With thousands of attendees from around the world, it’s no surprise that HIMSS19 was a whirlwind in Orlando over February 11-14, 2019. Exploring the maze of interactive booths and sitting in on thought-provoking sessions, the Ntirety team gathered many insights and consistently heard the common themes of alignment and collaboration rise to the top of each conversation.
From integrating the latest technological tools to keeping up with security requirements for compliance, our overarching takeaway from HIMSS19 is that alignment and collaboration with stakeholders across the broad, including internal teams, departments, vendors, and partners, is crucial for any healthcare organization to function successfully.
Innovations Take the Stage, But Legacy Challenges Still Resonate Internally
On the exhibition floor, a myriad of new equipment and gadgets using the latest in artificial intelligence, virtual reality, and more were on display, but during the speaking sessions, the focus was more often directed on current issues rather than the newest innovations. For instance, solving the persistent security problems plaguing legacy systems proved to be a hot topic. Rod Piechowski, Senior Director of Health Information Systems at HIMSS, shared results of the HIMSS 2019 Cybersecurity Survey on this increasingly common issue:
“People are up against a lot of change in a short amount of time,” emphasized Piechowski. “Not just implementing technology, but now being asked to support and secure, and it just takes time.”
Learn more about strategies to overcome these challenges from HIMSS19 presenters and more survey responses in our Day One Recap »
Building Better Visibility for All to Better Security and Compliance
Visibility into the IT systems, processes, and practices currently in use at health organizations is vital for internal teams to gain insight and continuously improve, but also when external regulators call for inspections or audits. Meeting and maintaining the standards of HIPAA compliance requires internal healthcare teams to have a thorough understanding and alignment of their networks. To gain this alignment and work towards meeting compliance, Adam Greene, JD MPH of Davis Wright Tremaine, LLP encouraged health organizations to conduct risk assessments, gap analysis, and data mapping to find the weaker points in their security.
“More and more laws are calling for a level of data mapping,” shared Greene during his session, Turning Good Information Security into Good HIPAA Compliance. “And this is something more and more organizations need to focus on.”
Discover recommended tasks and practices to gain visibility so your organization can maintain strong security and compliance standards in our Day Two Recap »
Seem Unmanageable? Collaborate and Assess for Better Control
Efforts to gain better visibility often result in the uncovering of security gaps and inefficiencies in workflows. These systematic issues seem may seem unmanageable, even overwhelming, for health organization of all sizes, but solutions are possible when IT teams, executives, vendors, and other stakeholders come together to collaboratively conduct methodical assessments and follow defined processes. In the session Streamline PCI Compliance in a Diverse Hospital Environment, Philip Napier described the collaborative working environment between different departments at his organization Bon Secours Health System, Inc.
“I’m very fortunate in my organization to have a CIO, Chief Information Officer, and CFO [that have] a great working relationship,” Napier shared, explaining that even when responsibility is delegated departments still look to each other for help.
Why should collaboration and alignment be top-priority goals for every health organization? Find out in our Day Three Recap »
Beyond HIMSS19
While touring the latest in technology and getting sneak peaks at new tools under development was a highlight at HIMSS19, the numerous sessions and panels provided the greatest takeaways for the Ntirety team. Understanding the top challenges and goals for organizations across the healthcare industry allows our HITRUST-certified and HIPAA-compliant experts better tailor more innovative strategies to organizations like yours.
Want to learn more about implementing technologies and best practices from HIMSS19? Explore what our expanded, end-to-end suite of managed cloud solutions can do for your organization »
