by
Sean Ruck, Contributing Editor | February 13, 2011
From the January/February 2011 issue of HealthCare Business News magazine
Lieber: I think there are a couple particular highlights. The HIT X.0 Conference offers separately organized and presented series of demonstrations, content and contests and promises to be entertaining and informative. It’s aimed at subjects and an audience who might not have historically looked at HIMSS.
It had previously been viewed as a venue where the tried and true can be found in health IT. What we’re trying to do now is to bring forward what could be tried and true a few years from now. But we’re doing so in an entertaining way. We’ll be offering a couple of take-offs on some popular television – like Iron Chef (Iron Programmers) and one inspired by American Idol.
The second conference within a conference will be on accountable care organizations. It’s to assist attendees in recognizing the changes in the system where technology can drive the attainment of an accountable care organization.
A feature we’ve had for a number of years, the interoperability showcase, is always popular. About 100 different companies will be on hand showing the ability of their products to talk with a competitor’s product and displaying that ability in a real time live environment. The companies are required to prove their product by testing with us in advance, and showing the ability to move data from one network to another then they sign up for scenarios that take place at the conference. So a company with lab info space will sign up for a scenario with an EHR as well as another lab and maybe an imaging system.
DMBN: What challenges do you believe attendees will face in regards to health IT in the coming years?
Lieber: The biggest challenge will be the crush of activity that must be handled within the next three years. There are several major deadlines facing us that must be met — major changes in coding as the U.S. changes from ICD 9 to ICD 10, and on the financial side, another coding change is underway. If that’s not enough, requirements for meeting meaningful use start in five years to avoid penalties. We have the answers to these challenges, but the complexity will be dealing with all of these changes at once.
The one thing that’s most critical is the requirement to move to interoperability. In the past, anyone visiting a physician has been faced with walking in the door and being handed the clipboard. When you go to a health care practitioner, they should already know everything they need to know about you before you walk in the door. The biggest changes will be providing the knowledge to treat us and treat us right.
