I was in Philadelphia this week for the 2nd Annual Canada-US eHealth Summit (PDF). Now, this wasn’t a big conference like HIMSS. But it was a great opportunity to break open our silos and share knowledge and stories across the border. Plus, we got to hear from a handful of respected HIT leaders, including John Glaser, CEO of Siemens HIT, and David Levine, head of a major Canadian regional health agency.
Here are 15 highlights from the presentations.
- Ripped from the headlines: 1 out of 7 Medicare patients who are hospitalized face a major adverse event(involving risk of death). Another 1 out of 7 face a moderate adverse drug event (NY Times, 11-16-2010).
- Government is going for the “triple aim”: better health for the population, lower costs through improvement and better use of technologies, and better care for individuals.
- Contemporary quality improvement = rapid development cycle and rapid implementation.
- There is a tremendous need for data collection (PPACA: Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act).
- Hospital-acquired infections are still a major concern.
- Canadian healthcare market = $200 billion. About 2% goes to IT investments, stakeholders are looking to get it up to 4%.
- IT benefits in terms of savings and quality are now a given (little skepticism left among stakeholders). We’re now in implementation mode.
- For a status update of where HIT stands in Canada, check out the Canadian Medical Association website.
- The major driver for transforming healthcare is the payment model.
- “Quality will now determine your payment.” For this to happen, we need analytics capabilities.
- Prediction: decision support tools will grow significantly.
- Mobility could be helpful (iPhones, iPads, the new Blackberry Playbook…) but does not really work for clinicians: care happens in a physical space.
- Telemedecine in Ontario is advanced (the network they have is pretty impressive).
- Savings are extremely significant (travel and hospital visits).
- Wireless solutions bring lots of challenges: connections not reliable enough, most hospitals are going back to wired solutions in Pennsylvania.
The organizers mentioned that the presentations will be posted on the Pennsylvania eHealth Initiative website.