Engaging health IT vendors

Although my viewpoint is probably somewhat biased given my day job with a heath IT vendor, I hold the firm conviction that the health IT vendors have an important and valuable role to play in helping shape local, regional, provincial, and national health IT plans.   The extent to which organizations across Canada consult with vendors outside the formal procurement process varies considerably, though I am noting a gradual trend towards more meaningful engagement.

A number of healthcare IT organizations including Canada Health Infoway, Manitoba eHealth, and the Chief Health Information Officer’s office at the  Nova Scotia Department of Health, for example, hold periodic briefing sessions.   In addition, ITAC Health works with organizations such as eHealth Ontario to organize vendor information sessions.

As I have mentioned in previous blog posts, one of the more innovative organizations with respect to vendor engagement is the South West LHIN.  Shortly after joining the organization, Glenn Lanteigne, the LHIN CIO, instituted what he calls “Vendor Fridays”.  These 2 to 3 hour sessions provide an opportunity for vendors to offer insight into how their products and services can help the LHIN achieve its strategic objectives.  Equally important, these sessions provide a forum for vendors to chat with LHIN IT staff and interested provider stakeholders about their needs.

Not content with the information flow that “Vendor Fridays” has engendered, the South West LHIN recently invited vendors to participate in a “Consumer eHealth Innovation Day”.   This “public – private sector” workshop is the first of five workshops designed, in Glenn’s words, to “address real-life LHIN issues and explore how these types of solutions can help and how“.   Other topic areas that will be addressed in future workshops align with the LHIN eHealth strategy.  These areas include Capacity Management, Decision Support, Quality, and the Electronic Health Record.

The Consumer eHealth Innovation workshop will take place on Thursday, June 30th, at the University of Western Ontario’s Research Park Convention Centre.  You can find more details here or by calling 519-640-2592 or emailing Jordan.lange@LHINS.ON.CA.

What do you think of the South West LHIN’s efforts to meaningful engage health IT vendors?  Do you have any suggestions for how healthcare organizations can meaningfully engage health IT vendors?

Mike

 

eHealth 2011 – Take Part in the Conversation

Next week the annual Canadian eHealth conference (hosted this year by COACH, CIHI and Canada Health Infoway) will take place in Toronto.   While I expect there to be a record turnout for this event, many of you will be unable to attend for a variety of reasons.   No worries, a number of social media advocates like me will be attending.  We will tweet from the various sessions and write blog posts offering our thoughts and observations.

If you’d like to follow events at eHealth 2011, I encourage you to follow twitter hashtag #eHealth2011.  Conversations to date using this hashtag have been sporadic but I am hoping that you can help change this situation.   Please join in the conversation, whether you are attending the conference or are just interested interested in what is being discussed at the conference.

Mike

OCRI IT in Healthcare: Canada Health Infoway Update

Want to learn more about what is happening at Canada Health Infoway and, perhaps more importantly, ask questions to an Infoway executive?  If you live in the Ottawa area, you have an opportunity to do so at the monthly OCRI IT in Healthcare seminar on May 25th.  Our guest this month is Shelagh Maloney, Executive Director, External Liaison, Consumer Health and Innovation.  Ms. Maloney will provide an update on the progress of the pan-Canadian electronic health record implementation. You can more details about this event here.

The OCRI IT in Healthcare seminar series facilitates the exposure and exchange of experiences and ideas.  The seminars are targeted at health care providers, policymakers, IT entrepreneurs, technology developers, and students. The focus is on technologies that have actually been implemented; IT infrastructure development efforts and their costs/benefits; technology adoption experiences; and new public initiatives to support IT in health care. Speakers represent a cross-section from the life sciences community including vendors and developers of technology, researchers, and public officials.

Mike

Infoway turns to the “crowd” for ideas

I first heard about this idea last fall and thought it was a great way to engage a wider audience in coming with new ideas for how to use IT to transform healthcare services delivery. Infoway’s ImagineNation ideas challenges offers cash prizes for “bold, new ideas – or creative combinations of existing ideas.”

Ideas will be evaluated according to four criteria:

1. Impact on Health and Health Care in Canada (30%)
2. Innovation & Originality (30%)
3. Effective Use of Technology (20%)
4. Feasibility (20%)

A total of $35,000 in prize money is available and will be awarded as follows:

• $100 for up to 50 top ideas
• $250 for the idea that receives the most votes from Canadians (“Canada’s Choice” Award)
• $5,000 for each of up to 5 top finalists
• An additional $5,000 for the winning idea

The top ideas will be announced July 5th just after the Canada Day long weekend.   You can find more details here.

