Aligning IT strategies with business objectives is critical to successful implementation and clinician adoption of digital healthcare solutions. Lack of coordination and communication can, unfortunately, lead to deployment of solutions that efficiently and effectively deliver undesired financial and clinical outcomes. In addition, IT strategies must offer the data points and information that can be used to support key initiatives.

Payors, including CMS, are beginning to utilize pay for performance as a method to manage the quality, safety and efficiency of care. As healthcare IT is the foundation for the measures used by pay for performance, it is critical that the IT solutions chosen satisfy the information needs of these reimbursement programs. Failing to consider solutions with these business objectives in mind may significantly reduce the ability of such programs to achieve crucial goals.

In this session experts on pay for performance issues and healthcare IT will:
• Review the current state of pay for performance programs
• Explore the CMS demonstration ambulatory pay for performance program being implemented at the Marshfield clinic
• Discuss the critical factors of an IT strategy that can help deliver the information necessary for a successful pay for performance program

To effectively utilize clinical technology, clinicians and implementers must think of new ways of doing things, rather than the automation of existing paths. Improvement occurs through innovation.

In this session attendees will explore:
• Review some of the recent lessons in deploying clinical technologies
• Learn about the role of path innovation in securing successful implementation
• Explore the place change management has in achieving desired results of technology adoption

Although the number of new technologies available to providers is enormous and the benefits huge, no organization has the resources, both in people and finances, to implement them all. Organizations need to develop a strategic plan for choosing new technologies and develop a reasonable timeline for implementation.

In this session attendees will explore:
• How should organizations choose new technologies?
• How do various stakeholders develop a strategic plan to choose those technologies?
• What is important to ensure a successful implementation?
• How does an organization ensure the correct vendors and technologies are chosen?

RFID has long been used in the retail sector as a security device to track merchandise. Recently the FDA announced a new rule requiring the use of RFID to track drug shipments. In this session attendees will explore:

• What are the potential applications of RFID in healthcare?
• How will RFID impact patient safety?
• Is RFID truly viable for use in medication safety activities?
• What impact will RFID have on materials and supply chain management in hospitals and clinics?

Personal health records (PHRs) complement clinical documentation by providing patients with access to subsets of their clinical records while offering them the health information management tools needed for self-care and effective health care utilization.

Insuring that PHRs serve both patients and the health care system requires resolution of three key issues: 1) Rights of access, control, and utilization, 2) Accountability for accurate data and persistent availability of the PHR, and 3) Development of comprehensive, sustainable cost strategies.

In this session attendees will explore:
• The range of implementations of PHRs
• The role PHRs could play in patient self-managment
• The rights associated with full implementation of PHRs

With the rapid discovery of new medical information, it is increasingly important for physicians to learn and apply this new clinical knowledge at the point of care. Recent articles have pointed out how patient outcomes can vary widely in different geographic regions of the country for the same disease state.

In this session attendees will explore:
• Does EHR reduce or eliminate the variance in patient outcomes?
• How can clinical content embedded within the EHR enhance patient safety?
• How do you achieve clinician adoption of clinical evidence?
• Is local or regional variance possible?
• What role does change management play?

This session will bring together a distinguished group of CIO's who will discuss the drivers, challenges and best practices of healthcare IT adoption today and tomorrow. They will discuss the factors that are influencing the future direction of their technology investments and the changes that are required to meet the growing needs of their organizations.

• Real world lessons from the data center to the boardroom
• Future opportunities and risks
• Building consensus and adoption from CEO's to clinicians
• Balancing the demands of EHR versus other applications

Presentation Video: CIO SPOTLIGHT: The Current and Future Issues Impacting Healthcare IT

While much has been made of a futuristic “digital hospital,” there are organizations that have already brought the future to 2005.

In this session, leaders of a functioning “digital hospital” will:
• Explore their strategy that makes the digital hospital real
• Review the various information technologies deployed
• Describe the approach that delivered widespread clinician adoption of the new technologies.

Currently, physicians are held responsible for the health outcomes of their patients. As information technology invades medicine through such applications as computerized physician order entry, clinical decision support tools and physicians portals, these technologies are taking a more prominent and significant role in directing patient care. Although responsibility for any malpractice falls squarely on the shoulders on the physician, these new applications put that longstanding assumption into question.

In this session, attorneys with experience in medical malpractice law representing patients, physicians, vendors and hospitals will:
• Describe the current state of malpractice case law
• Explore potential scenarios that might change the status quo
• Review the potential areas or exposure for hospitals and information technology vendors

Patient safety wargames are an effective approach to help organizations understand enterprise-wide cross functional safety and quality issues. Wargames allow participants, in a simulated environment, to work through multi-stakeholder issues that often arise in addressing and planning for improved safety and quality.

In this session participants will:
• Learn how patient safety wargames can play a valuable role in impacting HIT strategy, deployment and adoption across enterprises
• Learn how patient safety wargames can stress test alternative safety strategies
• Understand why wargames are an effective complement for organization’s ongoing quality and safety improvement activities

At last year’s Digital healthcare Conference attendees heard from government leasders assigned the task to advance interoperability of healthcare information. Although we are far from realization of systems that exchange information seamlessly, some organization are moving forward on a regional basis to build intraoperability.

In this session, attendees, hearing from several leaders actively involved in building a network, will learn:
• What are successful hospital strategies that support regional health information networks
• Where will the funds come to finance the infrastructure to support these networks
• Where do the benefits truly accrue from building this intraoperabiloity