“Information technology only matters if it creates value for patients and providers.” -- Denis A. Cortese, MD
InterSystems Global Summit took place this month at the Arizona Biltmore in Phoenix. The annual gathering of InterSystems customers and partners was a fabulous combination of learning, information sharing, reconnecting, and socializing in a lovely and historic setting. We had record numbers of attendees, a brand new Technology Leadership Conference for senior IT leaders, and our largest and most international Healthcare Leadership Conference (HLC) to date.
Dr. Denis Cortese, Emeritus President and CEO of the Mayo Clinic, and Foundation Professor of Health Care Delivery and Policy at Arizona State University, delivered the HLC keynote, sharing his perspective on culture change, healthcare value, and the creation of learning health systems. Those themes were repeated over and over throughout the event. For example:
- On culture change: We learned about efforts to place patients in the center of the care process, to create nationwide eHealth records, the need for collaboration and trust in value-based healthcare environments, and the challenges and opportunities for innovation.
- On value: We talked about reducing readmissions, fostering community information sharing, identifying patients at risk, and effectively intervening to manage that risk.
- And on learning health systems: We heard about secondary uses of data to enhance clinical care and foster clinical research across virtual care systems, and we learned about knowledge discovery within clinical notes.
We wrapped things up with a presentation on measuring interoperability, delivered by Bob Cash, FACHE, Vice President of Provider Relations at KLAS Research. His comments closed the circle nicely on a statement made by Dr. Cortese at the start of the event: “Information technology only matters if it creates value for patients and providers.”
Just before Summit convened, the ONC issued a request for information seeking recommendations on measuring interoperability. In essence, the question everyone is asking is, this: “Have we delivered connected value to the healthcare community?”
Based on what we heard in Phoenix, the answer is "yes," and there is far more value yet to come as we share information ever more effectively.
Thanks for a great event, and we look forward to the next one!