According to Infoway, they plan to “promote the leading ideas” though the exact details of how they will do so have not been specified.  As well, they are “considering future initiatives that may be informed by the best ideas“.

Overall, I think that the notion of a public “challenge” is a good way to raise greater awareness of the impact that IT can have on healthcare and to more meaningfully engage Canadians in Infoway’s mission.   The US First Lady, Michelle Obama, issued a similar challenge last year to develop mobile applications to combat childhood obesity and not only raised awareness about this growing problem but also stimulated development of some innovative mobile applications.

I do wish that the public input would have a greater impact on selecting the winning ideas.  Perhaps a more substantial cash award could be associated with the “people’s choice”.  Or, maybe the criteria could be adjusted so that public voting would factor into the choice of the top winners.

Mike

 

 

Infoway launches blog

With little fanfare, Canada Health Infoway recently put a toe in the social media waters with the launch of its new blog; check it out by clicking the ”blog” link on the Infoway home page (www.infoway.ca).

I have been making the case (some say I am “advocating while others are suggesting that I nagging or even badgering) for increased use of social media by organizations such as Infoway and eHealth Ontario for the better part of the past year.  As it turns out, these organizations are proceeding slowly and cautiously.  Given the pitfalls and dangers that accompany the many benefits of using social media, their methodical approach to implementing social media is understandable.

I encourage you to read and contribute to the Infoway blog; I have already posted several comments.  Social media works best when there is an active conversation and I know that the people responsible for social media at Infoway truly want to create an active dialog with as wide a group of stakeholders as possible. So, here is your chance to put them to the test!

Mike

Barriers to Health IT Adoption

According to a recent iHealthBeat article, Dr. David Blumenthal, the U.S. National Coordinator for Health IT, identified four barriers to health IT adoption in the US in a recent speech.  These barriers include:

• A lack of adequate funds;
• Not having the necessary infrastructure to support the exchange of health information;
• Concerns among health care providers about what type of EHR system to purchase and whether it will become outdated; and
• The need to convince the general public that health information will be exchanged privately.

In the same speech, Dr. Blumenthal stated that many of these challenges will be full or partially addressed by the various initiatives driven by HITECH Act funding.

Does Canada face similar challenges to the US regarding adoption of health IT?  Are our various funding programs (provincial EMR programs, Infoway programs, etc) addressing the Canadian challenges or are additional initiatives required?

Mike

Social Media and Canadian eHealth Organizations – A Rant

I recently attended an event at which a senior eHealth leader and decision maker suggested that “people aren’t interested in what I had for breakfast” when asked about his organization’s plans for social media.  He then went on to explain why social media wasn’t an appropriate vehicle for communicating updates on what is happening within his organization.

I was annoyed at this person’s flippant response that perpetuates a common misconception about Twitter and feel that I needed to respond.  I have opted not identify this person because (a) I hold him in high regard and see no need to embarrass him to make a point and (b) the sentiment that he has expressed has been espoused by other senior eHealth leaders and decision makers.

I am not surprised by the general reaction to social media among many eHealth leaders and decision makers. I saw similar reactions to e-mail and the web in the 1990′s when the Internet started to hit the mainstream.  Social media is still, in many ways, a new technology that many people don’t understand how to use to their advantage and therefore find it easy to poke fun at.

Social media encompasses a wide range of technologies including Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, blogs, and YouTube to name just a few.  I have found each of them to be indispensable in my day to day work.  I am constantly amazed at  the new and innovative ways that organizations both public and private are using social media as a tool to meet business objectives.

I have heard many people complain recently that we as a community are not doing a good job at informing each other and the  public about the many effective uses of health IT across Canada.  Many of these projects are small, local initiatives funded not through federal or provincial programs but from existing organizational budgets.   I have also heard the same eHealth leaders and decision makers who are wary of social media talk about these projects in one-on-one discussions or public presentations.  Imagine if they each started a blog and, on a regular basis, shared their discoveries with a larger audience?   I contend that having such influential and high profile people blogging about the effective uses of IT that they personally witness would do more to raise the profile of these projects than just about any other public awareness campaign.

One my favourite bloggers is Dr. John Halamka, Chief Information Officer of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Chief Information Officer at Harvard Medical School, Chairman of the New England Healthcare Exchange Network (NEHEN), Chair of the US Healthcare Information Technology Standards Panel (HITSP)/Co-Chair of the HIT Standards Committee, and a practicing Emergency Physician.  Dr. Halamka’s “Life as a Healthcare CIO” blog not only offers interesting insights into the many ways in which HIT is shaping the delivery of healthcare but also offers glimpses into Dr. Halamka’s personal interests and philosophies.   I enjoy the opportunity to get to know Dr. Halamka as person as well as a CIO.

