Some Of The Questions I Plan To Ask At #HIMSS18

As always, this year’s HIMSS event will feature enough noise, sound and color to overwhelm your senses for months afterward. And talk about a big space to tread — I’ve come away with blisters more than once after attending.

Nonetheless, in my book it’s always worth attending the show. While no one vendor or session might blow you away, finding out directly what trends and products generated the most buzz is always good. The key is not only to attend the right educational sessions or meet the right people but to figure out how companies are making decisions.

Below, here are some of the questions that I hope to ask (and hopefully find answers) at the show. If you have other questions to suggest I’d love to bring them with me to the show —  the way I see it, the more the merrier!

-Anne

Blockchain

Vendors:  What functions does blockchain perform in your solution and what are the benefits of these additions? What made that blockchain the best technology choice for getting the job done? What challenges have you faced in developing a platform that integrates blockchain technology, and how are you addressing them? Is blockchain the most cost-efficient way of accomplishing the task you have in mind? What problems is blockchain best suited to address?

Providers: Have you rolled out any blockchain-based systems? If you haven’t currently deployed blockchain technology, do you expect to do so the future? When do you think that will happen? How will you know when it’s time to do so? What benefits do you think it will offer to your organization, and why? Do you think blockchain implementations could generate a significant level of additional server infrastructure overhead?

AI

Vendors: What makes your approach to healthcare AI unique and/or beneficial?  What is involved in integrating your AI product or service with existing provider technology, and how long does it usually take? Do providers have to do this themselves or do you help? Did you develop your own algorithms, license your AI engine or partner with someone else deliver it? Can you share any examples of how your customers have benefited by using AI?

Providers: What potential do you think AI has to change the way you deliver care? What specific benefits can AI offer your organization? Do you think healthcare AI applications are maturing, and if not how will you know when they have? What types of AI applications potentially interest you, and are you pilot-testing any of them?

Interoperability

Vendors:  How does your solution overcome barriers still remaining to full health data sharing between all healthcare industry participants? What do you think are the biggest interoperability challenges the industry faces? Does your solution require providers to make any significant changes to their infrastructure or call for advanced integration with existing systems? How long does it typically take for customers to go live with your interoperability solution, and how much does it cost on average? In an ideal world, what would interoperability between health data partners look like?

Providers: Do you consider yourself to have achieved full, partial or little/no health data interoperability between you and your partners? Are you happy with the results you’ve gotten from your interoperability efforts to date? What are the biggest benefits you’ve seen from achieving full or partial interoperability with other providers? Have you experienced any major failures in rolling out interoperability? If so, what damage did they do if any? Do you think interoperability is a prerequisite to delivering value-based care and/or population health management?

What topics are you looking forward to hearing about at #HIMSS18? What questions would you like asked? Share them in the comments and I’ll see what I can do to find answers.

About the author

Anne Zieger

Anne Zieger is a healthcare journalist who has written about the industry for 30 years. Her work has appeared in all of the leading healthcare industry publications, and she's served as editor in chief of several healthcare B2B sites.

   

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