Next month, I and other AMA representatives will head to the largest health IT event in the industry—the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) 2015 Annual Conference. It’s a huge meeting of the top minds in health IT (nearly 38,000 attended last year), and we hope to discover new ways to advance innovation in the field, make a greater impact and improve outcomes. I have been asked to present the keynote speech at the Innovation Symposium from 8:15 to 9:15 a.m. Central time on April 12.
I’m an enormous proponent of physician-led health IT development. We, as physicians, are the best people to address the promises and problems of medical technology.
I always say this: Physician’s aren’t afraid of technology. We will always embrace innovative tech that actually improves patient care. We are also the first to push back when technology hinders our work.
This is why our Professional Satisfaction and Practice Sustainability initiative is so crucial. Through this work, we’re helping physicians successfully navigate the health care environment by promoting sustainable practices.
Physicians told us that electronic health records (EHR) in their current form just weren’t cutting it. They were creating more problems than solutions and contributing to professional dissatisfaction. We took this feedback and developed our framework for EHR usability, then listened to physicians again as they offered feedback on that framework. Now we’re using the product of the collective physician voice to work with vendors, policymakers, health care systems and researchers to drive EHR improvements that doctors will actually want to use to take better care of their patients.
For example, the AMA is a founder and participates in the board of Healtheway, a nonprofit, public-private collaborative that supports the eHealth Exchange. Healtheway seeks to expand the interoperable exchange of health information by working across industries—a mission that aligns with our work. We’re also a founder of Carequality, a new health IT collaborative unifying the industry to adopt a common interoperability framework. Both of these organizations will join us at HIMSS.
So that’s why we’ll be at HIMSS—listening, learning and ensuring the physician voice is well-represented in a sea of tech-focused developers. Supporting practical solutions and products for doctors to use in their daily care of patients, and providing feedback on innovative ideas that could transform the health care system.
I want to hear from you: Please send me suggestions for my keynote speech on innovation. What are the good and the bad that you see in using technology? Contact me by email or tweet at me @RobertWahMD.
