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Today in Health IT

HLTH, CHIME, HC2HC – Three Events 4 Weeks, Here’s My Recap

Questions answered in this episode

  1. What are the five critical priorities keeping health IT executives up at night?
  2. Which retail giants are positioning themselves as healthcare partnership opportunities?
  3. Why is labor competition becoming the defining challenge for health tech companies?
  4. How are four new podcast channels reshaping specialized health IT education?
  5. What distinct insights emerged from attending HLTH, CHIME, and HC2HC back-to-back?

About this episode

Three conferences in four weeks, what did I hear, what was the flavor of each event. Today a recap of the journey.

Transcript

Bill Russell 00:00:03 Today in health, it we're going to do a conference recap. Bill Russell 00:00:06 We've been doing conference shows for the last couple of weeks. Bill Russell 00:00:09 And today I'm going to give you a recap of. Bill Russell 00:00:12 Some of the things that I'm thinking, some of the things that I think Bill Russell 00:00:15 were key to that, I'm also going to give you a little update of what Bill Russell 00:00:18 we're going to be doing next year. Bill Russell 00:00:19 My name is bill Russell. Bill Russell 00:00:20 I'm a former CIO for a 16 hospital system and create, or this week in health, it. Bill Russell 00:00:24 I channeled dedicated to keeping health it staff current and engaged. Bill Russell 00:00:29 All right before we begin a couple of things. Bill Russell 00:00:31 One. Bill Russell 00:00:32 I wouldn't be doing no shows next week. Bill Russell 00:00:34 So the week of Thanksgiving, I'm not going to be doing any shows Bill Russell 00:00:37 and I'm going to be taking a pretty long production break in December. Bill Russell 00:00:41 So I will be doing. Bill Russell 00:00:43 Shows through the end of this week. Bill Russell 00:00:44 I'll probably be doing shows the first week of December, and then we'll be Bill Russell 00:00:47 taking off through the end of the year before we take off again on January. Bill Russell 00:00:52 I think it's third is the Monday this year and we will start up again. Bill Russell 00:00:56 We've done about 200 and. Bill Russell 00:00:58 I don't know, 240 of these shows. Bill Russell 00:01:00 We've only taken off for holidays and one day, which I was in the hospital. Bill Russell 00:01:05 So this is a lot of fun to do this show. Bill Russell 00:01:08 But it's also a lot of work to get up every morning at five 30 and record these. Bill Russell 00:01:13 So I wouldn't be taking about a three-week break at the end of December. Bill Russell 00:01:17 From this show, but not from the. Bill Russell 00:01:20 This week show or the news day show, you're going to still be hearing episodes Bill Russell 00:01:24 of that through the end of the year. Bill Russell 00:01:26 All right before we begin, I wanted to share an exciting Bill Russell 00:01:28 announcement for this week in health. Bill Russell 00:01:30 It starting in 2022. Bill Russell 00:01:32 We're going to be launching two new podcast channels to bring our Bill Russell 00:01:36 community more specialized content. Bill Russell 00:01:38 And it's content that's very specific to your needs. Bill Russell 00:01:42 Our channel will now include our news channel, which is this channel Bill Russell 00:01:45 that you're listening to, but we're also going to take the news day Bill Russell 00:01:48 show and drop it into this channel. Bill Russell 00:01:50 We're going to have a new channel called community. Bill Russell 00:01:52 A channel called academy. Bill Russell 00:01:54 And a channel called conference. Bill Russell 00:01:57 Let me give you an idea of what that's gonna look like. Bill Russell 00:02:01 We will have four different channels on iTunes and Google play and the rest Bill Russell 00:02:07 that you can subscribe to and each one will have a specific feel to it. Bill Russell 00:02:11 The news channel obviously is this one, and it's about staying Bill Russell 00:02:14 up to date on what's going on. Bill Russell 00:02:15 It'll include these shows where I talk about a specific news story. Bill Russell 00:02:20 It will also include the news day show. Bill Russell 00:02:22 Where we have about an hour. Bill Russell 00:02:23 Where I have other people on the show and we talk about what's going on to the news. Bill Russell 00:02:27 So you get different perspectives