentation to clinical decision support to population health management - and Generative AI was the hot topic in nearly every presentation about everything! As intriguing as these new developments are, there seemed to be more focus on the technology and less on the ethics, policy governance and change management required to drive actions based on the new insights.

?

2. Healthcare borders are broadening

Interoperability was still a focus at HIMSS23, as it has been every year, but this time the focus shifted beyond APIs for connecting systems within and between hospital networks to expanding integration to broader care settings. The Interoperability Showcase demonstrated the importance of connecting primary care EMRs, public health vaccine and surveillance solutions, community mental health platforms and into the home to support a 360-degree experience of health consumers, just to name a few. Whether you believe that platforms or point solutions will prevail, no single solution has yet to do it all. Getting this right underpins new care delivery models in support of population health management.

?

3. Workforce challenges will take a village

The continued struggles of health systems to address workforce challenges pervaded nearly every presentation, panel discussion and vendor demo. Strategies and digital tools to reduce clinician burnout, staff wellness and retention were top of mind for both public and private sector healthcare organizations. While the health workforce problem has existed long before COVID-19 and may take a generation to reset, it gave me great hope to see evidence of cross-sector collaboration across providers, payers, policymakers, and educators to lean in together to drive real change and share learnings across global jurisdictions.

?

4. Moving at the speed of Cloud

The narrative around cloud seems to be evolving. While most vendor solutions at HIMSS were ‘cloud first,’ there is a recognition that few, if any, health systems have really been able to transition their IT ecosystems to the cloud at the speed they initially thought they could. SaaS and hyper-scaler vendors are providing more flexibility to accommodate hybrid-on premise hosting, multi-cloud environments, IT cloud management capability development and alternative financing strategies to help bolster our relatively lagging (compared to other industries) pace of modernization.

?

5. Device management is like gardening where 100,000 flowers bloom

As all CIOs know, management of IT assets is standard work. But the definition of “assets” has exploded with the proliferation of biomedical devices, IoT sensors on everything and connected solutions for remote patient monitoring. The operating model for end-to-end lifecycle management, preventative maintenance, vendor contract management and capital planning require more sophisticated approaches to deal with the quantum of technology that now comprise the digital health landscape. It also requires higher levels of collaboration between IT, security (see next), clinical, finance and procurement teams.

?

6. Trust and risk are two sides of the same coin

The Cybersecurity Command Center dominated the exhibitor floor with new and exciting innovations to improve the cybersecurity posture of health systems. The key mantra was “not if but when” and that being a trusted organization requires ongoing orchestration of both proactive AND reactive capabilities because bad things will happen to even the most diligent health systems and coming out of those incidents is a real test of leadership. Given the continued Board level of focus, cybersecurity commands a growing proportion of health leadership mindshare, budgets, and enterprise risk management attention.

?

7. New kids want to come to the cool party

Healthcare is big business and non-traditional industry sectors are waking up to the opportunity to generate value for patients, providers, and shareholders. Banks taking over revenue cycle management, big retailers running home health services and telcos driving virtual care were just a few examples. New forms of outsourcing and managed service business models are providing innovative approaches to addressing operational challenges, improve health consumer experience and drive quality of care.

?

8. The future of health is already here, but are we ready?

Many key topics covered in presentations – ESG, climate change, health equity, cultural safety, and public health surveillance - were noticeably underrepresented on the exhibitor floor. These are major issues that will shape the future of healthcare for generations to come. I was struck by this lag and that it likely reflects a mismatch between who pays and who benefits (or is impacted). As we saw through the pandemic, the digital divide is real. Real change to worldwide health and welfare requires multiple industries, communities, and governments to act together for the good of all mankind.

So, overall, another year of thought-provoking and inspiring advancements in technology and analytics to support new approaches to health and wellness. But ultimately, transformational change in healthcare will only happen when there is alignment between strategic goals, operational functions, workforce, policies, regulations, funding, and digital enablement. Let’s all work together so we can tell more of that story next year!