CIMIT blog

Headed to Boston for Medical Innovation in Late October

October 27th & 28th - The CIMIT Innovation Congress in Boston

22 October 2009 BOSTON - Just a few days from now I'll be spending the day (October 27th &28) at the CIMIT Innovation Congress. The Congress gives new insights into the future of medicine and provides a forum where we can interact with clinical and engineering innovators who are developing breakthrough technologies to advance healthcare delivery in hospitals, at home and on the battlefield.

All over the country academic medical centers, the government and private industry are collaborating with each other to explore novel approaches to healthcare delivery and they are converging on the Innovation Congress in Boston to share their work.

The general sessions this year seem well rounded and cover the current sphere of healthcare debate. Dr. John Halamka, CIO of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center will be challenging leaders from Microsoft, Google and Dossia to explore solutions that leverage the power of information, software and community to engage patients in their own healthcare.

Keynote speakers will be: Susan Axelrod, President CURE, Mike Harsh, CTO GE Healthcare, Major General James K. Gilman, DoD, Sean Hogan, VP Healthcare Delivery Systems, IBM Healthcare, Clay Christensen, Harvard Business School

The conference will be covering some ambitious themes: Care Anywhere, Wounded Warrior, Breakthrough Technologies and Innovation 101. Of special interest will be the national leaders describing some of the challenges behind Caring for Wounded Warriors and returning veterans, as well as some demonstrations of improved diagnostic tools for PTSD/TBI.

Within the conference is the Exploratorium, which will feature over 50 demonstrations in 4 pavilions: Care Anywhere, Wounded Warrior, Breakthrough Technologies and Innovation 101. I'm especailly looking forward to point of care diagnostics and a point of care HIV patient monitoring device that uses a microfluidic chip to deliver results in one minute.

For more information, please visit the Innovation Congress site.

I look forward to seeing you there!

Best,

Peter Keating, MD

CIMIT Blog is a publication of the Center for Integration of Medicine and Innovative Technology (CIMIT)

Flexible Design Environments Accelerate Delivery of Care Anywhere

Massachusetts General Hospital - Boston, MA

Flexible Design Environments are needed to Accelerate the Delivery of ‘Care Anywhere’ 

BOSTON 21 October 2009 - The time is right to create a primary care system that really works for everyone.  In the near future, all patients will have convenient access to the information, education and care that they need to manage their health effectively, all the time.  Health care providers will be able to care for patients in the right place at the right time, even when the right place is in the home or community.  Realizing this dream requires challenging many of the traditions and assumptions that have driven the delivery of care and have informed the design of our current care delivery environments.  Innovation is difficult in those environments. 

There is a way to move forward.  Health care organizations that are prepared to innovate in primary care must create flexible design environments that will support and accelerate innovation.  These environments must be live clinical practices that innovate at the point of care.  The critical components that will enable these new environments to succeed will be: 

1. A commitment to collaboration with patients.  The patient is potentially the most potent innovator in the game, and when we include them in this work we’ll get it right.  A successful care environment will welcome the patient as the expert in their personal health care journey and recognize that the patient must have input to new approaches to care and to the new processes and technologies that we will create.

2. Flexible, robust care teams.  A care team must have the skills, time, flexibility and resources to work with patients to try new approaches to care.  The team will be able to interact with patients in non-traditional ways, breaking away from the current office visit paradigm to a care model without walls.

3. Dedicated Space.  The physical environments that support new care models will be different than existing primary care facilities.  It is crucial for care teams and patients to get out of their current environment and for health care organizations to clear space for new physical facility designs to emerge. 

4. IT and Telecomm tools.  Information technology and communication technology that connects the patient easily to their care team and enables proactive conversations, sharing of records and educational information and remote monitoring.  The technology to accomplish this exists now and will be adopted more readily in the right environment.

5. Experts in systems, technology and process design.  Experts will be present in a flexible design environment to work with the patients and care team to provide or design tools that support this new care delivery system.  Organizations like CIMIT currently have this expertise and are ready to participate.

6. Financial support.   New medical practice environments will escape the broken fee-for-service payment system that stifles innovation and prevents primary care from realizing its full potential to elevate the health of a population at a lower cost. As new care models emerge and are proven effective, payment schemes will begin to support them.  It is unlikely that effective payment schemes will appear without innovative care models leading the way.

There are real challenges that must be met for organizations to create these environments.  Those challenges can and must be overcome for our primary care delivery system to innovate and evolve. Health care organizations that commit to the development of flexible design environments as a strategy to creating a better delivery system will enable their care providers and patients to lead the way into the future. 

David Judge

Co-Program Leader, Clinical Systems Innovation

David will be a participant in this years Innovation Congress October 27th & 28th 2009 in Boston. For more information on attending please visit the Congress site

CIMIT Blog is a publication of the Center for Integration of Medicine and Innovative Technology

Webcasting and Medical Education

Webcasting and Medical Education

BOSTON 20 October 2009 - Over the past three years, the Harvard Trauma and Critical Care Symposium has successfully brought together health care providers from around the North East and the country to review state-of-the-art information about the diagnosis and management of severely ill patients.

This year, Symposium director Dr. George Velmahos is expanding the scope of the course using webcasting to connect health care providers around the world. Whether logging in from a neighboring state or a faraway country, the lectures, expert panels, and interactive sessions delivered by a prestigious faculty will be made available online to those who share an interest in trauma and critical care.

Rising travel costs pose a significant barrier to accessing medical education and many physicians are finding increasingly difficult to take time off to attend conferences. The webcast offers relevant education for physicians and nurses working in advanced settings as well as those practicing in under served areas.  

To facilitate a more interactive experience, the online course will provide participants with opportunities to ask questions online and respond to multiple-choice tests to earn CME credits. An archived version of the webcast will also be available for those logging in from different time zones. Finally, an audio-only option and downloadable PowerPoint presentations for each session will be available for those who lack high-bandwidth Internet connections.

Susan Axelrod and her Experience with Epilepsy on 60 Minutes

Watch CBS News Videos Online

A clinical focus group on epilepsy will convene on October 27th &28th in Boston

BOSTON, 19 October 2009 - Millions of Americans and their families live every day with the immense challenges of epilepsy. Seizures that strike unpredictably at any moment and cause injury or even death; treatment side effects that continually impair thinking, emotions and coordination; related medical and psychological conditions; limitations in learning, driving and employment; and social stigma are just a few of these many challenges.

We need new treatments. We need new diagnostic tests to be able to choose the best treatments. We need new approaches to thinking about treatments. And we need people living with epilepsy to keep us focused
and on track.

That's why physicians, engineers and others are convening at the upcoming CIMIT Innovation Congress to hear from people directly impacted by epilepsy.

In her keynote address, Susan Axelrod will talk about her personal experience with epilepsy, and the important roles that patients and families have in defining the unmet needs, participating in clinical trials and supporting groundbreaking research. Susan poignantly describes her family's struggle with epilepsy during her October 25 interview with Katie Couric on 60 Minutes.

In addition, a panel discussion will explore ways to accelerate the movement of new technologies from academic laboratories to patient care.  I know how difficult it can be to introduce new technologies for epilepsy therapy, yet the same challenge holds true for all diseases -- cancer, heart disease, and more.  Patient advocates are critical voices in these endeavors.

We can all make a difference! Can you help? 

Dr. Steven Schachter

Chief Academic Officer, CIMIT

CIMIT blog is a publication of the Center for Integration of Medicine and Innovative Technology