Focus on Innovation

Healthcare innovation solving problems and improving the patient experience

Innovation is everywhere in healthcare right now. Apps, big data, social, mobile and open APIs foretell disruption that could emerge from inside or outside the traditional health IT space.

In September, we'll talk to the technologists and hospitals leaders about their top priorities, how they foster the development of innovative projects, apps and devices, as well as advice for overcoming the hardest challenges – all while preparing strategies to keep pace in the fast-changing world of health information and technology.

Innovation in action

News

Here's what innovators really need from EHR makers to move healthcare forward

by Tom Sullivan
APIs are a great start, but so much more goes into building an app and winning customers.
News

Healthcare innovators looking to China face challenges, opportunities

by Laura Lovett
Startups thriving in the US must adapt to a new healthcare system and intellectual property regulations to operate in the Chinese market.
News

Patient advocates: We can help innovators build digital health tools

by Dave Muoio
From design to validation to deployment, any novel health tech innovation comes with a number of challenges and considerations that requires a coordinated effort from every stakeholder.
News

How hospitals can engage consumers to innovate a new patient experience

by Laura Lovett
Executives from Dana Farber, Partners, BIDMC and Northwell share tips and insights about working with patients in the tech development process.
News

How providers can innovate to combat physician burnout

by Jeff Lagasse
Increasingly, health leaders are recognizing the need to utilize one or more approaches to the multifaceted problem.
News

Consumerism focus and global market insights are key to innovation

by Mike Miliard
When developing, funding, scaling and evolving innovation projects, it's key to gain insights from around the world – and to keep consumer top of mind, HIMSS innovation expert Ian Hoffberg says.
News

Interoperability needs architecture, HIMSS CTIO says

by Tom Sullivan
And there’s already one in the JASON Report from 2014 that was eclipsed by the industry’s excitement about open APIs.
News

3 key aspects of a killer app for healthcare

by Tom Sullivan
HIMSS Chief Technology and Innovation Officer Steve Wretling says developers need to build the experience healthcare hasn’t had yet.
News

Innovation foundation: Smart data governance is a team sport

by Mike Miliard
Five roles to develop and four rules to follow for effective and secure data governance.
News

How the FDA is shaping healthcare innovation

by Laura Lovett
In the last year the FDA has taken steps to evolve its process for regulating software as a medical device, personal genomics and clinical decision support technology.
News

What's your hospital's innovation strategy?

by Bill Siwicki
One has a moat surrounding its products no one can get through while the other offers an open operating system for all to use.
News

Former Allscripts CEO: Patient empowerment is the future

by Tom Sullivan
The Livongo founder said that digital health makes people smarter, helps navigate healthcare and eases payments is where innovation will come from.
News

Healthcare innovation giving rise to the Chief Digital Officer

by Tom Sullivan
Pamela Dixon of SSi-Search on the emerging CDO role and how it differs from traditional CIOs, CTOs and other executive positions.
News

FDA-approved healthcare tech in 2018 (so far)

by Dave Muoio
A collection of 34 approvals and clearances by the US Food and Drug Administration during Q3 and beyond.
News

Execs share advice to foster a culture of innovation

by Beth Jones Sanborn
William Morris, Rasu Shrestha, and Shafiq Rab say to identify innovators, think purpose-built tech, embrace the unsexy, and protect your investments.
News

A look inside Epic, Cerner and Allscripts app store programs

by Bill Siwicki
Executives explain how the developer initiatives work and why they’re fueling innovation and shaping future direction of their platforms.
News

Cybersecurity: Innovating staff buy-in and avoiding silver bullet tools

by Jessica Davis
Hackers are constantly innovating attack methods and organizations need to follow suit, by following trends and choosing cybersecurity tools that fit their business needs.
News

Q&A: HIMSS Innovator in Residence Adam Culbertson

by Jonah Comstock
HIMSS expert Adam Culbertson talks about the open API space and how it can impact change in healthcare.
News

Disruption timeline: CVS and Aetna, Amazon’s pact with Berkshire and JPMorgan

by Susan Morse
Here’s a look at how we got to the cusp of innovative technologies and business models healthcare is facing right now.
News

Blockchain being put to work by IBM, Intel, CDC to combat opioid epidemic

by Mike Miliard
Add this to blockchain’s growing list of innovative use cases: tracking prescription and population health data.
News

3 charts explain where healthcare innovation is headed

by Tom Sullivan
New HIMSS Media research spotlights what innovations are needed most, top areas hospitals are prioritizing and sticking points to avoid.

