HIMSS22: Highlights and Key Takeaways

Last month in Orlando, Florida, CIDH’s Anne Powers, Managing Director, Molly Macfarlane (née Caffrey), Manager, Strategic Alliance Initiative, and Ali Oliveira, Communications Officer, had the opportunity to attend HIMSS Global Health Conference & Exhibition 2022 to join 28,000 other attendees of the global health ecosystem to connect for education, innovation, and collaboration to reimagine health and wellness for everyone, everywhere. The event presented opportunities to network face-to-face, attend numerous educational sessions, and obtain a wealth of knowledge. “As a first-time HIMSS attendee, I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I felt excited as soon as I entered the venue and it was refreshing to see all the in-person attendees,” said Oliveira.

CIDH attendees found the conference informative, which consisted of 300+ general education sessions led by leaders across the globe, exploring top-of-mind issues and sharing their ideas, insights, and perspectives. “I was eager to attend the educational sessions on innovation,” said Oliveira.

CIDH’s Favorite Sessions at HIMS22

Scaling the Adoption of Digital Health: Identifying the Potential Pitfalls

CIDH’s Managing Director, Anne Powers, joined a panel of experts to discuss scaling the adoption of digital health and identifying the potential pitfalls – a perspective from health providers. During the session, the complexities of how digital health makes patients’ lives easier were broken down and viewed through the lens of a real-world perspective – which covers hundreds of applications from telehealth visits, to leveraging wayfinding software to help patients get exact directions to appointments in complex hospital buildings. Mass General Brigham’s (MGB) Chief Digital Health Information Officer Jane Moran is filling a critical role overseeing the complexities of thousands of applications and consolidating efforts to ensure an excellent patient and provider experience. As MGH moves to new, cutting-edge models it’s crucial that the experience of the end-user is kept at the forefront of our minds in order to maintain our standing as one of the best integrated HealthCare delivery and services networks in the world. With a strong focus on diversity, equity and inclusion, we recognize the need adoption of Digital Health Innovation, and we will continue our conversations by keeping the patient at the forefront of our thinking and decision making!

Supporting Digital Innovation in Academic Medicine

Dr. Mark Zhang, MD, Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH), Digital Innovation Hub (iHub), gave an overview of the iHub’s services and process, and shared lessons and guidance on how to replicate what they are doing at your institution.

The iHub at BWH has supported systemwide digital innovation efforts since 2013. Hospital staff interest in digital health solutions for administrative, clinical, and research needs continue to grow. Mark explained that iHub has refined a process to support these internal innovators through innovation consults. Any internal innovator with an idea in digital can reach out to the iHub team and schedule an innovation consult. From there, iHub will provide guidance, longitudinal support, and resources to help innovators get their digital idea to the next step. Since 2019, over 200 consults have been completed, and their team continues to support and track the outcomes of these internal innovators and their ideas. CIDH and iHub leadership, faculty, and staff coordinate very closely to share learnings and provide support to one another, as needed. Learn more about iHub’s services here.

Meeting a Workforce for the Digital Present & Future

Chen Cao, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Digital Innovation Hub, discussed the successes of Innovation Digital Education Academy (IDEA), as well as lessons learned to establish, curate, and execute a virtual forum to inform and engage employees at MGB.

Throughout COVID-19, digital health has proven to be an invaluable asset for the workforce at MGB as the integrated health system had to respond and adapt to the new realities of the pandemic. To inform 80,000+ employees across MGB, a group, including CIDH’s Chief Strategy Officer & Senior Managing Director, Sara Silacci, and Communications Officer, Ali Oliveira, along with colleagues from other innovation groups across Mass General Brigham, convened collaborators across all areas across their system and prepared their workforce for emerging technologies. The monthly, virtual IDEA Symposium was created. Participants explore, learn, and understand the potential of innovative digital solutions to transform research, care, patient experience, and operations. They also learn the necessary skills, technologies, organizational enablers, and constraints for successfully identifying, verifying, and adopting new digital health solutions. For further inquiries, email IDEA at ideaseries@partners.org.

Networking with Industry

Molly Macfarlane, who leads Strategic Alliance for CIDH, enjoyed identifying potential opportunities for new CIDH connections, reconnecting with folks from existing relationships, and capturing trends and learnings to share back with the team.

Molly commented, “the HIMSS22 conference was a reminder of the value of in-person experiences. Walking the 1M square foot exhibit floor with 950 booths provided unmatched opportunities to make organic connections, witness live demos of innovative technology of all kinds, digest industry trends, and further develop relationships with my MGH and MGB colleagues.”

Molly had an opportunity to finally connect in person with Layo George, RN, Founder and CEO of Wolomi, after a year of virtual meetings as part of CIDH’s 2021 MassChallenge HealthTech engagement. Wolomi is a digital community offering support to women of color to improve maternal health outcomes.  Learn more about Wolomi here.

HIMSS is in the books for another year. Our team came back to Boston inspired to reimagine our role in transforming digital healthcare and excited to foster new and existing relationships.