Well, writing so late last night was not such a good idea. My eyes are as red as my tie today. Yes, I am wearing ties and suits in this heat. Well, I omitted the tie today. I am functioning on adrenaline.
So, today I visited more booths and learned more things in sessions. Some of the things I learned today are:
- Cappuccino smoothies are good when mixed with banana
- They wear Hawaiian shirts in Florida too
- I want the new Dell tablet or at last a tablet
- Some people can get into legal trouble based on how they treat their booth models (long story told by another lawyer)
- There is a business opportunity in renting Segways at a conference this size (heck if people will pay $100 for a CD of conference proceedings that are free online and in their delegate bag, surely they want to get to sessions faster)
- We are onto something big with our growth opportunity and if we listen to the Gartner Group analysis, we are ahead of the market and have to move fast or we will lose our opportunity.
I entered the south end of the tradeshow this morning. Some of the booths are 2 stories tall and the size of ½ a football field. Many large vendors have extra underlay so you walk on the moon and fall to a dreary thud as you leave their heavenly floors onto the main, packed isles. It takes me 30 minutes to walk one end of the trade show floor to the other without stopping and at a pace I walk down the street. This 1 million sq ft of tradeshow floor is over a mile long and at least a football field wide. Over this day, I walked that floor 5 times, not counting the weaving up and down the aisles talking to vendors. However, after 30 minutes of walking this morning, I nearly had a seizure from the throbbing lights and trade show props.
I retreated to a session.
What a session! The Harvard professor who also works for Elsevier (the worlds’ largest medical publisher) gave a great lecture on using CDS (clinical decision support) for improving quality. There were 600 in attendance --standing room only.
He described in great detail what is needed to change healthcare. It is our business plan for health. There are several CDS solutions he mentioned and showed that are like our Redengine online platform, populated for health. I talked with Jonathan after and I am headed to their booth this afternoon for a chat. I walked out thinking, we are thinking too narrowly with just dental. Our revolution is larger and our potential greater. We just need more fuel in the tank to hit the gas hard.
I am concluding that HIMSS is all about saving time for doctors and increasing revenue for HMOs. Revenue cycle management is the big new EHR application module this year. Every company will integrate everything if you use their product. Every company has analytical solutions that trigger annoying messages to healthcare workers (in Dr.’s own words at booths) when you don’t follow protocols. There are a number of firms that have hired pretty models to describe technical engineering applications in storage, authentication, HER/EMR and PACS (imaging) that you can only smile at as they experience pain in their faces trying to remember their scripts and scant training. In fact, you often have to fight wanting to laugh.
Also, I missed the GQ issue where Bluetooth earpieces replaced earrings for men as a fashion statement this year. They have also spread to women in running shows and skirts with large shoulder bags.
There are a number of companies here that are selling other very interesting products. Thin client solutions such as a virtualized PC that sits in a blade environment and is accessed by a $1200 dumb terminal into which a user plugs peripherals. It is used so if surgeons have a PC failure in a sterile environment they can push a button and carry on while the network administrator resets the virtual pc that crashed. Also on the hardware side are tablets. So, if the laptop (such as DELL’s new tablet) is $1500, the business case is all on support and failover. Interesting model.
I have found companies that sell furniture, some sell medical scanners, others content for license.
So, today I visited more booths and learned more things in sessions. Some of the things I learned today are:
- Cappuccino smoothies are good when mixed with banana
- They wear Hawaiian shirts in Florida too
- I want the new Dell tablet or at last a tablet
- Some people can get into legal trouble based on how they treat their booth models (long story told by another lawyer)
- There is a business opportunity in renting Segways at a conference this size (heck if people will pay $100 for a CD of conference proceedings that are free online and in their delegate bag, surely they want to get to sessions faster)
- We are onto something big with our growth opportunity and if we listen to the Gartner Group analysis, we are ahead of the market and have to move fast or we will lose our opportunity.
I entered the south end of the tradeshow this morning. Some of the booths are 2 stories tall and the size of ½ a football field. Many large vendors have extra underlay so you walk on the moon and fall to a dreary thud as you leave their heavenly floors onto the main, packed isles. It takes me 30 minutes to walk one end of the trade show floor to the other without stopping and at a pace I walk down the street. This 1 million sq ft of tradeshow floor is over a mile long and at least a football field wide. Over this day, I walked that floor 5 times, not counting the weaving up and down the aisles talking to vendors. However, after 30 minutes of walking this morning, I nearly had a seizure from the throbbing lights and trade show props.
