A lot of things conspired to almost keep us from getting to the HIMSS New England (NEHIMSS) Spring Conference, but we kept at it and managed to get there. Despite the weather, which caused flight delays and driving challenges, over 250 people from around the region joined us there.
NEHIMSS is one of the largest and most active HIMSS regional chapters. The event was full of great content across two tracks, and it kicked off with a session of digital equity. It was incredible to hear about ongoing efforts to bring organizations together to build digital equity across western Massachusetts. The work they are doing is to ensure that “in an era where everything is done online, we don’t want anyone to be left behind.” What a great mission!
The conference was split across two tracks–digital health and clinical informatics. Not surprisingly, the AI panel was a hot ticket. It feels like people are still trying to gather as much info as they can on how others are thinking about AI. There were also sessions on quality measurement and digital communication. Each one provided insights from health systems on what they are doing today.
In one session, we presented the data from our recent patient survey. The main takeaway was around the challenge of having too many solutions in too many places, and how to begin addressing that with a single mobile platform. You can read the full report with data and insights on patient engagement trends in digital health.
One thing that continues to stand out is the number of solutions and conversations around staffing. This is still a real issue for many health systems that are facing shortages and disengaged employees. We think that improving the staff experience and patient experience go hand in hand so it’s nice to see people focusing on solving for improving staff experience.
The event wrapped up with a closing keynote from Ed Marx. He shared insights from his new book, written with Cris Ross on patient experience. This was the second time we’ve had the chance to sit in on this presentation because we were lucky enough to have Ed speak at the Gozio User Group recently. It may be hard to believe but it was just as emotional and powerful the second time around. In the book, Ed and Cris share five ways to improve patient experience that are mostly free and are really focused on changing the culture of your organization.
You can order the book here, and the proceeds go to cancer research.