Digitalisation can take lead in improving clinical outcomes

The second edition of the Hospital Information Technology Senate (HITS) in Hyderabad saw the presence of 100+ Hospital IT professionals. HITS was organised along with the Healthcare Senate 2017, which delved into discussing various aspect of digital technologies to leverage opportunities, address challenges and foster innovation in healthcare. HITS, this year emerged as a democratic platform, wherein many panel discussions and workshops gave an opportunity for the audience to raise issues of critical importance. Industry associations like CHIME, HIMSS and Hospital Tech Association were partners at this forum. The conference kicked off with the keynote address from Arvind Sivaramakrishnan, CIO, Apollo Hospitals. He introduced the organisation CHIME. “The objective is to bring together the best minds in the hospital information technology space. There are healthcare professionals in the Industry who are not operating for the love of it but just happen to be doing their current jobs due to various reasons. So, it’s important that the professionals who love their jobs and have the passion for it and are talented come together. CHIME is a platform for them”.

“Healthcare has to be accessible at a reasonable cost. Digital makes it possible. There are various online courses also, which are now becoming available, for healthcare professionals in every stream of the different kind of treatments like Ayurveda, Yunani, homeopathy etc.”, he added.

“The concept of connected healthcare and health are empowering patients to access services in a simplified form, whenever they want and at an affordable cost using digital technologies. Using data analytics, public health records (PHR) can be created to derive knowledge, which can then result in efficient diagnosis and treatment. Digital also allows efficient working of the internal processes in the hospital. The work processes can be better streamlined using IT and associated digital technologies”, he further said.

Key takeaways

• There are inconsistencies in the issues discussed at Industry forums and on the ground situation- In a recent survey done by Hospital tech association, 85% respondents said, IT adoption is a key problem in hospitals
• In a recent survey done by Hospital tech association, 85% respondents said, IT adoption is a key problem in hospitals
• Group purchase of software solutions
• Standards for selecting the best HIS solution
• RoI from IT is important not only from a returns standpoint but also how does it enables compliance, simplifying backend processes, ensuring clinical outcomes

HITS had three insightful panel discussions including one unconference session. The first panel was on: ‘The roadmap to digisation: Step by step best practices on the path to digitisation’. Panelists for this session were Girish Kulkarni – Chairperson, CHIME India; Veneeth Purushothaman, CIO, Fortis Hospitals; K V Kumar, CIO, Narayana Hospitals, Board Member CHIME India; Inder Davalur – Group CIO, KIMS Hospitals, Hyderabad; Annie Mathew, President, HIMSS APAC India Chapter). Panelists in this session spoke on the importance of defining transformation and its routine, role of digital in delivering affordable healthcare, how providers need to adjust to the regulatory regime change, IT guiding principles and the significance of RoI from IT from a returns standpoint.

The second panel was in the form of an Unconference. The members from the hospital Tech association discussed the challenges and suggestions put forth by the audience. Niranjan K Ramakrishnan, CIO, Sir Ganga Ram Hospital; Ishaq Quadri, Group CIO, KIMS Hospital and Girish V Koppar, CIO, Lilavati Hospital & Research Center moderated the discussion.

During this event, the Hospital Tech association launched their app which is a knowledge base for hospital IT related topics. The HIMSS association also conducted a workshop on ‘EMRAM as an EMR adoption model’. HIMSS as an organisation, acts as a missing link between the healthcare and IT. It’s a global not for profit association. It focusses on healthcare related education due to the  Industry lacking  in skilled resources. EMRAM is an EMR adoption model that prescribes the benchmarks of various hospital related processes. It helps the hospitals to gauge where do they stand in terms of the various processes compared to their peers. EMRAM certification requires the hospitals to pass 8 different levels.Some of the other topics discussed at HITS are as follows:

• ROI from digital healthcare, K V Kumar, CIO, Narayana Hospitals, Board Member, CHiME India
• Digitisation of Manual MRD Records: Ravishankar Sankeshwar, CIO, KLE Hospital
• Using machine learning to improve eyecare: K Annapurna Devi, Head-IT, LV Prasad Eye Institute
• Digital Healthcare & Medical Records: Dr P V Battalwar, Additional Medical Superintendent, Lilavati Hospital & Research Center

The CXOs also participated in the power discussion hosted by Sify. Subsequently, various angles were shared by the panelists and Sify on how the cloud technology can solve the painpoints.