In 2020, the year of COVID-19, health system IT departments were in reactive mode – dealing with and reacting to data requests, staffing challenges, and capacity strain, while supporting the pandemic response. In the coming months, we will see a completely different world, with vaccination roll-out, a new federal administration[…]
12 Steps to Prepare for 2021 – Big Challenges – Bigger Opportunities
2020 has been a year like no other. Though I’m very optimistic about the sun shining brightly in the future there are still some lingering clouds in the sky. IT professionals frequently refer to their work in 3 parts – people, process, and technology. I want to focus on people[…]
Importance of disaster recovery at home and at work
“Crack!!”, a loud sound, as I sat in front of my home PC, startled me. My anxiety increased when I looked down and saw that the 2 TB external drive I had stored 50,000 family photos (from past 20 yrs) on, had dropped 18 inches from the precarious perch on[…]
Digital Health – Language and Comprehension
Digital Health transformation has been underway for some time now. It’s changing health and care processes, dramatically improving the availability of data, information, and knowledge. There is, however, a barrier that exists between many caregivers and their patients – language – the fundamental requirement for effective communication. Effective communication ensures[…]
Digital Health – The Role of Empathy and Understanding
As digital health expands its presence in our lives, healthcare and IT professionals should be simultaneously enthusiastic and cautious. Advances in healthcare IT have been astonishing. During the pandemic, those remarkable advances allowed healthcare providers to respond quickly in ways we could not have done just a few years ago. […]
An interim CMIO can bridge a critical and unique clinical gap
The one constant of healthcare is change, and change is always difficult. Healthcare systems, large and small, need to manage change in how they care for their communities and in the individual leaders they have supporting care delivery. It is important to maintain continuity when an individual leader leaves an[…]
Value of interim leadership during this time of healthcare transformation
The need for interim leadership can arise for any number of reasons, planned or unplanned. Interim leaders pave the way for the success of others – the eventual new leader, certainly, but also for the organization and all its stakeholders. Having recently served as an interim CIO in an organization[…]
Effective EHR Optimization in 2020
Though there is a surge in COVID-19 cases, many organizations are adjusting to the ‘new normal’ or at least the ‘normal for now’. Many of us are now going back to revisit what was on our list of 2020 projects. I would hazard a guess that many have ‘EHR optimization’[…]
Digital Health – Governance in a Digital Health System
In a previous blog, I defined the digital health system that delivery systems need to implement in the next three years in order to function, thrive, and fulfill their mission. In another blog, I listed some of the attitudes and activities systems will need to get there. Here I will[…]
Using Sound Processes to Address Top Cyber Risks
Cybersecurity is a broad and complex concept. It involves wide-ranging and growing risks that impact all businesses. Similarly, the list of measures that must be taken to mitigate, or at least reduce, these risks is growing in size and complexity. Like any other unwieldy topic, practitioners have broken the broad[…]