Pivotal Hires’ Post

"You know, nursing care is about providing the right care to the right patients at the right time. And what really excited me was that when I started working with data, I could actually use the data to understand what do large groups of patients and populations need and how can we use the evidence to actually deliver to them what those interventions are." In a recent conversation with Martha Sylvia, PhD, MBA, RN, a leader in the field of health analytics and population health, I was reminded of the transformative power of data in reshaping healthcare. Dr. Sylvia's journey from clinical nursing to analytics leadership illustrates a critical shift in healthcare: the need to blend clinical experience with data-driven decision-making. Her experience working across various levels of nursing, coupled with her academic and entrepreneurial ventures, positions her uniquely in leveraging data to enhance patient care. A key takeaway from our conversation was the importance of a person-centric approach to data. Traditional healthcare data systems, organized around transactions, often overlook the individual patient's journey through the healthcare system. Dr. Sylvia advocates for a model that focuses on longitudinal, person-centric data, enabling a more holistic view of patient care. Moreover, Dr. Sylvia's work at ForestVue Healthcare Solutions is a testament to the value of interdisciplinary collaboration. By bringing together clinicians, analysts, business leaders, and health equity experts, ForestVue fosters a culture where diverse perspectives converge to tackle healthcare challenges effectively. As we delve deeper into the era of value-based care, Dr. Sylvia's insights are particularly pertinent. Her emphasis on understanding the problem before jumping to solutions resonates deeply in a sector that is often quick to adopt new technologies without thorough evaluation. This conversation reaffirms the role of data in not just understanding and predicting health trends but also in making informed, ethical decisions that ultimately enhance patient outcomes. As professionals in health informatics, it is our responsibility to harness this power responsibly, ensuring that our actions are always aligned with the best interests of those we serve. #HealthInformatics #DataDrivenHealthcare #PopulationHealth #NursingInformatics

CMS Interoperability and Prior Authorization API requirements go into effect 954 days (Jan 1, 2027). That's actually kinda close. If attending CMSA, you can collect valuable insights from MCG's thought leaders and help chart your course to this milestone.

Effective communication plays a vital role in humanizing healthcare and empowering patients. An interdisciplinary group of researchers, educators and health professionals worked to develop this framework, which gives healthcare professionals the tools they need to foster trust and build stronger relationships, which are essential to #personcenteredcare. Read this article to learn more about how to reinforce humanity in clinical settings: https://lnkd.in/emswQQyX

Here's a new publication talking about the invaluable role that clinical informaticists play in healthcare: Penn Medicine IS' Anna Schoenbaum is one of the contributing authors delivering this critical thinking. In a nutshell, "Informaticists understand end-to-end workflows and can assist in ensuring the technology meets the needs to support those workflows and support the best clinical outcomes." Read more here. #Pennmedtech #HealthcareIT

Meet the speakers that make the #ICESforum2024 not only possible, but an event not to miss! Our first #ForumFeature today focuses on Diana An, Research Project Manager, ICES. Diana will be a part of the “To REB or not to REB, that is the question: How to work with Data & Analytic Services? Let us count the ways” Spotlight Session.    Register to save your seat for this free, virtual, national dialogue on May 2: https://lnkd.in/gjaq2sBC    Diana is the Research Project Manager of the Applied Health Research Question (AHRQ) program at ICES. In her role, she supports requests from eligible Knowledge Users about health system evaluation, planning and management. Since 2021, Diana has helped more than 100 Knowledge Users obtain answers to their research questions.    Diana’s bio: Diana is the Research Project Manager of the Applied Health Research Question (AHRQ) program at ICES. She has held professional roles in clinical nursing; research; maternal-newborn guideline, metric, and patient material development; and nursing home administration. In her current role, she works with organizations, health system policy makers, scientists, and staff to support research requests informing health system evaluation, planning, and management in Ontario. Since joining ICES in 2021, Diana has helped more than 100 organizations obtain answers to their research questions.    Spotlight Session: “To REB or not to REB, that is the question: How to work with Data & Analytic Services? Let us count the ways” Data & Analytic Services (DAS) provides non-ICES researchers, students and knowledge users access to its linkable, population-level data. This data has been used to make scientific and policy-relevant discoveries that have helped to inform the delivery of evidence-based healthcare in Ontario, across Canada and abroad. This session will provide information on the different ways you can work with DAS, its variety of offerings, and insight into its day-to-day operations. 

It’s no secret healthcare orgs are facing challenges—from resource limitations to workforce crises to healthcare consumerization. In this blog, clinical leader Amanda Heidemann MD, FAAFP shares how Healthwise Advise helped alleviate these pressures instead of adding to them. https://ow.ly/Lj4N50QAMyM #FreeTheContent #HIMSS24

What does the ideal clinical dashboard look like? We asked some top skilled nursing leaders for their perspective. Check out the Clinical Dashboard executive interview series, sponsored by PointClickCare. https://bit.ly/4ae5jUN

Dr. Jayne, a frontline physician, writes a HIStalk article on ‘…Telehealth organizations across the US are jumping into the weight loss business, making it easier for patients to obtain prescriptions for costly injectable medications.’ Employers are trying to curtail costs, such as ‘…Mayo Clinic’s employee health plan has announced that it will cap weight loss medication expenditures at $20,000 per patient as a lifetime maximum.’ This rightly leads to ‘…an unregulated, uncontrolled clinical trial where time and financial means will be influencing outcomes…’ akin to the two-year maximum period for such medications in the U.K.’s NHS. In the U.S., there is ‘…no incentive for a commercial payer to absorb the cost today in order to realize the savings down the road.’ Mayo Clinic is not alone; others have also removed or reduced coverage for their employees, ‘…including Hennepin Healthcare, Ascension, and the The University of Texas System in Austin.’ https://lnkd.in/eazYDnmk

NRC Health's own Chief Transformation Officer, Gregory Makoul, worked with a group of researchers, educators, and healthcare professionals to author the Glasgow Consensus Statement, a framework for patient communication in #healthcare. Take a few minutes to read the paper for yourself, what struck me is how overwhelmingly effective this is if we simply start looking at patients as individuals instead of a diagnosis. #patientexperience In your next patient encounter, try to do the following: 🔌 Connect as humans. #humanconnection is a pathway to therapeutic, trusting relationships, whether episodic or sustained over time, and there is good evidence that human connection has benefits for patients and health professionals. 👓Understand the patient’s perspective. Explore ideas, beliefs, feelings, expectations and/or preferences to an extent relevant and proportionate to the moment and incorporate this knowledge when shaping a care plan with the patient. 📞Be responsive. Meeting the needs of each patient in the context of their life and clinical situation is at the heart of delivering person-centered care. As there is no ‘one size fits all’ model of an effective encounter, it is important to develop a repertoire of skills and strategies that can be applied as needed to accomplish essential tasks.

I am thrilled to see this white paper come to fruition. I want to give special thanks to all of the brilliant informaticians on last year's HIMSS Physician and Nursing Committees and the wonderful support staff at HIMSS who published this today. I hope that executive and clinical stakeholders from all over healthcare are able to understand our role as clinical integrators and the depth of expertise that informaticians bring to improving clinical outcomes every day. #HIMSS #HIMSSPhysicianCommittee #clinicalinformatics #healthinformatics #oraclehealth