HIMSS19 Day 1: Population Heath and Government Health Care

More than 45,000 health information and technology professionals kicked off the first day of HIMSS19 in Orlando, Florida with a robust slate of health care education sessions and networking events. The day’s activities focused on both reoccurring health care topics and the industry’ latest trends. Cerner’s exhibition space was buzzing with podcast recordings and livestreams that featured associates, clients and partners. Here are some highlights from day one on the showroom floor: 

The now and next of population health

The population health vignette within the Cerner booth showcases five topic areas: value-based care, consumer, analytics, employer/payer/life sciences, and managing populations and risks.

Ryan Hamilton, Cerner’s senior vice president of population health, stopped by the podcast booth to discuss how the transformation of health care impacts population health. During the conversation, Hamilton offered three key points aimed at helping health care systems optimize their business:

1.  Use longitudinal data and applied intelligence to manage consumers’ health and care in their everyday lives outside of the clinical setting.

2.  Create an open, connected eco-system in which providers can identify consumer needs and then engage all the different aspects of society around the person.

3.  Personalize health care to match the needs of individuals and communities.

Hamilton also discussed the concept of designing population health strategies around one person, instead of millions. He said this approach produces a natural workflow that starts with identifying an individual’s needs, goals and challenges and then figuring out when and where to best engage them. The next step is to match people with the right resources and then measure outcomes based on the quality of care and consumer satisfaction.

A major goal of population health is to get consumers engaged in managing their own health and care. Hamilton said this mission can be advanced by creating more options for self-service in health care. 

“There is a huge percentage of health care that can be delivered through automation and self-service, and we are working on that,” he said.

Hamilton predicts that health care data will be one of the biggest focuses of the week, including deep dives into data liquidity and portability and consumer ownership and control of data. He expects partnership announcements around bringing longitudinal data together.

“People believe that the next era of health care will focus on intelligence, and data powers that intelligence,” Hamilton said.

Private-equity in the EHR business and the growth of consumerism in health care are other topics that Hamilton suggests following throughout the conference.

“The best part of HIMSS for me is collaborating with existing and potential clients,” he said. “It’s an opportunity to understand their vision and how we can work together to make it a reality.”

Modernizing government health care

Travis Dalton, Cerner’s president of government services, joined us to share his insights on the conference’s activities around public sector health care.

“The overriding theme for me has been, ‘What do you do with that data?’,” Dalton said. “The data is there, so how do we use it in a meaningful way, and how can we impact the consumer experience?”

Specifically, Dalton is working with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), two U.S. federal agencies that have noticeable presences at HIMSS19. Working with the VA and DoD requires focusing on their specific needs.

“My client base is unique in terms of what they do and how they do it,” Dalton explained. “So, in terms of the VA and DoD, we’re really focusing on how we can manage chronic conditions, how we can manage the opioid epidemic and how we can impact change as it relates to post-traumatic stress disorder and suicide prevention. Those are the biggest trends we’re focused on.”

This afternoon, Stacy Cummings, program executive officer for Defense Healthcare Management Systems (DHMS), held a session about the progress of MHS GENESIS. At 10 a.m. on February 13, Cummings and John Windom, executive director for the VA’s Office of Electronic Health Record Modernization, will hold a session about collaborations between their two agencies.

Cerner’s Chairman and CEO Brent Shafer met with Windom and James Gfrerer, VA’s CIO and assistant secretary of information and technology, in the Cerner exhibit to give a first-hand look at some of Cerner’s solutions. Throughout the week, Cerner will continue to explore opportunities to help government agencies solve health care challenges.

Cerner is exhibiting at HIMSS, February 11-15, 2019 in Orlando, Florida. Visit us in booth 2941 to explore our suite of solutions and services and dive into discussions on the latest health care topics with leading experts. Learn more here.