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@ShahidNShah

Guest Article: Policy management software for hospitals and clinics helps with change management

Complex healthcare IT projects like EHR implementations, ICD-10 migration, and related IT initiatives require sophisticated change management practices and policies. Given the people-centric nature of policy development, those of us in IT usually assume that change and policy management can’t be automated, usually to our detriment. To help understand how that’s not quite correct, I reached out to the developers of PolicyStat, which provides policy and procedure software for hospitals, labs, outpatient clinics and integrated health networks.

Shahid N. Shah

Guest Article: Actionable advice on how to make tangible progress in ICD-9 to ICD-10 migration

The CMS-required ICD-9 to ICD-10 migration requirement is creeping upon us and I’ve been getting lots of questions from readers about what steps technology vendors and healthcare providers should be taking in getting ready for the undertaking. To help get some actionable advice I reached out to Steve Dion, a senior marketing manager for GE Healthcare, and Kim Lorusso a product marketing manager for GE Healthcare. They have been successful in helping many customers make progress on their ICD-10 migration by using GE’s Centricity Business solution for ICD-10; it is something worth checking out and you can follow them on Twitter at @GEHealthcareIT.

Shahid N. Shah

How to manage HIPAA security in a way that actually enhances security and not just fills in documentation

I get lots of questions about HIPAA security these days; especially as EHR firms, hospitals, payers, and startups alike are being asked about their HIPAA policies. My general recommendation is that you should forget about HIPAA at first (it’s a toothless, generally unenforceable, regulation that will never improve security because it is a bureaucratic compliance tool). Instead, you should concentrate on good security practices, good security policies, follow recommended NIST guidance, and then come back and tie in the HIPAA regulations to make sure you don’t miss anything from the privacy side.

Shahid N. Shah

Regulatory compliance officers need not fear open source software in medical devices or mission-critical healthcare IT systems

I spent the past few days in Boston at the Harvard Medical School Conference Center speaking audiences at the Medical Device Connectivity Conference (I presented lectures on how to design next-generation medical devices and gateways). Many people that attended my lectures showed a great deal of trepidation when I brought up the fact that they should use open source software (OSS) to reduce cost and potentially increase the quality of their devices; the most common excuse I heard was that the regulatory compliance folks wouldn’t allow OSS or that the FDA would disapprove.

Shahid N. Shah

The realities of getting a job in healthcare IT

A few weeks ago I was interviewed by Diann Daniel for an article she recently posted about healthcare IT careers. It’s worth checking out if you’re looking to enter the health IT field. Here was my advice during the interview: Hiring managers are making a mistake if they aren’t looking outside of healthcare for filling IT roles. The only roles that can not be filled by outsiders are in clinical engineering and application-specific specialists.

Shahid N. Shah

Using open source software in safety-critical medical devices

Earlier this year the nice folks at O’Reilly Associates were kind enough to invite me to speak about how to use open source in safety-critical medical devices. The open source conference (“OSCon 2011”) was terrific and I met some old friends as well as made tons of new friends. Many of you have asked me to upload my presentation from the talk and I’m happy to oblige. As we know, FDA regulated medical devices are considered safety-critical systems due to their ability to affect patient lives.

Shahid N. Shah

Denmark has lots of healthcare IT competence and a potentially formidable talent pool

Many people outside our country believe that we’re “behind the times” when it comes to healthcare IT. So, over the past few years I’ve traveled to several countries, usually at the request of embassies, to help evaluate various technical / IT companies to see how much applicability they have to the U.S. government or healthcare markets (both specialties of mine). I typically go out, speak at conferences, conduct my reviews, and end up coming back with only a few companies or pockets of interesting projects that might find some success selling to the U.

Shahid N. Shah

$50k available for your health IT startup ideas

This morning I spoke with the founders of HealthBox, a business incubator and accelerator program focused on health IT startups. If you’ve got a great idea that you’d like to get funded, need $50k to make it come to fruition, and don’t mind giving up 7% of your company to the accelerator program then HealthBox may be for you. They’re giving away a good amount of cash ($50k vs. the normal $20k for other tech accelerators), but what I like most about their effort is that they have a strong partnership with three key buyer segments: Walgreens for retail, Ridgeview Medical Center for providers, and Blue Cross Blue Shield for payers.

Shahid N. Shah

Join me in Boston on Sept 8th and 9th to learn about how to build health IT and med device gateways

I’ve been invited back to speak at the Medical Device Connectivity Conference, one of the best practical and “get the job done” kind conferences that I attend all year. This year I am Chairing the “Manufacturers” track, participating in one panel, and giving two talks – my short talk is a presentation entitled “Best Practices for Embedded Medical Device and Gateway Software Applications” and the other is a longer workshop called “How to use Open Source Software and other Low-Cost Design Techniques To Build Safety-Critical Medical Device Platforms and Meaningful Use EHR Gateways”.

Shahid N. Shah
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