HIMSS 2012 Day 1

HIMSS is an ADD nightmare – moving shapes, lots of people, so much to take in and experience.  I get a little overwhelmed with the amount of information to absorb.    My day was spent in meetings with clients and colleagues understanding how different technologies could impact healthcare.   Looking into products, services, and software that Sphere3 clients would find of value.

My day started with a great meeting with a friend from Press Ganey – excited to go by their booth #552 tomorrow and take a look at their technology offering.  I am always impressed with people who know their offering well and know how it specifically impacts the hospital and patients. 

 I headed to the Cerner booth where I was able to enjoy a few moments with Clay Patterson.  We chatted about Health + Care (my favorite tag line at HIMSS because Cerner really means it),  the HIMSS show, and of course Sporting KC.   Then I enjoyed a presentation on Clarvia – Cerner’s latest acquisition.  I think is a great product.  It has that has the ability to apply data into the assignment models for the floor.  They focused on the dollars saved which don't get me wrong - is impressive and had great impact to the hospital bottom line.  However, what I saw was a tool that would create a an incredible environment to ensure that patients are cared for in the most effective way by optimizing the hospitals ability to leverage available staff.   It was geeky and cool (my highest compliment)  It will play into their suite of products well.  If you get a chance stop by Cerner’s booth # 476 and ask to see a demo of Clarvia.

I walked over to see the new GE Teligence workflow station that will challenge the Rauland Staff Terminal and the HilRom Graphical Room Station.   Their workflow station matches the competition in the ability to provide automatic alerting at the press of a button but really lacks the visual appeal of the two other products.  Don’t get me wrong - just because it’s not pretty does not mean it’s not effective, but I have concerns with all of these types of stations.  Is there a true ability to improve care and reduce workload?   The fuzzy line between automation and documentation is not well reported.   The only think I will add about the GE is that I am a little surprised that a company that offers EMR and owns a nurse call company would not make some logical alignment between the two products….you have all the pieces and they could talk to each other…in a really meaningful way.  See it for yourself at Booth #2635

While walking over to the Centrak booth – I happened upon Tibco #3571 really interesting take on compiling data and utilizing a “collaboration tool” which is much like facebook to drive better understanding.    Tibco, was really interesting.

The final booth I visited was Isorona # 12414 – the booth is in the lower level by the interoperability show case.  It is a software based medical device data collection tool - I assume kind of like capsule.  It would have been nice to see more about the product and learn more about it while there at the booth.  The description I received was that it collects the data from multiple sets of data and distributes them to EMR and alarm/alert software.   

Tomorrow you will catch me checking out medical device connectivity tools and you may even find me at the Burwood booth – great people who I really enjoy – in booth #8310.  If you have suggestions on booths I should see and maybe blog about send me a twitter message or comment on the blog.   @Sphere3CEO

All in all this has been a great day - while I am not a big fan of Las Vegas – the venue is actually a lot more convenient than most of the other cities HIMSS has been in years prior.  There is a lot better access to coffee and easy walk to the convention center – it’s nice to get some fresh air. (just avoid the smokers and the people with the little papers…oh my gracious)  

The Art of Location

Please turn left.....Please turn left.... The GPS lady repeated herself as I basically made a circle..... "When possible please make a legal U turn...." at this point I decided that my car was lost. How was this possible? She is supposed to know where I am at any point in time and direct me to go.... I think we have grown so accustomed to location accuracy that the idea of Lack of accuracy in hospital RTLS seems really strange.

The lawsuit that Centrak has filed against Ekahau is at the heart of location accuracy in a hospital. Products like Awarepoint and Ekahau are at a significant disadvantage to products like Centrak and Sonitor based on their ability to get bedside accuracy. Let's face it, if of you are including a RTLS system in your hospital you want to be able to do more than locate a pump in a room or cancel a call light. In the very least you want the ability to build into bedside location and accuracy. This enables the RTLS system to integrate to the EMR and provide meaningful integration of data associated with

The challenge is to identify where the ultimate accuracy needs to be - or what technology needs to hold it. Products like Capsuletech encapsulate it in their bedside interface. The neuron can easily forward it to the medical record. Products like Centrak are more independent and interface with multiple systems.

RTLS has been somewhat of a novelty "nice to have" product for healthcare. However, the increased need to be Lean and it's ability to support the legal processes has caused a real interest among hospitals. I will caution hospitals that the flash you see in a demonstration - moving dots on a page are really worthless without a quality reporting mechanism.

Leveraging the investment for real value comes from the ability to interpret the data associated with the movement, and utilize the information for meaningful automation of processes.

To Wash or Not to Wash....

Recently, I enjoyed a spirited conversation with Hill-Rom’s GM and Vice President, Mike Gallup. Mike is a former IBM consultant who has been tasked with creating an unstoppable force in the Hill-Rom HITS (Healthcare Information Technology Systems) Group. His goal is to systematically coordinate the design of applications, creation of partnerships, and integration of collaborative initiatives that will strategically confront the marketplace status quo.  He was gracious to share his thoughts and a new project that they are going to be launching soon.

Hill-Rom as written and developed a patent on hand washing that should cause the industry to sit up and take notice. Hospital infections are costly and many are preventable. Those two items are ear perking to people who focus on providing value to a hospital. Not to mention the pain and discomfort that they cause a patient, and potential additional infections throughout the hospital. The ability to decrease infection by a simple hand washing or sanitization is crucial. To put dollars to the thought, according to Hill-Rom MRSA infections can cost in excess of $200,000.

Hill-Rom approached the marketplace trying to identify a strategic partnership with an RTLS provider that could meet the system and software requirements developed in the patent. After much research they decided on Centrak. Centrak’s ability to get granular in the patient room allows for the proximity of the caregiver to the dispenser to be identified. It also detects the actual motion and interaction with the cleaner.

Sound a little like Star Trek? It’s not.

The concept is actually quite simple, but software and application is really brilliant. The motion sensor within the Centrak tag notices movement of the dispenser when it is touhed and the badges correlate the proximity of the caregiver. To “fool” it you would actually have to have a caregiver bump the dispenser on purpose and not clean their hands. This would seem to be a farfetched idea. I am not an expert on hand washing, by any means, but I would assume that a majority of the time that a caregiver didn’t wash their hands prior to interacting with a patient would be more out of forgetting, and not intentionally avoiding.

I see this as a brilliant tool. Since it’s a standalone system it could be tied into a number of different integration points to track the effectiveness, but also offer some proactive notifications to the caregiver or manager. While the application is not prime time at a facility today the system has made it through all of the Hill-Rom and Centrak’s internal testing. Mike’s projection is to have it live within the next three month.

Thanks again to Mike Gallup – www.hillrom.com I look forward to more spirited interactions about healthcare in the future.