HIMSS21 Wrap Up

While HIMSS 21 didn’t go quite how we expected, we were excited to join in virtually

Burnout Sessions 

There were a couple of sessions we checked out on burnout. One was by Omar Shaker, Analytics Director of the California Center for Functional Medicine, titled “Healing Burnout with Healthcare Data”. Dr. Shaker became burned out as a physician, which led him on a journey to find what drives professional and personal fulfilment. In this presentation, Dr. Shaker talked about evidence-based methods and tools to combat burnout.  

Another session we checked out was “Beyond COVID: Emotional Intelligence, Burnout, and Resiliency”, by Sarah Hoffe, MD, Section Head of GI Radiation Oncology at the Moffitt Cancer Center, and Bob Delaney, Founder of Delaney Consultants. This presentation focused on strategies to deal with burnout and increase resiliency. They also focused on how important resiliency and understanding our own emotions and boundaries are during traumatic times, specifically speaking about how healthcare workers have been coping since the pandemic began.  

Women in Health Tech Sessions 

We also made a point of attending presentations focused on women in healthcare. One of these was “Growing the Ranks of Female Executives in Healthcare” by Patrice Wolfe, CEO of AGS Health. Did you know that while women comprise 65% of the U.S. healthcare workforce, they only make up 25%-30% of healthcare executives and 13% of CEOs? The presentation explained this disparity issue and gave some solutions that organizations can implement to support women healthcare leaders.  

The “Future of Femtech and Growth Opportunities in the New Normal” by Reenita Das, Partner And SVP Transformational Health, Frost & Sullivan, and Chandni Mathur, MBA, Senior Industry Analyst, Frost & Sullivan, was a great look at opportunities for women in the health tech sector. Their presentation pointed out how disproportionate childcare responsibilities, burnout, and high levels of untreated mental health problems impacts women and their career opportunities. We hope the work we do at the Sharp Index, and with our Mother’s in Medicine Fund, can help reduce burnout and provide more opportunities for healthcare workers.

Announcements 

In addition to presentations, many companies made big announcements throughout the week, and we are excited about their impact on physician well-being. The previous week, Medicomp Systems launched Quippe Nursing, a solution that integrates with EHR to significantly reduce clinical documentation time for nurses, giving them more time to work with patients. This solution has the potential to reduce nurse and healthcare worker burnout by allowing providers to focus on their patients and reducing their administrative workload. 

Orbita launched their new Solution Center, an integrated system that offers healthcare virtual assistants to help improve patient engagement, close gaps in care, reduce operational costs and reduce staff burden. Technology tools that ease the administrative burden on healthcare workers are thought to provide some of the best opportunities to reduce burnout.  

First Databank (FDB), a drug and medical device database company that aims to help healthcare professionals make precise decisions, unveiled its new FDB CDS Analytics. This solution helps organizations identify, monitor, and customize clinical decision support (CDS) tools in their EHR to improve clinician experience with EHR and improve patient outcomes. More broadly, the solution can help identify patterns of which CDS tools are effective and which aren’t working as intended.  

ALLM, a mobile medical communications company, debuted a new integration feature that allows EKG data to be transmitted from an ambulance to a hospital chat room. This feature aims to reduce inefficiencies as patients are brought into emergency care settings, enhance communication between providers and EMS in the field, improve patient outcomes, and improve provider quality of life. This is important, as recent studies suggest that critical care physicians have the highest rates of burnout among the different specialties.  

The AI-powered health IT vendor BUDDI AI debuted a new revenue cycle management automation application RCM suite called Practice.AI. The product uses AI to reduce the administrative burden of registration, coding, documentation, and billing, allowing healthcare workers to spend more time with patients. This is promising for reducing burnout, as increased administrative burden is one of the most identified factors associated with clinician burnout.  

What were your favorite parts of #HIMSS21? Share them with us here!