HIMSS Keynote Speakers Highlight the Speed of Innovation

By John Otrompke

April 17, 2015 | CHICAGO--The move toward connectedness in health care has not slowed, as a range of presenters, exhibitors and attendees filled two entire buildings of Chicago’s McCormick Place almost to capacity, during this week’s annual HIMSS meeting (the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society), in one of the largest HIMSS conferences on record.

As if only to encourage the transition, an entire team of federal officials was on hand from the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services), to describe steps the Office is taking to encourage the adoption and “meaningful use” of health IT by providers and hospitals. The officials spoke at a press conference at HIMSS on April 14.

Together with CMS, the ONC released stage three of the agencies’ proposed rule-making on incentives for the adoption of electronic health records on March 20; comments are due by June 30.

“We also just announced $1 million in grant funding to spur innovation around data,” said Karen DeSalvo, MD, MPH, National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, at HHS.

However, the agencies have not yet found a solution to the problems of IT vendors that block the transfer of data when medical providers want to drop one application in favor of another, and want to carry their data with them.

The ONC doesn’t have authority to conduct investigations of data blocking, but the agency has talked with the Department of Justice, and the Office of the Inspector General about the problem in a fraud and abuse context, as well as the Federal Trade Commission. “We’re working with the FTC on the consumer protection side,” said Lucia Savage, JD, chief privacy officer at the ONC.

The officials were also on hand to explain the certification process to IT professionals. “We want to know, what could we do to make the testing procedures for certification more open and accessible?” asked Steve Posnack, director of the federal policy division at ONC, who noted that the JCAHO references the new agency’s quality certification.

Apps for Mom

The advancing pace of the digitization of health care was also evidenced by another keynote speaker, who opened the convention. Alex Gourlay, president of Walgreens, described a suite of mobile applications designed to appeal to the company’s customer base, described by Gourlay as “the Moms of the world.”

The Deerfield, Illinois-based company, which became a global enterprise with its merger with UK-based Boots the Chemist last year, began its “digital transformation” a few years ago, Gourlay said. In the coming months, the company will put more emphasis on wearables, he added.

One project the company is rolling out even as the conference concludes is in the field of telemedicine, where Walgreens is partnering with MDLive to offer virtual visits with a doctor, through the Walgreens Mobile App. The service is currently provided in Michigan and California, and the company is also rolling it out in Illinois in May, Gourlay said. “We’ll be in more than 25 states by the end of 2015,” he added.

The company also offers pharmacist chats, accessible by smartphone, and currently logs 9,600 chats per week. “That’s almost a chat a minute,” Gourlay noted.

Another digital innovation that can help with medication compliance is the use of digital refill reminders. The patient receives a text message, and replies with the word ‘refill.’ The prescription will be ready in about an hour. “It used to take five minutes to refill a prescription using the old phone system. Now it takes under 30 seconds; all you have to do is scan the bottle with a smartphone camera,” he said.

The mobilization of pharmacy services may also reduce adverse events, Gourlay noted. “These applications allow the pharmacist to reach out to the patient and ask, ‘Have you experienced any side effects, such as an allergic reaction?’”

Gourlay also noted that Walgreens has partnered with WebMD to offer digital coaching on its website; over 15,000 customers have signed up for digital health advisories, he said.