One day before my arrival in Las Vegas, early tomorrow morning. An interesting fact is that this is my 15th HIMSS conference and certainly I have seen tremendous change from the first time attending in 1997. Based upon my 27 years in the medical device space, 18 years in the wireless, and 15 years attending HIMSS, I will give some of my brief initial perspectives. More will come during the week…time permitting, but hope to have a re-cap by next Friday.
The EMR space
All I can say that this is hotter than hot due to all the initiatives surrounding meaningful use and the incentives for reimbursement. Every physician it is seems is in a scramble mode to get their EMR up and going. My family practice physician and orthopedic surgeon…just within the last 60 days have implemented a EMR! Certainly I am betting my dollars on Siemens and Cerner from the IDN space, but NextGen is rapidly gaining major traction. Look to how easily the application model can be transformed to both mobility models from what we know as the laptop to the I-Pad, Android, and I-Phone and where this fits into the secure cloud computing model.
Infrastructure
The wired and wireless infrastructure model has become commoditized. Yes, really…a switch is a switch and an AP is an AP…IEEE. IDN(s) have become better educated and have huge financial pressures to do more with less. While some CIO(s) will still in a blind fashion go down the path and purchase status quo…these days it is coming to a head. They need to evaluate the technology from a business perspective. Companies like Juniper Networks and Aruba Networks provide major compelling technology and financial arguments and should be carefully looked at. The whole issue of DAS (Distributed Antenna Systems) to provide the in-building cellular connectivity experience is becoming better understood. If the providers of DAS (whether integrators or manufacturers) promote the value of WLAN, WLAN enabled devices over a DAS, or even WMTS, then the potential buyer needs to ask some really tough questions about costs and risk management. Look to SOLiD as a major disruptive player in this space. They have the right message and technology and are taking names in this space…big time in healthcare.
Medical Device Companies to Include Patient Monitoring and Infusion Therapy
Again, like infrastructure, this has become pretty much a commodity. No new physiological parameter has been developed or “great new smart pump”, that has revolutionized care in this space…but it stands that most companies are in an evolutionary process causing the big players to finally change. It stands to reason that the major patient monitoring companies will follow the lead of OneNet developed by Draeger…why…it saves a lot of $$. Sotera Wireless has some very interesting innovations (at the QualComm) booth. Plus Sotera has recruited some of the best technical talent in the industry. Jim Moon (invented the ProPaQ), came out with Alpha PC at Spacelabs, and Jim Welch, (innovator of Acuity at Welch Allyn).
Integrators
Lot’s of network integrators are out there in this space…as everybody wants to target healthcare..oh yes wireless. However a lot of folks can do an admirable job at site surveys, network design, and implementations. What is done here is not unique but boilerplate. Look to those companies that can actually tie the technology investment and implementations to providing real clinical value, show how costs can be saved, and how the technology investment over the life of the investment…improves the bottom line. Also evaluate them towards their specific loyality to certain vendors…versus true technology consultants.
Smart Phone and Wide Area Connectivity
QualComm will have a big splash with their 2Net platform of which follows what I designed over two years ago for a major medical device company. Finally, the whole issue of “connectivity beyond the walls of the hospital”…has gained traction. While this concept and design does have extremely high merit (the fact that QualComm is behind this…says something)…interesting fact is while QualComm makes all the CDMA radios…2Net uses GSM). Zigbee does have it’s merit, but also look to low power Bluetooth. The Android and i-Phone platform could become the gateway from the medical device to the cloud and to the EMR.
RFID/RFLS
Finally the technology is bringing real applications that demonstrate improvements in cost savings and risk management. Capsule and Centrak…innovators here. Remember RFID is different from RFLS and any RFLS solution needs to be house-wide.
While there will be a great deal of “technology” at this show, these are some suggestions to evaluate the technology, solutions, and integration thereof?
– How will the technology investment be measured against a hard ROI to include CAPEX and OPEX savings?
– Is there a way to demonstrate that the technology will actually help me reduce risk, versus marketing hype?
– What will ensure the the $$ invested in the technology will protect me from obselence?
In closing this blog is intended to give some food for thought prior to the next few days…See everybody this week in Lost Wages (oh Las Vegas) at HIMSS!
