Healthcare | The TIBCO Blog

Top Three Things Healthcare Can Learn from Other Industries

April 27, 2013 by Kevin Jordan Leave a Comment

Only a decade ago, India and China fully opened their societies to the West. Instead of telephone poles and landlines, Asian companies met 21st-century challenges head-on by skipping investing in outdated infrastructure for moving directly to smart phones and deploying mobile apps. A parallel can be drawn with the healthcare industry. Let’s leapfrog to 21st-century information technology solutions and stop trying to solve today’s problems with yesterday’s outdated technology.

The three broad areas healthcare needs to focus on include re-framing conversations, improving processes, and leveraging technology. These three areas are interconnected; it would be impossible to fully innovate in one without the other two. The processes have been proven in other industries, the technology is available to healthcare, and the industry has the power to innovate like never before. Learn how to transform the healthcare industry with 21st-century solutions at our HITP conference May 6-8. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Financial Services, Healthcare, Integration, Transportation and Logistics Tagged With: airlines, banking, financial services, Healthcare, integrated supply-chain, turning customers into fans

Does Work Sometimes Feel Like a Seinfeld Episode?

March 15, 2013 by Chris Taylor Leave a Comment

There’s a classic episode of the American television show Seinfeld called “The Comeback” where a main character, George Costanza, is in a meeting, eating shrimp as quickly as he can. A coworker quips, “Hey, George, the ocean called and they’re running out of shrimp.” George, caught off guard, has nothing to say. He thinks of a response after the meeting has ended, and becomes obsessed with recreating the moment so he can respond with, “Oh yeah? Well, the jerk store called, and they’re running outta you.” Of course he fails. The true moral to the story becomes, “Once the moment passes, the response loses context and relevance.”

The ability to come up with the best response too late is called l’esprit de l’escalier (staircase wit in English, or colloquially, as a comeback). We’ve all experienced coming up with the best answer after leaving a conversation, already having reached the bottom of the staircase and knowing we can’t go back. We slap our forehead and say, “If only I’d thought of that in time.” Companies that lack integrated systems have their own version of this playing out every day and it has an outsized impact on operational decisions and responses. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Integration Tagged With: Healthcare, imm, integrate, integrated systems, integration, integration fail, patient risk patterns, retail, seinfeld

Is the Healthcare Industry Beyond Saving?

January 16, 2013 by Kenan Frager 1 Comment

Everyone seems to agree that the current US healthcare system is broken, or at least needs serious overhaul. Healthcare has been an ongoing national debate with both sides agreeing on the many problems (although not the solution), and everyone has their own personal tale of healthcare falling short.

Many of healthcare’s systemic problems come from being overwhelmed by big data, too many systems recording too much diverse data and not actively working together. If a healthcare organization’s billing doesn’t connect with patient discharge, treatment tracking or a customer web portal there are bound to be problems. Mistaking a patient’s gender seems like a small problem, but can reflect a systemic lack of connected data that can and does lead to faulty billing, misdiagnosis, bad overall care, and unrealized revenue for the business. Enter Siemens Healthcare, whose job is to fix the healthcare industry through technology solutions, services, and consulting. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Healthcare, Industries, Integration Tagged With: Big Data, care, event driven healthcare, health, Healthcare, healthcare issues, healthcare problems, healthcare reform, integration, interoperability, patients, Siemens Healthcare

Integration is Integral to 21st-Century Healthcare

January 15, 2013 by Doug Evans 3 Comments

The most progressive healthcare organizations are implementing a new vision – using information and events occurring in the course of care to recognize trends and patterns, and to act upon them immediately. They are able to influence outcomes rather than to react to them after they occur. It’s what we call Event-Driven Healthcare. But none of this is possible without the cornerstone of integration and interoperability.

Integration is Job One

The importance of integration in healthcare is nothing new. Dr. David J. Brailer, MD, PhD, a former United States public health official, perhaps best known as the first “health information czar”, summarized it this way in 2004:

“Unless interoperability is achieved, physicians will still defer IT investments, potential clinical and economic benefits won’t be realized, and we will not move closer to badly needed healthcare reform in the US.”

Some healthcare organizations are clearly at the forefront of this sea change. Take for example University of Chicago Medicine or Vanderbilt University Medical Center which are advancing the way clinical decision support is used for improving outcomes. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Healthcare, Industries, Integration Tagged With: care, event driven healthcare, health, Healthcare, healthcare issues, healthcare problems, healthcare reform, integration, interoperability

Why Should You Care About Healthcare?

January 14, 2013 by Kevin Jordan 2 Comments

45.7 million people in America do not have health insurance. 16 million people are under-insured and do not have adequate protection. $768 is the amount an average family of four falls short in having to pay for healthcare premiums each year with an annual minimum wage salary. $8,233 is how much the American government spends on healthcare for each person every year.

Healthcare is widely discussed and debated all over the world, but for good reason. I will admit that healthcare issues were not always at the forefront of my mind. However, when I saw the numbers and realized what could be improved upon, that is when I knew that caring about healthcare was in everyone’s best interest. One day I will go to the doctor for something – my annual check-up if I am diligent – and realize that something I had not entirely appreciated before is actually essential. “I do not need any medical work done, so what do I care?” The next thought that I had was, “Should I care?”