What are your thoughts on the use of social media by Canadian eHealth organizations?  Do you think that agencies like eHealth Ontario or Canada Health Infoway could benefit from more aggressive use of social media?

Mike

PS – Since publishing this blog post, I came across yet another fan of John Halamka’s blog. Check out this article in Health Data Management.

Canadian eHealth Leadership

At the itHealthcare Canada conference and exhibition organized by HIMSS Ontario earlier this month, one of the keynote speakers, Dr. Kevin Leonard, questioned whether we have the appropriate leadership in Canada to aggressively drive deployment and effective use of eHealth applications.  While munching on some leftover turkey this weekend, I was catching up on various blogs that I read and came across a post on the eHealthCentral blog on that caused me to think about Kevin’s comments regarding eHealth leadership in Canada.

The eHealthCentral blog post mused about the current situation in Australia. Like Infoway in Canada, the National E-Health Transition Authority (NEHTA) in Australia attempting to coordinate eHealth deployment.   The eHealthCentral blog post notes concerns that “NEHTA’s powers are to some extent limited by its structure, and by the fact that there are too many government instrumentalities that have a finger in the ehealth pie, and too many vested interests at work in the industry.”   The blog post further explores the complex environment in Australia, noting that:

“At a national level you’ve got DOHA setting policy for the primary care sector. At the State and jurisdictional level you’ve got State governments setting their own priorities and policies for the hospital sector. You’ve got Medicare, which is a division of the Department of Human Services. If you were trying to bake a cake with those ingredients, you’d have a persistent problem of them separating out.”

Trisha Greenlagh, a noted commentator on the UK eHealth market, suggested to the eHealthCentral blog author that “Australian ehealth needed a publicly identified leader at the helm.”  Ms. Greenlagh stated that “We don’t really want a formal leadership structure” but, rather, “de-centred” leadership with a clearly identified spokesperson who can “articulate what is going on.”.  She suggests that “It wouldn’t necessarily be the big guy on the big salary who is in charge. It would be a little more subtle and de-centred, just like as in an ant colony, where there is no chief executive ant. I do think a lot of the leadership will be from clinicians.”

Given the many criticisms leveled at Canada Health Infoway, I do wonder if perhaps are expecting too much from one organization, particularly given its governance structure.  As Trisha Greenlagh notes, there are substantial benefits to having a recognized spokesperson, like Dr. Blumenthal in the US, who can tell the eHealth story in a compelling manner that catalyzes action and rallies support across disparate stakeholder communities.

Mike

Knowing is Better – Infoway Public Awareness Campaign

Canada Health Infoway formally launched its “Knowing is Better” public awareness campaign today.  According to background information provided by Infoway, this campaign is “designed to educate and inform the public about the benefits of electronic health record (EHR) systems“.  The campaign includes a website and print, online, and TV advertisements.  As well, an invitation only “Showcase of Success” that will demonstrate real-world EHR success stories to senior federal bureaucrats, MPs, and Senators  is planned for the January-February time frame.

Over the summer my colleague Michael Power and I debated the merits of an Infoway sponsored public awareness campaign.  Check out Michael’s views here and my views here.  What are your views on this campaign?  Is it worthwhile?  What do you think of the creative content?

Mike

Observations on the Canadian EMR Market

At the end of August I published a blog post entitled “Meaningful Engagement” in which I explored lessons that might be learned from the US process for defining “meaningful use”. In that blog post I reference an article entitled “Certification of Primary Care Electronic Health Records: Lessons Learned from Canada” written by Dr. Mark Dermer and Dr. Matthew Morgan. Although the article offers insights on the engagement process that led to the definition of meaningful use, its primary purpose is to explore the Canadian EMR certification process. In their assessment of Canadian EMR programs, Drs. Dermer and Morgan assert that “the significant variation in which products are chosen in competitions that use very similar specifications (derived from Infoway’s POSR) calls into question the process by which products are evaluated“. To further illustrate the points made in the article, I analyzed data that I have collected on the Canadian EMR market and offer the following observations for consideration:

• According to Dr. Alan Brookstone from CanadianEMR, there are approximately 35 vendors offering some form of EMR solution to Canadian physicians.
• Nearly all of the 35 EMR vendors are Canadian companies.
• Sixteen or slightly less than half of these vendors have products that have been certified by one or more of the six provincial EMR programs (BC, AB, SK, MB, ON, and NS).
• None of the sixteen certified vendors has products which are certified by all six provincial EMR programs.
• Only one vendor has product which has been certified by four of the six provincial programs.
• The majority (62%) of the 16 vendors whose products have been certified by a provincial program have only been certified by a single program.

Mike