on the news. Bill Russell 00:02:30 The community channel is something I'm really excited about. Bill Russell 00:02:33 We have invited guest hosts to come on and record with people from their network. Bill Russell 00:02:39 And our hope there is to get deeper into the topics that are top of mind for you. Bill Russell 00:02:44 Security, clinical informatics data, AI digital, you name it. Bill Russell 00:02:48 But it's not only going to be me. Bill Russell 00:02:50 It's primarily going to be guests hosts and we've already started Bill Russell 00:02:53 those invitations and we have a couple of people lined up. Bill Russell 00:02:56 If you think you would be good for that, please let me know Bill Russell 00:03:00 bill@thisweekathealthit.com. Bill Russell 00:03:02 All right. Bill Russell 00:03:02 So that's the community channel and we are looking forward to that. Bill Russell 00:03:04 That's gonna be fun. Bill Russell 00:03:05 The academy channel. Bill Russell 00:03:07 This is really what we consider to be it university. Bill Russell 00:03:10 This is where you have somebody coming on board and you want to Bill Russell 00:03:13 ramp them up as quickly as possible. Bill Russell 00:03:16 We are going to take excerpts from our show over the last five years. Bill Russell 00:03:20 The highlights and we are going to put out three shows a week Bill Russell 00:03:23 in what we call the insights. Bill Russell 00:03:25 Show within the academy channel. Bill Russell 00:03:27 There will be other shows within that education sphere, the academy sphere. Bill Russell 00:03:32 But we're starting with a show called insights, three episodes a week. Bill Russell 00:03:35 Highlights from our shows over the last five years. Bill Russell 00:03:37 If you have somebody who's new to health, it, somebody who's looking Bill Russell 00:03:39 to come up to speed somebody who's who you're looking to develop and Bill Russell 00:03:43 train and those kinds of things. Bill Russell 00:03:44 This is a great channel for them. Bill Russell 00:03:45 They're about 10 minutes long each. Bill Russell 00:03:47 And a again, highlights from our show. Bill Russell 00:03:50 So we've had some amazing guests with great insights. Bill Russell 00:03:54 And we want to bring some of that content back. Bill Russell 00:03:57 Into the consciousness. Bill Russell 00:03:59 For discussion and keep that moving. Bill Russell 00:04:01 And then the conference channel. Bill Russell 00:04:03 A lot of us get on planes. Bill Russell 00:04:04 We travel thousands of miles to go to a conference, to Bill Russell 00:04:08 interact with people, to hear. Bill Russell 00:04:09 Keynote speakers. Bill Russell 00:04:10 To learn about new products and those kinds of things. Bill Russell 00:04:13 That's what the conference channel is going to be about. Bill Russell 00:04:14 We're going to do those long form interviews. Bill Russell 00:04:16 We're going to call that show keynote, moving forward. Bill Russell 00:04:19 We have solution showcases where we highlight the products that are Bill Russell 00:04:23 interesting and coming forward. Bill Russell 00:04:25 We're also going to have briefing campaigns on specific topics Bill Russell 00:04:27 and those kinds of things. Bill Russell 00:04:28 So that is what we're going to be doing next year for channels. Bill Russell 00:04:33 For this week in health, it. Bill Russell 00:04:35 And we are very excited about it. Bill Russell 00:04:37 You're going to be able to subscribe starting on Monday of next week. Bill Russell 00:04:41 You can subscribe by visiting us at this week. Bill Russell 00:04:44 health.com/shows a page, which I have not developed yet, but will be Bill Russell 00:04:49 developed by Monday for you to go out there and subscribe to these shows. Bill Russell 00:04:54 All right. Bill Russell 00:04:55 So here's what I wanted to do over the next couple of days. Bill Russell 00:04:58 I wanted to give you a conference recap. Bill Russell 00:05:00 I was asked at the end. Bill Russell 00:05:02 Of the healthcare to healthcare event. Bill Russell 00:05:05 To address the CEO's in the room and talk to them about my last four weeks. Bill Russell 00:05:09 I was at the health conference, the chime fall forum. Bill Russell 00:05:13 And the healthcare to healthcare. Bill Russell 00:05:15 event And. Bill Russell 00:05:17 What I did is I did a rundown of each event, what the flavor of that event was. Bill Russell 00:05:23 And then I