Three days into my first week here at Voalte, the office suddenly quieted down considerably. That’s because 17 members of our team headed to HIMSS13, the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society’s annual conference and exhibition. With their pink scrubs pressed and packed, and a 400-square-foot tradeshow booth outfitted with 5 monitors, 4 demo stations and 1 killer hot-pink hanging sign, Team Voalte set out for New Orleans to spread our theme: “Leading You in the Smart Direction.”When they returned to Sarasota, I sat down with Taylor Anderson, Senior Manager of Product Strategy, and Alex Brown, Product Manager. This was Taylor’s third HIMSS experience and Alex’s first. Having never attended myself, I wanted to know: What was hot at HIMSS?
Taylor Anderson: Mobility was a central theme. Only a few years ago, the use of a mobile consumer device in a clinical setting was a novel idea, something many people never expected to become a reality. This year, major EMR vendors such as Cerner and Epic were showcasing products expressly designed for mobile use. I think HIMSS13 will be remembered as the year the smartphone triumphed as a legitimate clinical communication device.
Alex Brown: Everyone who came by our booth “got it.” We didn’t have to sell people on the importance of texting as a clinical communication platform, for example. Text was already part of the conversation, which was great because we’ve been touting its importance for the past three years.
Taylor: The market is coming around to our way of thinking.
Alex: Another major topic of conversation was Meaningful Use Stage 2. Smartphones have enormous potential for barcode medication administration (BCMA), letting clinicians scan meds and prevent errors, and helping hospitals meet Stage 2 requirements. Soon we’ll start to see the integration of communication and medical functions such as barcode scanning, eliminating the need to carry multiple devices.
Taylor: The iPhone 5 and its support of 5GHz Wi-Fi was also generating a lot of buzz. Until now, everyone’s been using the 2.4GHz band, which is getting crowded. Using the iPhone 5 running on 5GHz, hospitals can better segment their traffic and potentially have less interference with other devices. It also has a larger screen size and is lighter than the iPhone 4.
Alex: One of the most innovative apps I saw at HIMSS was MedSnap. You use a smartphone to shoot a photo of a pill or capsule, and it identifies the medication by name and strength instantly. How cool is that?
It all sounds pretty cool to me. Plan on seeing me next year at HIMSS14 in Orlando.