It’s been a while since I blogged. Whether it’s because of being a parent caught up in America’s great pass time, baseball or work or a combination of the two, life seems to have a profound effect on getting my thoughts down. Firstly, I’m always wary of commenting on politically sensitive topics such as the recent violence and tragedies that have affected all of America so profoundly this last week, but I wanted to give thought to the sad loss of life that was start and end of last week’s violence.
As a strong opponent of firearms, I don’t believe that guns are the answer to anything. Maybe due to my Indian roots and the way that India got it’s freedom through mostly a non-violent freedom movement, that has been etched in my mind. That and having lived my early and formative years in cities and nations that do not have guns as rampant as is the case in the United States. Sad and tragic for the entire country.
That said, within healthcare, I have seen folks focus more on the daily routine of Healthcare IT as well as the focus on growth in opportunities. I saw the news that healthcare added 39,000 new jobs in June alone which is a good sign for the ecosystem. In another sign though of the world that we live in, June was also the month that saw the highest number of 11 million patient record breaches and has been deemed the worst month for information security breaches in 2016. A chilling reminder that we live in a very interconnected world that is global in it’s reach. I sometimes see the statistics of this blog and see that it reaches the far corners of the world and can be read anyplace and at anytime. Security also needs to happen on a global level and many organizations I believe, don’t do enough. One of the Information Security Officers whom I spent time with during our Spring CSO HIMSS conference told me that he felt that his users were the worst security hazard that he had. One wrong click was all it took.
Out Fall CSO HIMSS conference in the fall is not going to have a theme this season, but we are looking to cover a broad range of topics, though we do hope to cover the new MACRA regulations with an expert speaker or two.
So far, I don’t think anyone has seen any major shifts or movements (surprisingly) this year. With ICD-10 now but a distant memory and MACRA coming up as the next thing on people’s minds, I believe that so far, I’d give Healthcare a B for good behavior. Still lot of time left for the end of the year, but that’s my mid year assessment (I know I’ll get grief from both sides on this one…we can talk about it over beverages…)
Enjoy the summer folks!
Healthcare Interoperability 