went into the top five things that were top of mind for the CIO. Bill Russell 00:05:26 I'm going to save the top five things until the first week of December. Bill Russell 00:05:30 And I will break those out. Bill Russell 00:05:31 Probably those will be the last five shows I do. Bill Russell 00:05:34 For the year. Bill Russell 00:05:34 And I talk about each one of those five things in detail. Bill Russell 00:05:38 If you want to know what the five things are, that are top Bill Russell 00:05:40 of my, for health it executives. Bill Russell 00:05:42 One is labor. Bill Russell 00:05:44 Number two is cyber security. Bill Russell 00:05:45 Number three is all things. Bill Russell 00:05:46 Digital. Bill Russell 00:05:46 Number four is automation. Bill Russell 00:05:48 Number five is care venues. Bill Russell 00:05:49 And I did it that quickly just to wet your appetite and you'll have to come Bill Russell 00:05:53 back the first week of December to hear me break out each one of those. Bill Russell 00:05:57 And what I heard and why it's top of mine. Bill Russell 00:06:00 For today, let's go through the conferences. Bill Russell 00:06:03 In a little bit of detail. Bill Russell 00:06:05 The first conference I went to was the health conference. Bill Russell 00:06:08 H L T H. Bill Russell 00:06:09 However you want to say that. Bill Russell 00:06:11 The name of that conference, I call it the health conference. Bill Russell 00:06:13 It was in Boston. Bill Russell 00:06:15 It was really well done. Bill Russell 00:06:17 As I've talked about before. Bill Russell 00:06:19 I just have a few notes from that conference. Bill Russell 00:06:21 The first is there's an awful lot of money chasing health tech at this point. Bill Russell 00:06:26 The this is the conference where innovators go, where a startups go. Bill Russell 00:06:31 A lot of what happens here is you have the innovators meeting with the money people. Bill Russell 00:06:38 And having conversations. Bill Russell 00:06:39 It's also a place to be if you're trying to get awareness. Bill Russell 00:06:44 Of what you are doing in healthcare. Bill Russell 00:06:46 A lot of great talks from a front. Bill Russell 00:06:48 Some of the ones I will highlight. Bill Russell 00:06:51 Are in some of the companies I'm going to highlight for what they said. Bill Russell 00:06:54 I'm not going to go into all the individual startups. Bill Russell 00:06:57 There was a great. Bill Russell 00:06:59 Solutions there. Bill Russell 00:07:00 And that, that would take a week to talk about all those different things. Bill Russell 00:07:04 So let me just give you an update on three companies. Bill Russell 00:07:08 I think really really caught my eye and continue to catch Bill Russell 00:07:12 my number one is Walmart. Bill Russell 00:07:13 The Walmart presentation was exceptional. Bill Russell 00:07:15 And continues to be exceptional. Bill Russell 00:07:17 In terms of their approach, they've been in healthcare since 1978. Bill Russell 00:07:21 And I think they, them at dollar general and CVS. Bill Russell 00:07:26 These are the companies that are going to give us inroads into addressing Bill Russell 00:07:31 some of the gaps in rural health. Bill Russell 00:07:34 And they had a great message, a great offering in that space. Bill Russell 00:07:37 The second is transparent. Bill Russell 00:07:38 Anytime I get together with Glen Tullman, I'm really impressed. Bill Russell 00:07:42 With how they are addressing the challenge that employers face. Bill Russell 00:07:47 With regard to, to Providing care for their employees. Bill Russell 00:07:53 The solution is elegant. Bill Russell 00:07:55 It is smart. Bill Russell 00:07:56 It is well thought out. Bill Russell 00:07:58 It is. Bill Russell 00:07:59 It's going to be interesting to watch and that's one to keep an eye on. Bill Russell 00:08:02 The final one to keep an eye on. Bill Russell 00:08:05 And I highlight these three for a reason. Bill Russell 00:08:06 One is the audience for the show is primarily healthcare providers. Bill Russell 00:08:10 And I believe Walmart is a, it, Walmart is a partnership opportunity. Bill Russell 00:08:14 I believe transparent is a partnership opportunity and I believe best buy being. Bill Russell 00:08:18 The third one is a. Bill Russell 00:08:20 Partnership opportunity. Bill Russell 00:08:21 As we've talked about on the show before they have bought a lot Bill Russell 00:08:24 of devices, a device