Diversity in HIT – #HITsm Chat Topic

We’re excited to share the topic and questions for this week’s #HITsm chat happening Friday, 8/18 at Noon ET (9 AM PT). This week’s chat will be hosted by Jeanmarie Loria (@JeanmarieLoria) from @advizehealth on the topic of “Diversity in HIT.”

Diversity has positioned itself at the forefront of social awareness for quite some time now, the apparent need for it heightened by the socio-political climate…but what exactly is diversity? Is it offering apples and oranges? Is it a mélange of people with different experiences and perspectives? Is it working to ensure that your practice or firm meets the standards of an equal opportunity employer? Diversity, in fact, is all of these things and more. Diversity is a noun, a controversy, a buzzword, and most importantly – a social responsibility that we as responsible citizens and harbingers of care should not take lightly.

Healthcare as an industry is inherently diverse, as both health and the subsequent care associated with it are universal needs. Accessibility, method of receipt, measures, and types of care may vary within each community – but the need for healthcare, of any kind, is an absolute. This is why the lack of diversity in healthcare and its peripheral workforces is so perplexing. Diverse needs should equate to diverse solutions; especially where technology plays an integral role. Consider for a moment the diversity (or lack thereof) in the tech industry. Does it parallel healthcare’s own diversity problem? To an extent, yes.

Enter the world of Healthcare IT and you’ll observe a similar deficit. Healthcare IT, an industry born out of the need for diverse solutions in data sharing, patient privacy, and quality of care is progressive in its achievements with the implementation of EHR, the utilization of AI to improve care delivery, and efforts to protect private information, but there is always room for improvement.

This chat will facilitate a discussion on how diversity applies to Healthcare IT considering both the workforce and the technologies developed; and will examine perspectives on diversity in Healthcare IT from those who eat, sleep, and breathe it.

Questions we will explore in this week’s #HITsm chat include:
T1: What words or phrases come to mind when you hear the term “diversity”? #HITsm #Diversity

T2: How is Healthcare IT affected by diversity in any capacity, and have we already seen an impact on the industry from diversity initiatives? #HITsm

T3: How can diversity be leveraged to improve patient care and/or outcomes? #HITsm

T4: Has the recent push for diversity had any NEGATIVE impacts on Healthcare IT? #HITsm

T5: Which is more important to the goals of Healthcare IT: diverse technologies or diverse people? #HITsm

Bonus: Should diversity in Healthcare IT be heralded as a priority, and how is your firm working towards achieving that goal? #HITsm

Upcoming #HITsm Chat Schedule
8/25 – Consumer Data Liquidity – The Road So Far, The Road Ahead
Hosted by Greg Meyer (@Greg_Meyer93)

9/1 – Digital Strategies for Improving Consumer Experience
Hosted by Kyra Hagan (@HIT_Mktg_Maven from @InfluenceHlth)

9/8 – Digital Health Innovation in Pharma
Hosted by Naomi Fried (@naomifried

We look forward to learning from the #HITsm community! As always, let us know if you’d like to host a future #HITsm chat or if you know someone you think we should invite to host.

If you’re searching for the latest #HITsm chat, you can always find the latest #HITsm chat and schedule of chats here.

About the author

John Lynn

John Lynn is the Founder of HealthcareScene.com, a network of leading Healthcare IT resources. The flagship blog, Healthcare IT Today, contains over 13,000 articles with over half of the articles written by John. These EMR and Healthcare IT related articles have been viewed over 20 million times.

John manages Healthcare IT Central, the leading career Health IT job board. He also organizes the first of its kind conference and community focused on healthcare marketing, Healthcare and IT Marketing Conference, and a healthcare IT conference, EXPO.health, focused on practical healthcare IT innovation. John is an advisor to multiple healthcare IT companies. John is highly involved in social media, and in addition to his blogs can be found on Twitter: @techguy.

   

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