Do a simple Google search for any news story related to healthcare and the word reform is sure to follow. In general, healthcare reform is just means to change health policy with the hopes to improve the quality of the system in place. Reform is synonymous with change, but it also has the connotation that the change will be for the greater good, to make something better or fix a problem. In order to develop a solution, the problem needs to be identified, so let us reexamine the numbers. [Read more...]

Filed Under: general, Healthcare Tagged With: america, americans, data, Healthcare, healthcare issues, healthcare policy, healthcare reform, policy

The Nexus of Healthcare Forces

December 19, 2012 by Chris Taylor Leave a Comment

We’re undergoing a revolution in healthcare that started with the American Recovery Act in 2009. Good things can come from bad things, and near economic collapse gave us a reason to invest. The Act funded the switchover from paper to digital record-keeping and amazingly, there was quite a bit of resistance at first. Someday we’ll look back at the arguments against digitization and chuckle. But now that we’re under way, other exciting things are more than possible, they’re happening.

Nexus of healthcare forces

Just as Gartner talks about the Nexus of Forces - cloud, social, mobile and information – healthcare is experiencing its own “nexus” that includes a surge in mobile devices, the aforementioned rapid digitization, big data coming from people, their devices and sensors, real-time analytics and business events. Each is remarkable by itself, but together they are changing healthcare.

Healthcare on the move

Mobile devices are already providing healthcare solutions through things as simple as apps on iPhones that can provide ECG readings in the moment and over time (a historical record). This trend will continue as more apps, devices, and sensors are implemented, with the downside being lots more strain on existing infrastructure. Doctors are using tablets, patients are using apps, and everyone expects access to be readily available. They expect IT to resolve the security issues as quickly as they come up. Governance, security and easy provisioning are an expectation for someone else to resolve.

IT needs help figuring mobility out. Serious help. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Healthcare, Mobility, Tech Trends Tagged With: Healthcare

Dana-Farber Nominates Spotfire as Running Mate in Election for Best Cancer Research

September 12, 2012 by Kevin Jordan Leave a Comment

According to the Associated Press, the U.S. healthcare system wastes over $750 billion a year, which is almost 30 cents of every dollar you spend for medical purposes. How is this wasteful spending happening? We are spending money on unneeded care, paperwork, fraud, and other waste. In light of the Republican and Democratic National Conventions, both President Barack Obama and Republican Nominee Mitt Romney accuse each other of cutting back on Medicare, which will put many people’s lives at risk. No matter your politics, no matter if you are for Obamacare or Romneycare, healthcare is an important issue that some companies do not take lightly. With cancer being the leading cause of death worldwide, some institutions are helping to make sure waste is minimized and answers to our health-related questions are found. Dana-Farber Cancer Institute is a principal teaching affiliate of the Harvard Medical School and is among the leading cancer research and care centers in the United States.

It does not take a political party platform to realize healthcare is an important issue in America. A recent report from an 18-member panel of experts, doctors, business people, and public officials acknowledges the great biomedical knowledge and innovation in medical procedures. However, American healthcare does not live up to expectations in terms of outcomes, costs, and equity. What can be done? [Read more...]

Filed Under: Analytics and Optimization, Healthcare, Industries, Spotfire, Transform Tagged With: cancer, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, election, Healthcare, innovation series, medical, president, research, Spotfire, TIBCO

Shift from Being a Technology Supplier to an Experience Provider

May 2, 2012 by Lindsey Ashjian 2 Comments

We all know we’re being sold something every minute of every day. Those who use subliminal messaging to influence their target market may be more sly, and more expensive, but aren’t necessarily more successful. Your product or service’s true value should speak for itself. This often involves informing your consumer to make an educated decision to purchase what you’re selling, because they “get it,” not because you told, cajoled, or hyped them to buy.

The TIBCO–hosted, vertically oriented innovation sessions open dialogue regarding innovation. We provide a forum for customers and prospects to share their challenges and successes, so others (including us!) can learn from them. The better you know your customers and peers, the better experience you can provide.

Discover how TIBCO shifts the conversation beyond single products to a shared culture of solution discovery with the latest addition to our Global Innovation Series, captured at the HIMSS Healthcare IT Conference. We learned what’s hot in healthcare straight from some of the industry’s most respected thought leaders.

Filed Under: Healthcare, Two-Second Advantage Tagged With: Alameda County Medical Center, Cognizant, Dr. Howard Landa, Dr. Praveen Soti, Gary Ferguson, Global Innovation Series, Healthcare, HIMSS, Innovation, Peter Ragusa, Ted Dellavechia, TIBCO, VoiceHIT

Unifying Electronic Health Records to Improve Patient Outcomes

April 3, 2012 by Kenan Frager 1 Comment

In healthcare, the need to conform to government regulations and the ever-increasing desire to improve patient outcomes results in a significant challenge to stay competitive. How can you provide better care while avoiding risk and raising revenue? By properly utilizing healthcare information technology. Technological solutions allow healthcare providers to streamline processes and raise operational efficiency.

Most health networks have multiple records per patient with no easy way to link these records for a full, cohesive picture of the patient’s health and the services they require. This unconnected infrastructure results in slower care, higher costs, and reduces efficiency on a large scale. TIBCO’s solution provides a unified electronic health record that links each admission across multiple care settings, thus increasing operational efficiency for a view of each patient that is single, complete, and unique.

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