The Mission Bay campus in San Francisco was abuzz with disruptive discussion on April 19th as technologists, health care providers, and health system executives came together for the Health Technology Forum Innovation Conference: Platforms for the Underserved.
Not only did the conference center around technology platforms, but it also served as a platform for leaders, ranging from patient advocates to frustrated Chief Medical Information Officers. These luminaries included:
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Amy Tenderich, Editor-in-Chief of DiabetesMine.com, diligently brought the patient perspective to the patient engagement panel. Amy shared her own story of diabetes diagnosis and her road to becoming a patient advocate. She was honest and direct about the fragmented healthcare system patients were still experiencing each day, and the crowd responded enthusiastically to her no-nonsense approach to discussing innovation and design. She was a refreshing reminder that it’s not about technology; it’s about people.
Jan Oldenburg, VP, Patient and Provider Engagement of Aetna’s Accountable Care Services, is one of the pioneers within HIMSS for patient engagement and is the author of HIMSS recent book, Engage! Transforming Healthcare Through Digital Patient Engagement. Even more impressive was Jan’s ability to translate her wide breadth of knowledge into concise, digestible guidance for those working to innovate for patients. She highlighted three key drivers of engagement: (1) convenience, (2) connection, and (3) relevant, timely data.
Yan Chow, MD, Director of Innovation and Advanced Technology at Kaiser Permanente, is one of the directors of the Garfield Innovation Center, a 37,000 sq. ft. simulated care delivery laboratory where new innovations and ideas can be tested for improved healthcare delivery. Dr. Chow has his ear to the heart of innovation and clinical testing, and was able to provide the panel with deep, well tested insights on telehealth. He stressed the importance of testing out an innovation in the clinical setting as well as the measurement complications that come along with new kinds of healthcare delivery methods. He left the audience with the questions, “Should we be measuring other outcomes of success, and, if so, what should they be?”
Gavin Newsom, Lt. Governor of the State of California, and recent author of Citizenville: How to Take the Town Square Digital and Reinvent Government, was the much anticipated afternoon keynote speaker. While the content of Gavin’s keynote focused more on government and citizenship than health care, he highlighted many of the same ideals that those in the healthcare innovation space champion: open data, grassroots action, and participatory change. He remarked openly about financial corruption in politics and spoke extensively on the de-geniusing effect of political office. He urged attendees to create change immediately, rather than waiting for some position of power, arguing that an individual’s moral power as a citizen is more powerful than the degeniused political power.
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The final panel of the day included four Chief Medical Information Officers who presented on the extreme IT challenges that face hospitals. The group’s discussion was candid, graceful, and had a great sense of humor, while never understating the complicated challenges they face as CMIO’s each day. Interestingly, the struggle for IT change appeared to be equal parts technical, financial, and personal. The panelists talked extensively about the psychology of change and the resistance they received when transitioning healthcare providers to a new system. The panel was moderated by Justin Graham, MD, MS, CMIO North Bay Healthcare, and included Mike Aratow, MD, CMIO, San Mateo Medical Center; Rajiv Pramanik, MD, CMIO, Contra Costa County Health Services; and Jenson Wong, MD, CMIO, San Francisco General Hospital.
The Health Technology Forum embodies the ideals of the health innovation movement, not just in its work, but also in its structure. The forum began as a periodic Meetup of like-minded health technology enthusiasts in 2010, and has been rapidly growing ever since. The group, now of well over 2200 individuals, has put on two conferences and is an active player in networking and collaboration for health innovation. In true grassroots fashion, the group’s primary convenings are still the Meetup’s, which are open to the public.