HIMSS TV at Health 2.0

News

AI works to close brain-behavior gap with healthy eating app

by HIMSS TV
Kyra Bobinet, MD, founder the neuroscience-based design firm EngagedIN, is working with AI algorithms in Walmart’s Fresh Tri app to build a brain taxonomy to identify behavior to help individuals understand what motivation changes their food habits.
News

VR rehab advancing prosthetic limb tech

by HIMSS TV
Albert Chi, MD, medical director of Muscle Integration at Oregon Health & Science University and patient Johnny Matheny demonstrate how nerve reassignment and VR rehab work to advance prosthetic limb technology.
News

API expands health data into risk scores, but are consumers ready for it?

by HIMSS TV
Matt Park, the general manager of the Swiss-based Dacadoo Americas, explains how the company’s health scoring app works and their bet consumers also want to calculate their real time health risks with a new component of the open API.
News

Consumer-oriented access to healthcare is a patient expectation

by HIMSS TV
Livongo CEO Glen Tullman explains that moves by businesses like Amazon and CVS are pushing the traditional healthcare system model because ready or not, consumers want to make their own healthcare decisions.
News

HHS working to leverage APIs to help healthcare consumers

by HIMSS TV
Advancing open APIs so consumers can better coordinate their healthcare is a key piece of the 21st Century Cures Act implementation for Thomas Mason, MD, chief medical officer for the National Coordinator for HIT at HHS.
News

Healthcare tech should be an asset, not a burden for doctors

by HIMSS TV
Jack Resneck, chair of the American Medical Association Board of Trustees, emphasizes the need for physicians to be involved in the early stages of app development to ensure they actually improve the overall care quality for patients.
News

Walmart wants to influence healthcare with diet-changing app

by HIMSS TV
David Hoke, senior director of associate health and wellbeing at Walmart, explains how the store and its new Fresh Tri app will engage consumers with chronic health conditions to address an important health issue — their diet.
News

Addiction recovery app integrates social network with certified coaches

by HIMSS TV
Chris Pesce, chief operating officer at Sober Grid, talks about how the company won the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation opioid challenge for its mobile app integrating a peer support social network with certified and trained peer recovery coaches.
News

Cloud computing infrastructure allows more time for innovation

by HIMSS TV
Aashima Gupta, global head of Health Solutions at Google Cloud talks about Google’s approach to technology enabling infrastructure with healthcare industry standards to allows organizations to have more time to innovate.
News

Bridging the disconnect between tech and care delivery

by HIMSS TV
Beth Kutscher, senior news editor for healthcare at LinkedIn, explains how the social networking platform is developing digital health content and what it believes it can do to address the disconnect between technology and care delivery.

Project Management

News

Tackling the last mile of an innovation project

by Jonah Comstock
Experts share advice about how to avoid “death by pilot” and move new products to scale.
News

How to prepare and monitor projects with a dashboard

by Jonah Comstock
As innovation becomes a constant process in the enterprise, it’s important to make sure resources are being used as effectively as they can be.
News

CIO's guide to creating a dashboard for tracking innovation projects

by Bill Siwicki
The key performance indicators, measurable processes, implementation data and demonstrable value are what makes an effective innovation dashboard.
News

Checklist: Moving innovation projects from pilot to production

by Mike Miliard
Automation, customization and – above all – an ability to show value and ROI are must-haves for hospitals looking to make promising tech take root.
News

Innovation requires multi-year commitment, say execs from HIMSS Healthbox

by Mike Miliard
Whether developing new digital tools, making strategic investments or partnering with tech startups, hospitals have plenty of ways to innovate.

Reader opinions

News

Digital health tools ahead of hospitals in the race to consumerism

by Tom Sullivan
While many readers are optimistic that healthcare will make progress on consumerism in one to three years, others said it will take between five and seven to actually happen.
News

Poll results: Hospitals divided on Apple vs Android strategy

by Tom Sullivan
Open source? Proprietary? Both? Readers reveal which innovation tactics they take.
News

Poll results: Readers support FDA Pre-Cert

by Jonah Comstock
The results to our poll about the FDA program prompt questions about the program's fairness to companies big and small.
News

Poll results: CVS-Aetna most likely to disrupt healthcare

by Tom Sullivan
Readers pointed to the incumbent’s domain expertise and broad member base outweighing Amazon’s innovative nature.