I retreated to a session.
What a session! The Harvard professor who also works for Elsevier (the worlds’ largest medical publisher) gave a great lecture on using CDS (clinical decision support) for improving quality. There were 600 in attendance --standing room only.
He described in great detail what is needed to change healthcare. It is our business plan for health. There are several CDS solutions he mentioned and showed that are like our Redengine online platform, populated for health. I talked with Jonathan after and I am headed to their booth this afternoon for a chat. I walked out thinking, we are thinking too narrowly with just dental. Our revolution is larger and our potential greater. We just need more fuel in the tank to hit the gas hard.
I am concluding that HIMSS is all about saving time for doctors and increasing revenue for HMOs. Revenue cycle management is the big new EHR application module this year. Every company will integrate everything if you use their product. Every company has analytical solutions that trigger annoying messages to healthcare workers (in Dr.’s own words at booths) when you don’t follow protocols. There are a number of firms that have hired pretty models to describe technical engineering applications in storage, authentication, HER/EMR and PACS (imaging) that you can only smile at as they experience pain in their faces trying to remember their scripts and scant training. In fact, you often have to fight wanting to laugh.
Also, I missed the GQ issue where Bluetooth earpieces replaced earrings for men as a fashion statement this year. They have also spread to women in running shows and skirts with large shoulder bags.
There are a number of companies here that are selling other very interesting products. Thin client solutions such as a virtualized PC that sits in a blade environment and is accessed by a $1200 dumb terminal into which a user plugs peripherals. It is used so if surgeons have a PC failure in a sterile environment they can push a button and carry on while the network administrator resets the virtual pc that crashed. Also on the hardware side are tablets. So, if the laptop (such as DELL’s new tablet) is $1500, the business case is all on support and failover. Interesting model.
I have found companies that sell furniture, some sell medical scanners, others content for license.
This evening, I had dinner with a nursing consultant and a New York doctor. They were fascinated by what we are doing and asked when we hit other mainstream medical applications. I explained our criteria and they provided ideas on a number of items related to order sets for various conditions that may present opportunities.
BTW: ‘Order sets’ is the new term for ‘old paper forms that are now electronic’. Ah, the reinvention of Parsonian Discursive Communities. That is, groups that make their own words up to keep other out. I have taken to testing my knowledge of this strange new lexicon by asking the dumb questions, which upon some reflection, these health IT specialists must acknowledge are simpler ways of expressing things.
Needless to say, I am talking to lots of new people. Making friends, sharing ideas. I now have a large stack of playing cards.
I think I am developing a southern drawl from all the folks from the south I am meetin’ y’all.
Oh yes. I met up with, you guessed, more Canadians.
As I left the conference centre this evening, it started to rain. Not a drizzle, but a torrent accompanied by thunder and lightning. I was covered by a walk way, but laboured to breath as the humidity was 93% and temperature 25C. As I got off my shuttle, I had a 10 second run into the hotel, at which time I learned what it feels like to have a hot shower in suit. I dried just in time for dinner.
The taxi ride to the restaurant was an opportunity to tuck the kids in by remote control. We went to a place called Texas de Brazil – a packed restaurant. We ordered wine from a yellow pages thick wine list. We started with a 30’ long oval salad bar with a series of new and interesting meats, cheeses, seafood and veggies. Then once done the salad, we turned over a button at each of our table places from red to green. This signals a throng of waiters to being a procession of 4’ swords of amazing meats – garlic sirloin, tenderloin, pork chop, leg of lamb, chicken, spicy sausage. While you eat protein, they bring out plantain, garlic smashed potatoes and bread stuffed with brie. You eat until you are full. They tempt you some more. Then you turn over your button from green to red, sit back, moan and struggle to order from the dessert menu. Atkins diet extraordinaire (if you avoid the cheese, potatoes, plantain, dessert, alcohol and ….
As I write this, the rain continues. It is after midnight here now. I have had my video conference with Heather. I have written my log for the evening. Time to turn in.
Tomorrow at some point, I treat myself to a public beating by a massage therapist. Ahhhh.
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