Kxnowledge Prescription Blog

Back from Hawaii and a ShareShop with the Everett Clinic (more on that later), now I'm in New Orleans sharing insights from HIMSS.  Yesterday there was a lot networking and educational symposiums on quality, RHIOs, etc. Today kicked off with Steve Ballmer from Microsoft — here is a bit of play by play on Steve's talk:

• The talk kicks off with a video of Microsoft executives sharing their "healthy humility" when it comes to Microsoft's work in healthcare.
• The general session title was "Realizing the Innovation Opportunity" - kicked it off with the quote "information technology will make an incredible difference in the life of patients." 

Ballmer says:

• Microsoft is very focused and committed to building distinct technology and products for healthcare - "It is a special focus that we staffing to support." (Note - staffing of the MS Health Solutions Group has grown from 6 to 600 in 5 years).
• There is an explosion in patient and clinical information…and Digital Lifestyles - the Internet will increasingly be the first place place where people go for health and medical information.  And consumerism is hitting healthcare (No news in those observations).
• Explosion in Clinical Data - from imaging, mapping of the genome, scanning technologies, people sharing health and medical information, increasing complexity of data analysis, need to translate the amounts of data into actionable knowledge!  This will require an incredible amount of technology to make this happen.  This explosion offers a framework of opportunity for delivery of better outcomes, cost effectively.
• Gap in Technology!  How do we harness it?  …that is a question Steve has asked the MS people for years.  Healthcare is the single largest industry history in the world - but we don't see the same standardization of software tools as other industries! Why?  He said he didn't think the IT industry has met the need of healthcare providers to deal with the explosion of information - we have to push forward.  The information technology industry must step up to deliver the tools to help the industry move to the next level - better outcomes, cost effectively!
• Software: The Strategic Asset - …can deliver the right path at the right price.  Microsoft's Mission to Enable People to Reach their Full Potential - this depends on a healthy population.  It's an amazing opportunity!

Another video on the future of the wireless-seamless support of future - it's in the lab today at least:

• no words, lots of images of connected integrated, interoperable healthcare scenerios with wired/wireless connected patients and doctors with cool little anywhere, anytime, always on devices managing health and medical conditions…you know interactive wall mounted thin displays, touch sensitive devices delivering seamless health and medical services and information in support of patients

More from Ballmer…

• Consumer Innovation - Connecting Systems, Driving Informed Decisions and Improving Collaboration: supporting patients in how do I get access to medical information where ever I live.
• Very Connected Homes - fill out pre-visit forms online, network with people who have the same condition as you.  Your t.v., smart watch, exercise bike, gaming device, etc can all deliver real-time health and medical messages.  We demonstrated hardware/software in Seattle for leaders last year - it's amazing how far it has come. (Note - the real question here is what groups of people would really want to have all these reminders - some and many people may view them as distracting - the spam of health messaging…eh)
• Provider Innovation - Connecting Systems, Driving Informed Decisions, Improving Collaboration:  SOA or Service Oriented Arch. is a new technology that will have significant implications for healthcare.  New technologies include business intelligence, SOA, etc.

Then there was the Katrina flood video story from LSU Health Network…that illustrated the support Microsoft has given in Southeast Louisiana.  Folks on the video stated that the flood "brought home the need to move from paper records to digital records."

More from Ballmer:

• The OR View - The OR will be revolutionized with unified view, there be a remake of every context inside the hospital and patient home to let doctors and consumers deal with the explosion of information.

One source of information explosion is the consumer and providers and the other is life sciences!

• Here is view from the Life Science - Scripps Cancer BioMedical Research Institute, we are trying understand the proteins on cancer cells and determine interventions that impact cancer.  Our research requires us to collaborate across the world - we have to share data and attach the data in 3D across the Internet with sites worldwide.  Looking at amazing technology to find cancer cells in blood.  They didn't have user interface to deliver a 3D view of the research data so now with the new 3D software tools the cancer data can shared through portal technology across geographic boundaries in real-time!  Build in two weeks with two developers - this was high developer productivity unheard of before.

(Note - frankly I think the HIMSS audience would of been better served by the Columbia Presbyterian presentation at the MS-HUG user symposium on Sunday that demonstrated advanced patient profiling applications using Microsoft tools - which show how doctors and hospitals and aggregate and then display/communication interactively patient conditions - very, very, cool! Here is the link to the presentation - but the interactive Windows Media demo of a multi-media talking patient profile is not in it - I will seek it out and see if can be shared  View presentation from the MS-HUG program

Key News from Steve…

• The Microsoft "Connected Healthcare Framework" - Microsoft has done this type of interoperability connections in other industry.  CHF will be a reference arch for integrating best practices in healthcare.
• The explosion of information is amazing - According to Ballmer "we have only scratched the surface today.  We have 600 people focused on healthcare - last year we acquired was Azyxxi - it is a unified healthcare architecture.  It's an amazing technology - it's one of the most impressive pieces of software innovation that I have seen at Microsoft.   We are announcing the acquisition of a company called MedStory (http://www.medstory.com/) with dedicated search technologies focused on health and medicine for consumers. (Note - this acquisition was targeted by the Microsoft Health Solutions Group which focused on enabling better patient/person health).

More on the Connected Health Framework - the link to the info is:  http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/architecture/bb231558.aspx This is an SOA framework CHF and design blueprint with instructions and code to be used to deploy SOA solutions for the integration of applications and automation of paper-based processes.  There is also a "Health Connection Engine" associated with it.  This is a standards-based set of Web services that is a first in toolsets and guidance documents for healthcare organization providers.

and all of the Microsoft HIMSS press releases:  http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/default.mspx

More later.