This week I’ve gone through close to 200 pitches from companies who want to meet with me at the HIMSS Annual conference. While I can’t say that this is a fun task (especially since I have to tell 95% of them no), it is an educational experience to see what 200 companies are sharing as we head into the biggest healthcare IT conference in the world.
If I were to summarize the pitches in general, I would describe them as incremental. I’ll admit that this is a pretty disappointing perspective since we all know that healthcare needs something transformational. Don’t get me wrong. I believe that regular incremental improvement is transformational, but I’d say that most of the pitches lacked ambition.
Along with this observation is the idea that in most cases technology isn’t enough. If it were enough, EHR software that’s in use in most of healthcare would have already transformed the industry. The longer I spend in this industry, the more I realize that technology is just a tool in the tool belt. The real transformation comes from something more than technology. Technology might be a catalyst or facilitator, but that’s all.
This is actually a theme that really began at last year’s HIMSS conference. The areas that excite me most are those that literally change behavior. This might be the patient’s behavior or it might be the clinician’s behavior. It might also be the payer, health system, or government’s behavior.
The challenge is that changing behavior is hard. Slapping an EMR system is easy compared to behavior change. Implementing a secure text message solution is easy compared to behavior change. Rolling out an enterprise data warehouse is easy compared to behavior change.
At HIMSS and throughout the year I’m most interested on those companies who understand not only the technology side of things, but the behavior side of things as well.
If you’re interested in healthcare transformation and what it requires, join us at the Digital Transformation Meetup at HIMSS17. It’s happening Tuesday, 2/21 from 11:30-12:30 at the Dell EMC Booth #3161. More details on this meetup and other HIMSS17 meetups can be found here.