Dear Community, Wow!! What an incredible conference together just a few weeks ago.
Over the last few weeks, I’ve met with a number of people to hear their key takeaways. Here are some themes and trends that stood out to me. What do you think? What needs or problems are you seeing for our community to solve? (Yes, even if you couldn’t attend the conference!)
Which of these themes/trends are you also seeing? (Described in detail below)
- Major Funding & Decision Maker Shift
- Hunger for a Comprehensive Solution
- Integration is More Popular Than Ever
- Increased HIE Demands
- High Interest in Cloud Hosting
- Shift in Data Mindset: Data for care, not just reporting
- Rising Interest in CDS & AI
- Increased Data Frequency Demand
- Point of Care has become the norm
- Tablets!
- Low Infrastructure / Connection Down-time Support
- Emerging use of Primary Care Networks (PCNs)
- Government CyberSecurity Fears & Patient Data Protection
- Concern over burden of work for Healthcare Workers
- Other (please add in this thread!)
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Trends we’re seeing…
- Major Funding & Decision Maker Shift: Primary decider of eHealth Systems is now National Government e.g. Ministry of Health (this is also demonstrated by PEPFAR’s stated priorities). MoH’s want a holistic system; will not endorse a disease-centric system. (This excellent panel of Ministry representatives really drove this home for me.)
- Hunger for a Comprehensive Solution: MoH’s are looking for “more than just an EMR”: A complete package, a comprehensive solution, that also has things like billing, stock.
- Integration is More Popular Than Ever: Implementations are using cross-platform integrations more than ever (eg with DHIS2, HIE components).
- Increased HIE Demands: HIE components are on the rise, such as Client Registries/MPIs, SHRs, and NHDDs and Terminology Registries (especially amidst rising UHC/insurance coverage where they need standardized codes). Cross-border use cases are also on the rise.
- High Interest in Cloud Hosting: Cloud hosting, centralization, and multitenancy are terms being used by all major decision makers. This includes distributed management of many installations, such as by a single implementer.
- Shift in Data Mindset: Data for care, not only accountability & reporting. This comes with the “complete package” interest: Giving clinicians more complete access to data.
- Rising Interest in CDS & AI: Many mentions by decision makers of Clinical Decision Support and the potential of AI. Unclear how much mentions of AI are solely driven by hype, vs practical use cases.
- Increased Data Frequency Demand: We now hear groups using terms like “We check on this metric Once Per Day or Live-Time”, where we used to hear “Quarterly” or “Monthly”, or at most, “Weekly”.
- Point of Care has become the norm. Where “just enter a form” or “use a register as a backup” used to be the norm, this has significantly changed.
- Tablets: Governments are funding massive purchases of tablet hardware, sometimes even with encouragement from PEPFAR (As one government speaker shared: “they told us to take the $ we’re spending printing registers and spend it on tablets”). This seems partly related to bypassing infrastructure challenges such as built-in battery, SIM card support, and being portable (move from offline to a spot with Wifi or power to upload data or charge). It’s worth noting; we notice tablets procured can be quite old and low-spec.
- Low Infrastructure Support: Governments and Implementers report it’s mission-critical for the system to persist amidst internet downtime.
- Other Early Emerging Trends to watch:
- Emerging use of Primary Care Networks (PCNs) as structural model for organizing regional care & cross-site, cross-discipline referrals: “Smart PCNs” for digitally connected, and “Sub-PCNs” where large networks have more granular needs. The impact we predict: OMRS will need more formalized discharge documentation, IPS support, and e-referrals for cross-site and cross-specialties.
- Government/Organizational CyberSecurity Fears & Patient Data Protection: We see early signs of future interest in practical rather than just theoretical Cybersecurity fears. For now this still tends to be theoretical or a side topic rather than a funded priority; though there is a rising number of implementers wanting very detailed privileges. Regulatory requirements range from extremely unclear to overburdensome; many mention using GDPR or HIPPA as their proxy. (The most pragmatic action we see happening is where an Org’s insurance provider requires certain CyberSec measures e.g. MFA)
- Concern over burden of work for Healthcare Workers, especially when many are also using technology at the point of care for the first time.