Top 5 Takeaways From HIMSS 2022

The HIMSS 2022 conference, hosted in Orlando, was an enjoyable, insightful experience with sessions that covered many healthcare topics, such as business operations, data and information, care delivery, policy and technology. Education sessions were led by renowned thought leaders who examined challenges and trends in modern healthcare. Here are five takeaways from our HIMSS 2022 experience:

1. Hospital at Home Initiatives Remain Important

Hospital at home (H@H) remains a top priority for organizations looking to bring care to patients, no matter where they are. Nathan Starr, lead hospitalist for Intermountain TeleHospitalist, provided a detailed look into the challenges and obstacles that organizations commonly face when deploying H@H initiatives. Starr also reaffirmed the importance of cost savings and how H@H helps organizations save $5,000-$7,000 per episode.

H@H provides a convenient, fast way to provide care during the COVID-19 global health crisis. Healthcare organizations that successfully deploy in-home, virtual care initiatives are likely to enhance patient-physician relationships and quickly improve patient experience.

2. Leaders Must Reduce Workplace Stress for Personnel

The COVID-19 pandemic has drastically increased care team assignments and responsibilities for practitioners. This added workplace stress has impacted the mental health and wellbeing of healthcare personnel, and it has pushed nurses to resign from their current occupations. 

The OnPage team attended the HIMSS keynote entitled, “Preparing for the 2022 and Beyond Workforce,” which examined the issue of workplace burnout and fatigue. We were pleased to hear from Scott Pelley, 60 Minutes correspondent, journalist and author. Pelley moderated the discussion and gave an overview of the state of today’s clinical workforce.

In the session, industry speakers provided ways to improve workforce sustainability and retention rates for hospitals. The speakers believe healthcare leaders can achieve these objectives by:

• Improving task distribution across care teams.
• Addressing work-life balance challenges and obstacles.
• Prioritizing open communication with personnel.
• Providing much-needed mental health breaks for practitioners.
• Investing in advanced medical technology to streamline stressful workplace processes.

3. Healthcare Interoperability Continues to Expand

The HIMSS 2022 experience included a comprehensive “Interoperability Showcase” that provided insight into the importance of connectivity between technologies and systems. Our team enjoyed engaging with experts in the field and was thrilled to attend demonstrations on improving care outcomes with interoperability. 

The showcase conveyed that practitioners require modern systems to quickly access and securely share patient information across departments. Interoperability accelerates clinical processes and improves care team productivity during time-sensitive, life-and-death situations.

4. Deep Learning Is Gaining Traction

Michael Meighu, an experienced life science specialist, gave the audience a simplified, easy look into the topic of “Deep Learning.” Meighu believes that complex definitions for Deep Learning cause confusion among non-tech savvy stakeholders across the healthcare landscape. Team OnPage was thrilled to learn that Deep Learning is simply a facet of machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI).

Meighu states that Deep Learning consists of algorithms that address problems such as Image Recognition and Natural Language Processing. According to Meighu, there are five essential steps to Deep Learning that include:

• Inputting Data: The first step is to add external or internal source data to initiate the Deep Learning process.
• Labeling Data: Following the input of data, the information must be classified and labeled to provide much-needed clarity into the input.
• Learning Criteria: Is the step that determines the objective of the Deep Learning process and the methods used to achieve the specified goals.
• Layer Architectures: This includes three components of neural networks including convolutional neural networks (CNNs), sequence models and generative adversarial networks (GANs). These different architectures help solve problems in AI mechanisms such as those in audio and visuals.
• Training the New System: It is critical to optimize the Deep Learning system. This can include adding more insightful data to achieve desired or expected input-to-output outcomes. Once the necessary adjustments have been made, the system can be deployed directly on cloud servers.

5. Organizations Require Immediate, Robust Communications

The pandemic has drastically changed how care teams communicate and collaborate to solve critical patient issues. Dr. Michelle Machon, director of education, practice and informatics for Kaiser Permanente, led a digital health discussion that reaffirmed the importance of advanced communication systems during times of crisis, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. At its core, Machon conveyed that digital communication platforms help organizations improve the management of staff, supplies and space to meet care delivery objectives.

In Summary

The OnPage team had a wonderful, insightful experience at HIMSS 2022 that consisted of keynote sessions, exhibitions and new industry friends. We look forward to next year’s HIMSS event, and our team is excited to see what the conference has in store for all attendees.