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Here’s a Wild Idea--HIMSS Last Day

By Gary Baldwin and Jim Molpus, for HealthLeaders News, March 2, 2007
The last day of HIMSS is usually an exercise in information hangover. Many people have left by now, but there is usually a cadre of hangers-on. Speaker sessions are sparsely attended, which is misfortunate, as the quality of content has not diminished.

Thursday morning Harry Lukens, CIO of Lehigh Valley Health Network in Allentown, Pa., described how the community health system reaches out to the staff to develop new ideas. As Lukens pointed out, the session was not about technology, but rather the cultivation of ideas. For the last few years, Lukens has chaired a group called the “Wild Idea Team.” It sports a rotating membership of 18-25 people, representing all areas—and levels—of the organization.

Staff members bring ideas about ways to use technology to improve operations. The only rule for the discussion, Lukens said, was “no snickering.” It’s a way to encourage participation. Ideas are vetted through a series of steps including informal evaluation, research, formal evaluation, and test. Most ideas do not make it to actual implementation. Nevertheless, the meetings are a way for the IS staff to stay in touch with their internal customers.

Lukens’ punched up his talk by using an interactive audience response system. Using a small handheld device, we were asked to vote on various questions, with the results tabulated and presented on his PowerPoint. Most in the audience had no formal manner of deriving technology ideas from the staff. Lukens uses the same technology at senior staff meetings to solicit feedback on strategic planning proposals. Allowing people to vote anonymously on ideas encourages more honest responses, he pointed out.


Gary Baldwin is technology editor of HealthLeaders magazine. He may be reached at gbaldwin@healthleadersmedia.com.


RHIOs: Good News, Bad News

Many here were surprised to learn that the Santa Barbara (Calif.) County Care Data Exchange had ceased operations. Albert Kwyi, CIO at Cottage Health System, talked about the data exchange’s demise during a session which caught off guard some people who had not heard the news. The data exchange’s governing body folded on Dec. 31, 2006. Political, not technical challenges, were behind the downfall, Kwyi said. This project had gained some notoriety because of its early association with David Brailer, M.D., the former national coordinator for health information technology. Unresolved issues around data ownership and privacy weighed down the effort.

But other efforts continue to move forward. Yesterday I caught up with Dick Thompson, who is leading Quality Health Network, a data exchange effort based in Grand Junction, Colorado. Members include local hospitals and labs. The exchange, which pushes out lab results, radiology reports, and clinical information to some 200 physician users, has seen steady growth over the last couple of years. Started with grant money, QHN is moving to a dues model. Physicians like the convenience of going to a central portal to receive their labs, rather than having to contend with multiple information streams. QHN delivers nearly two-thirds of the results through the portal, the rest going out via fax or direct-to-printer.


Gary Baldwin is technology editor of HealthLeaders magazine. He may be reached at gbaldwin@healthleadersmedia.com.


You don’t set foot in New Orleans today and really feel like the city is a disaster area, at least not downtown and in the tourist and convention areas. But everywhere you go, you do sense the struggle and strength of the people putting the city back together. One bartender talked about how he was getting his floors reinstalled this week, but he was resigned to months yet of rebuilding. The wonderful cuisine New Orleans is known for is still there, but diners may have to be patient as demand forces some long waits. Cabs are like a roller coaster without safety bars, but when have they not been so?

There are only so many cities that can handle large conventions like HIMSS, and that list of cities includes some pretty sterile places. Conventions centers, hotel rooms and meeting places all look the same, so the variable is the culture and character of the host city. I once thought that after Katrina that New Orleans would attempt to reinvent itself as a place where you saw homogenized affectations of its former self. New Orleans, to be sure, knows the issues it faces with safety and infrastructure. But from what I saw, the city wants to be just as oddly wonderful as it always has been. Thank goodness.


Jim Molpus is editor of HealthLeaders magazine. He may be reached at jmolpus@healthleadersmedia.com.