companies, medical device companies. Bill Russell 00:08:27 They see themselves as really fixing. Bill Russell 00:08:30 The last mile of healthcare into the home. Bill Russell 00:08:33 And they're very good at it. Bill Russell 00:08:34 They're extremely good at setting things up in the home, Ella. Bill Russell 00:08:38 Electronics and technology in the home and all the things that entails Bill Russell 00:08:42 a great partnership opportunity. Bill Russell 00:08:43 Instead of trying to build that out for any health system. Bill Russell 00:08:47 The final thing I'll know from the health conference is Every. Bill Russell 00:08:51 Almost every presentation started with some facsimile of this. Bill Russell 00:08:55 We are this company, I'm the CEO of this company and we have 120 open positions. Bill Russell 00:09:00 We have 110 open positions. Bill Russell 00:09:02 We have 105 open positions. Bill Russell 00:09:04 There is serious competition for labor, especially in this health tech space. Bill Russell 00:09:07 And it is only going to get tighter. Bill Russell 00:09:10 And that's why it's the number one issue. Bill Russell 00:09:12 I believe that's top of mind for all of you. Bill Russell 00:09:15 Second conference was chime fall forum. Bill Russell 00:09:17 Let me give you a couple of things that I learned from there. Bill Russell 00:09:19 A lot of conversations, obviously we recorded 10 of them and shared Bill Russell 00:09:23 them on this channel, but the. Bill Russell 00:09:26 The thing I would say is the pandemic impact continues to be uneven. Bill Russell 00:09:30 There is a growing haves and have nots in healthcare. Bill Russell 00:09:35 Those organizations with the funds to do all the things they need to Bill Russell 00:09:39 do, and those without the funds to do the things that they need to do. Bill Russell 00:09:43 There's a drive to do more with less. Bill Russell 00:09:46 In terms of. Bill Russell 00:09:47 Not only funding, do more with less money, but also do more with less people. Bill Russell 00:09:51 There's a staffing shortage that's going on in healthcare, in it and in nursing. Bill Russell 00:09:57 And. Bill Russell 00:09:59 Those two shortages are creating a challenge. Bill Russell 00:10:02 For health systems and we'll continue to create a challenge for health systems. Bill Russell 00:10:07 And so that is another thing that I picked up in the conversations. Bill Russell 00:10:10 The other thing I'll say is digital. Bill Russell 00:10:11 Everybody has a digital story. Bill Russell 00:10:13 What they've done with chatbots, what they've done with scheduling, what they've Bill Russell 00:10:16 done with digital front doors, what they've done with just a host of things. Bill Russell 00:10:21 That people are doing a digital initiatives of bound and health system Bill Russell 00:10:25 leaders are excited about those things. Bill Russell 00:10:28 And pushing them forward. Bill Russell 00:10:29 That's one of the, one of the benefits of the pandemic is we made Bill Russell 00:10:34 a lot of progress very quickly. Bill Russell 00:10:36 And there's a recognition that we are going to continue to move at that Bill Russell 00:10:40 pace or need to move at that pace. Bill Russell 00:10:42 And so the money is going to certain areas. Bill Russell 00:10:46 Really easily and that's one is security and the second is digital initiatives. Bill Russell 00:10:51 And so we're seeing a lot of progress in that space. Bill Russell 00:10:55 The final conference I went to was the healthcare to healthcare. Bill Russell 00:10:59 Event, which was a serious invite only event, about 15 CEOs in the room. Bill Russell 00:11:04 Interesting conversation. Bill Russell 00:11:05 The first takeaway for me from that was clinical automation. Bill Russell 00:11:09 And we heard from a company called the artist site. Bill Russell 00:11:11 I interviewed their CEO on the show. Bill Russell 00:11:13 Clinical automation is interesting to me. Bill Russell 00:11:15 It's one of the areas in automation that we've stayed away from. Bill Russell 00:11:18 We've done all the administrative stuff. Bill Russell 00:11:20 We continue to really look to fine tune the administrative, but the Bill Russell 00:11:23 clinical automation has a lot of promise, especially in this age. Bill Russell 00:11:27 Where we have a nurse. Bill Russell 00:11:29 Shortage. Bill Russell 00:11:29 So that's going to be something to keep an eye on. Bill