Latest from Health 2.0

News

Tech can address, but not solve, stigmatized public health crises

by Jonah Comstock
At Health 2.0, experts and technologists explored tools for fighting physician suicide, opioid addiction, and eating disorders.
News

Companies large and small tackle data privacy at Health 2.0

by Dave Muoio and Jonah Comstock
Google, Nebula Genomics, take notice of consumer calls for control over data.
News

Digital health startups should be selective with funding

by Jonah Comstock
How to pick the right backers, according to investors from Sanofi Ventures, Canaan Partners, and GE.
News

Emerging markets around globe will change the culture of innovation

by Laura Lovett
Panelists at Health 2.0 in Santa Clara, California talk about the world wide innovation culture and why its important to look toward emerging markets for new health technologies. 
News

Winners of AI, opioid challenge announced at Health 2.0

by Dave Muoio
Buoy Health’s chatbot for patient health education and Sober Grid's social addiction support platform each received top honors after pitching their platforms live at Health 2.0. 
News

HIMSS CEO Hal Wolf: Silver Tsunami is driving global health innovation

by Laura Lovett
The global aging population may be straining resources, but could also be what pushes digital health innovations.
News

Pay-as-you scale startup for providers Beam launches at Health 2.0

by Laura Lovett
New York-based startup Beam, a digital health platform that lets providers communicate with patients and insurers, launched at Health 2.0 in Santa Clara, California. 
News

Health 2.0: Don't let technology take humans out of healthcare

by Laura Lovett
Patient advocates at Health 2.0 spoke about balancing technological breakthroughs and keeping the human touch. 
News

Women's health claim victory in VentureConnect competition

by Dave Muoio
Mira and Avhana Health surpassed a pool of 60 entrants to place first in the contest's consumer and provider tracks, respectively.

Hospital Innovation

News

What innovation looks like at a large academic medical center

by Mike Miliard
Ochsner Health's chief clinical transformation officer gives us a look behind the curtain, showing how the system makes innovation fundamental to its mission.
News

What innovation looks like at a medium-sized hospital

by Mike Miliard
Springhill Medical Center keeps a focus on physician and patient engagement as it works to drive process improvements and stay competitive.
News

What innovation looks like at a small, remote hospital

by Mike Miliard
Artesia General Hospital stays focused on building partnerships where it can, optimizing its EHR and enhancing patient and physician experience.

HIMSS Learning Center

Investments in innovation

News

CFOs share innovation investment strategies amid political uncertainty in DC

by Beth Jones Sanborn
CFOs share innovation investment strategies amid political uncertainty in DC
News

CFO's guide to creating a successful innovation dashboard for healthcare

by Jeff Lagasse
The core of a dashboard is information as systems track the development and efficacy of innovation projects.
News

Innovative payment models from CMS are coming

by Susan Morse
CMS has made it clear that it wants health systems to share the risk of cost and outcomes.
News

NHS launches healthcare finance innovation initiative

by Leontina Postelnicu
Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust's charity is looking for startups to develop tech for healthcare.
News

Challenge of new tools for hospitals? Reimbursement

by Jeff Lagasse
When healthcare innovations aren't reimbursed, hospitals are forced to make tough choices about equipment.
News

A new breed of Medicaid innovators rises to tackle social determinants of health

by Susan Morse
Town Hall Ventures, Amazon and Socially Determined are bringing a new focus to a long-neglected part of the healthcare industry.

Leaders driving innovation

News

Health 2.0 and HIMSS: Why coming together strengthens the healthcare community

by HIMSS TV
Indu Subaiya, co-founder of Health 2.0 discusses value in bridging the gap between start-ups and European hospital IT leaders.
News

A call to action: Using open APIs to solve global healthcare challenges

by HIMSS TV
Aneesh Chopra urges developers at the Dev4Health conference to leverage the open API ecosystem.
News

Keynote presentation: Leading innovation and enterprise transformation

by HIMSS TV
Cleveland Clinic CIO Ed Marx discusses the job’s growing strategic focus to connect strategy, technology and people.
News

How Sitra is fostering healthcare innovation in Finland

by HIMSS TV
Pia Heikkurinnen talks about the support the Finnish government is giving Sitra to back digital health startups and innovators.
News

How the Danish healthcare system is investing in efficiency

by HIMSS TV
Claus Duedal Pederson talks about how the Danish single-payer system is leveraging technology to improve care quality.
News

It's not about technology; it's about culture

by HIMSS TV
Lucien Engelen, director of the Radboud Innovation Center in the Netherlands, explains what tech adoption looks like.
News

The road to Dev4Health and a new map for innovation

by HIMSS TV
Indu Subaiya and Matthew Holt lay out the evolution of their organization and highlight new research into emerging trends.
News

Presentation: Why innovation requires collaboration

by HIMSS TV
Adrian Zai, director of research at Partners Healthcare, talks about the importance of leadership buy-in and innovation support.

Presentation: You don't have to choose between security and innovation

by HIMSS TV
Chris Bowen at ClearData, and Rohit Talreja at Google Cloud, explain why data security and innovation aren't mutually exclusive.