Whenever I go to CMIO meetings, I always feel like the dumbest person in the room, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Chief medical information officers are brilliant people, usually physicians who also are trained informatics and often with Ph.D.s in addition to their MD degrees.
With that in mind, it was not surprising that the first-ever CMIO tweet chat Thursday night was intelligent and engaging, and the participants were enthusiastic.
.@CMIOchat delighted to see a chat devoted to this topic, CMIOs very tuned into workflow issues & opportunities for workflow tech #cmiochat
— Chuck Webster MD, MS AI, MS Systems Engineering (@wareFLO) September 24, 2015
Hosted by Dr. Nick Van Terheyden, CMO of Dell, former CMIO of Nuance Communications and one of MedCity News’ newest MedCitizens, participants took on four topics:
- What technology is critical for near-term and future clinical and financial success?
- What factors should be considered in prioritizing technology adoption?
- How do you ensure that the IT department prepares for future technology?
- What ancillary factors should be considered when adopting technology?
The first topic is particularly relevant in the wake of the bombshell Institute of Medicine report calling out diagnostic error as an under-addressed problem in American healthcare.
A Deep-dive Into Specialty Pharma
A specialty drug is a class of prescription medications used to treat complex, chronic or rare medical conditions. Although this classification was originally intended to define the treatment of rare, also termed “orphan” diseases, affecting fewer than 200,000 people in the US, more recently, specialty drugs have emerged as the cornerstone of treatment for chronic and complex diseases such as cancer, autoimmune conditions, diabetes, hepatitis C, and HIV/AIDS.
Could natural-language processing and analytics be answers? How about artificial intelligence, which might be the next evolution of analytics and clinical decision support?
T1: Bet big on #NLP. Also, #analytics. There is power in going from data to meaningful insights! #CMIOchat @CMIOchat
— Rasu Shrestha MD MBA (@RasuShrestha) September 24, 2015
T1. Analytics delivered at point of decision making will be key, mobile is assumed. #CMIOchat
— Luis Saldana (@lsaldanamd) September 24, 2015
https://twitter.com/johnemattison/status/647188032353759232
AI and predictive analytics! That's what I'm talking about! #cmiochat
— Luke Webster (@LukeWebsterATL) September 24, 2015
The data has to be accurate, though, according to one clinical decision support specialist.
Analytics makes total sense as long as the data is valid – Developing strategies for good data governance are key. #CMIOChat
— Dirk Stanley, MD MPH (@dirkstanley) September 24, 2015
Likewise, data has to be as complete as possible.
T1: Yes, often, it's the blind leading the blind! #CMIOchat @fsgoldstein
— Rasu Shrestha MD MBA (@RasuShrestha) September 24, 2015
The IOM report emphasized patient-centeredness. So did this CMIO.
A1-combination of the three with the focus on the consumer/patient #cmiochat
— David Chou (@realdavidchou) September 24, 2015
But technology can’t be intrusive, lest it interfere with the patient-physician relationship.
@fsgoldstein techl success #HCIT is when #HealthIT supports but does not intrude in the Clinician/Patient interaction #cmiochat
— Ñick van Terheyden, MD -Dr Ñiçk 🇺🇸🇬🇧🇮🇪🇳🇬🌍 (@drnic1) September 24, 2015
T1: Well, inherently, all docs need to be great detectives; but key to focus on pts not screens. @fsgoldstein @drnic1 #CMIOchat @nickreeldx
— Rasu Shrestha MD MBA (@RasuShrestha) September 24, 2015
Physician workflow matters, too. Dr. Chuck Webster has made a career out of fixing broken workflows.
Answer is obvious: Workflow Technology > T1: What technology is critical for near-term and future clinical and financial success? #CMIOchat
— Chuck Webster MD, MS AI, MS Systems Engineering (@wareFLO) September 24, 2015
@drnic1 Love your idea about analytics being available at the point-of-care – For this will need to build into #workflow #CMIOChat
— Dirk Stanley, MD MPH (@dirkstanley) September 24, 2015
As for the patient thing, don’t forget about human relationships. Be wary of the Rise of the Machines, as it were, some CMIOs said.
Yes @drnic1 I hear the fear as well, but some jobs will be replaced in all industries #CMIOchat https://t.co/eEIRcoXAnw
— Fred Goldstein (@fsgoldstein) September 24, 2015
My idea of the "holy grail": machines take care of all the scut work and let docs do the high value stuff #cmiochat
— Luke Webster (@LukeWebsterATL) September 24, 2015
Hype = 'run for the hills, the machines are coming"
Hope = 'MD assistants'
Here = #NLP, #AI#CMIOchat @drnic1 @fsgoldstein @nickreeldx
— Rasu Shrestha MD MBA (@RasuShrestha) September 24, 2015
The chat had pretty good participation. But where were the women? Men do make up the bulk of the CMIO profession, but they sure don’t hold a monopoly.
https://twitter.com/2healthguru/status/647200646068703232
