Focusing on HIMSS19 – Topics and Technologies to Advance Health Care
| Dustin Eubanks, Senior Manager of EHR Strategy
As February draws near, excitement for HIMSS19 grows. While the team at CoverMyMeds is always ready to engage with industry experts at the CoverMyMeds booth, we’re also looking forward to the opportunities to learn from various presenters on health care’s leading-edge topics, and to share our own thoughts as well.
I’ve been attending the HIMSS annual conference for three years and am confident that 2019 is going to be one of the best yet. After reviewing themes on the session agenda, here are a few key areas I’m looking forward to due to their importance in the future of health care and the well-being of patients and providers:
Provider Burnout & Alert Fatigue
The job of a health care provider while often rewarding, is not without stress. Caring for patients on a day-to-day basis and making difficult medical decisions is understandably challenging. Coupled with more and more pop-up alerts in EHR systems, it can add unnecessary stressors to the day to day. This is a serious issue that personally resonates with me as my mom is a nurse who suffered burnout from the burdensome prior authorization process (PA). Fortnately, electronic prior authorization (ePA) technology is now available to benefit people like her! Ensuring that electronic solutions and technological “alerts” are making providers’ lives easier, and not contributing to provider burnout, is a primary goal at CoverMyMeds. With “Champions of Health” a primary theme at HIMSS19, taking time to consider the health and well-being of providers is top priority. They are the real heroes, after all.
Notable sessions on this topic that we’ll be checking out include 69, 153, PE4 and 266.
Patients as Consumers (Consumerization of Health)
Technologies that put patients in charge of their health are becoming increasingly common in today’s digital age. Health care is evolving to align with other industries where consumers have options and can make decisions based on personal preference. Applications ranging from software that allows for prescription price shopping, to databases, portals and mobile applications for patients to access their health records and lab results, or even communicate with their provider remotely, are allowing patients to bypass traditional models for health care and better control their health care experience.
Through real-time benefit check (RTBC), patients are even gaining transparency into how much medications will cost at the doctor’s office, before ever arriving at the pharmacy. A major benefit of RTBC is that patients can voice what they can personally afford to their doctors during meaningful conversations at the point of prescribing. This two-way communication between providers and patients is further enhanced by the consumer health technologies described above! Giving patients upfront information on the price of their medications through RTBC solutions may cut-down on prescription abandonment and medication non-adherence. Check out the 2018 Real-Time Benefit Check National Adoption Scorecard for more data on the state of the industry.
Notable sessions on this topic that we’ll be checking out include 8, 218, IL01 and NI4. CoverMyMeds will also host a panel discussion at booth 3278 titled, “Industry Trends for Price Transparency at the Point of Prescribing” for those interested in how RTBC is changing the landscape of patient care.
Interoperability
For any relationship to work, communication is key and health care is no different. Efficient information exchange among health care stakeholders and data systems (e.g. electronic health records) may improve patient care – simplifying communication between a patient’s health care providers as well as helping protect the patient from potentially dangerous contraindications. Additionally, as more health care IT solutions are developed, improvements in interoperability will help ensure that more patients and stakeholders can enjoy the benefits immediately. The latest developments in application programming interfaces (API) for health care and fast healthcare interoperability resources (FHIR) are certainly major topics at HIMSS19 and I would love to see these technologies become successful standards and be wildly adopted industry-wide.
Notable sessions on this topic that we’ll be checking out include 20, 40 and 306.
Security
Improvements in collection, storage, management and utilization of health care data has led to breakthroughs in scientific research and patient care. Unfortunately, nefarious methods to hack or steal this information for criminal gain are also improving – leading to more sophisticated and aggressive cyberattacks on protected health information. Protecting the information of patients and other health care stakeholders is always top-of-mind at CoverMyMeds and insights into how other businesses approach this pervasive issue is always welcomed. Experts at HIMSS 2019 will explore how to secure precious data, mitigate data risks and reduce the damage caused by successful cyberattacks for businesses of all sizes, among other topics. We’re all ears.
Notable sessions on this topic that we’ll be checking out include CS41, CS10 and CS07.
There are always so many amazing conversations happening at HIMSS and this year will not be any different. We are eager to engage with experts on these topics and more, as well as to discuss solutions for such challenges facing health care in 2019. Visit booth 3278 to start a conversation!