Big Hairy Audacious Goals for Healthcare IT (and some small ones too) – #HITsm Chat Recap and Commentary

As we’ve been doing the past few weeks, we’re excited to do a bit of a recap and commentary on last week’s #HITsm chat. For those who missed it, we talked about 2017 Goals for Healthcare IT. We started off with the famous Big Hairy Audacious Goals (BHAG) idea which made for some interesting conversation. You can find the full #HITsm tanscript for this chat on Symplur.

There was a wide ranging discussion over the hour, but a certain emphasis on more empowered patients. Here’s a look at some of the interesting ideas and our own commentary on what they tweeted.


It’s sad that this is a BHAG, but it certainly is a challenging goal given the disconnected nature of our healthcare system. Not to mention perverse incentives which make sharing healthcare data difficult to achieve.


The last line of this tweet really captured me. It certainly feels like much of healthcare is more beholden to the CFO than to the patient. That’s brutal for me to even type and is far too close to reality. Does anyone see this changing in the near future?


I’m not sure if these classify as BHAGs or not. They sure feel like they won’t happen despite a lot of people interested in them becoming a reality.


Make healthcare easier? Fascinating to think about. I wonder what cost we pay because healthcare is so hard.


This is a definite BHAG. What’s extraordinary is to start thinking about the innovation that could occur if this was a reality.


I’d like to dig into this one more. Greg certainly knows a lot more about CCDA and FHIR than I do. This is a sad sign for the potential of FHIR going forward.


Topic 2 was about smaller goals that healthcare IT could achieve. I like this one from Max. It highlights a real challenge with how most EHR software programs were implemented. They were done in such a rush that most people were just training for competence. Is it any wonder that many EHR users are unsatisfied? I wonder if training them with quality in mind would change their views of EHRs.


I shouldn’t be shocked, but I’m always surprised by how valuable improving communication can be. I think that’s true in every industry and many parts of life. However, Steve’s suggestion for healthcare is a good one and would likely provide tremendous benefit.


I wonder if this goal should have been under the BHAG section of the chat and not the “simple” goals section. The problem with this idea is that in many cases HIT has been part of the problem. We need to fix that and ensure that HIT is a solution for the majority of people who use it.


I don’t see this changing, but I think it’s part of the problem. I’m always torn when I see this big party and ribbon cutting at the opening of a new hospital. Shouldn’t we be sad that they needed more beds? Shouldn’t we be celebrating when health is so improved that hospitals needed to shut down because they didn’t have enough business?


This relates to the tweet above it. We want lower costs, but who wants to get paid less?


This is very true. And I think heatlhcare IT vendors could do more than they’re doing today. Many are just coasting. Plus, all of them have been distracted by so many government regulations. Is it time to just leave health IT vendors alone for a bit to let them innovate?


Should be a fun chat. Always good to get new perspectives on learning and engagement. See you at next week’s #HITsm chat.

About the author

John Lynn

John Lynn is the Founder of HealthcareScene.com, a network of leading Healthcare IT resources. The flagship blog, Healthcare IT Today, contains over 13,000 articles with over half of the articles written by John. These EMR and Healthcare IT related articles have been viewed over 20 million times.

John manages Healthcare IT Central, the leading career Health IT job board. He also organizes the first of its kind conference and community focused on healthcare marketing, Healthcare and IT Marketing Conference, and a healthcare IT conference, EXPO.health, focused on practical healthcare IT innovation. John is an advisor to multiple healthcare IT companies. John is highly involved in social media, and in addition to his blogs can be found on Twitter: @techguy.

   

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