Russell 00:11:31 A lot of CEOs are worried about this erosion of culture due to remote work. Bill Russell 00:11:35 And I know that some people are going to Hal and go, oh my gosh, Bill Russell 00:11:39 I can't believe, the old stodgy. Bill Russell 00:11:41 CEO's eye. Bill Russell 00:11:42 I'll put me in that category of old stodgy, CIS, I was a walk around, Bill Russell 00:11:47 talk to people, kind of manager. Bill Russell 00:11:50 And I would have to learn all sorts of new methods and approaches. Bill Russell 00:11:54 In order to do remote work. Bill Russell 00:11:57 Also keep in mind that no matter how remote you make healthcare, Bill Russell 00:12:01 50% or more of your employees are always going to be on site. Bill Russell 00:12:04 So it is going to have to be a dual kind of environment. Bill Russell 00:12:08 And building culture in that environment takes a lot of effort, takes learning Bill Russell 00:12:12 some new tricks, and that is going to be a challenge for many leaders. Bill Russell 00:12:17 The other statistic I heard multiple times during my trip was 3 million women have Bill Russell 00:12:21 left the workforce during the pandemic. Bill Russell 00:12:24 This is I think part of the nursing shortage, but it's also. Bill Russell 00:12:28 Going to be a challenge for us moving forward. Bill Russell 00:12:31 In terms of having diversity of thought, having a different Bill Russell 00:12:34 approach, having representation of women in the decision-making. Bill Russell 00:12:39 As we know, women make a majority of the healthcare decisions in the United Bill Russell 00:12:43 States and not having them present. Bill Russell 00:12:45 In the healthcare ecosystem to help to guide the direction in the future. Bill Russell 00:12:52 Both from a business side and from a clinical clinical side, Bill Russell 00:12:55 as well as a technology side. Bill Russell 00:12:57 Is going to be a significant loss. Bill Russell 00:12:59 And I think that will lead to us being more creative in terms of Bill Russell 00:13:02 how we bring women back into the workforce after the pandemic. Bill Russell 00:13:07 And then finally, Bill Russell 00:13:08 There's, we are making significant progress on cybersecurity, but there's Bill Russell 00:13:12 a feeling and this is just my personal, that they are still winning the Bill Russell 00:13:16 cybersecurity battle and that they is. Bill Russell 00:13:19 The opponents they're getting in some of them are widespread and Bill Russell 00:13:23 very debilitating kinds of attacks that take health systems down for. Bill Russell 00:13:27 Mo for a month or so, and those get written up and we all hear about Bill Russell 00:13:32 them and those are highly publicized. Bill Russell 00:13:34 But there's a lot of other events where people get in a, they Bill Russell 00:13:38 are milling around our network. Bill Russell 00:13:40 And it's maybe not as broadly publicized because they're not taking the health Bill Russell 00:13:45 system down, but they are wreaking havoc and we're still not winning this battle. Bill Russell 00:13:49 There's still a long way to go. Bill Russell 00:13:51 And a lot of work. Bill Russell 00:13:52 To do in that area. Bill Russell 00:13:54 So that's my, that's the recap of the Of the conferences again, I'll come back. Bill Russell 00:14:01 In in a week following the Thanksgiving vacation and I'm going to go through the Bill Russell 00:14:06 top five top of mind issues for health. Bill Russell 00:14:10 It execs. Bill Russell 00:14:12 And we will break each one of those down individually and Bill Russell 00:14:15 talk about each one of those. Bill Russell 00:14:16 So that is all for today. Bill Russell 00:14:19 If you know someone that might benefit from our channel, Bill Russell 00:14:21 please forward them a note. Bill Russell 00:14:22 They can subscribe on our website this week, health.com or wherever Bill Russell 00:14:25 you listen to podcasts, apple, Google, overcast, Spotify, Stitcher. Bill Russell 00:14:29 You get the picture. Bill Russell 00:14:30 We are everywhere and we hope to be even more places in 2022. Bill Russell 00:14:35 We want to thank our channel sponsors who are investing in our mission to develop Bill Russell 00:14:38 the next generation of health leaders. Bill Russell 00:14:40 VM-ware Hill-Rom Starburst advisers, McAfee, and Aruba networks. Bill Russell 00:14:45 Thanks for listening.

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