HIMSS18 Kicks Off with Six Groundbreaking Health Tech Innovations Revealed

On March 5, 2018, the HIMSS18 conference was grandly held in Las Vegas. Giants in the healthcare industry were poised for action, all striving to take the lead in the medical field this year with new technologies and concepts.

IBM will showcase a range of cutting-edge technologies, including machine learning, blockchain, and cybersecurity, at this conference; Google will propose new solutions for public health safety information and interoperability issues; and numerous startups have also brought their highly promising products to the event.

What new weapons have been unveiled? VCBeat (WeChat ID: vcbeat) will take you through a review of the six previously revealed “black tech” products.

Google has consistently remained at the forefront of innovation, and healthcare institutions are eagerly anticipating that Google Cloud will provide enhanced solutions for system management, data management, and security to address the numerous shortcomings of current systems.

The Google Developer Innovation Lab Launch Event will be held at Booth 9900 from 9:30 to 10:00 a.m. on March 7, where Gupta and HIMSS North America Innovator Adam Culbertson will deliver presentations focusing on system security and interoperability.

Joe Corkery, Head of Google Cloud’s Health and Life Sciences Products Team, will discuss healthcare cybersecurity with Google Cloud at Booth 9900 from 10:00 a.m. to 10:20 a.m. on March 7.

Gregory Moore, Vice President of Healthcare at Google Cloud, will discuss machine learning and cloud computing from 10:00 to 11:00 a.m. on March 7 at Palazzo K, exploring a more digital future.

Since the launch of IBM Watson Health at the HIMSS15 conference, IBM has been continuously expanding its product portfolio and seeking new ways to help customers better implement value-based care.

However, prior to the conference, IBM did not provide specific details about the products unveiled at the event, offering only general remarks on the relevant technologies. Yet its recent spree of acquisitions has led many to speculate that IBM may be aiming for a more sensational impact when releasing its new research findings.

Telemedicine provider Teladoc will announce at this conference the oncology research findings following its acquisition of Best Doctors last year. In this previously undisclosed acquisition, Teladoc utilized IBM Watson to analyze the acquired data and literature. Upon completion of the learning process, Watson became capable of providing recommendations to oncologists on data-driven questions.

“It would take a physician 29 hours a day to keep up with the latest medical literature,” said Dan Trencher, Senior Vice President at Teladoc, half-jokingly. “Obviously, that’s impossible. Even the world’s top experts can still benefit from technology to provide personalized support for their patients.” By comparison, Watson can learn faster and more accurately.

“The combination of cognitive computing and expertise can deliver greater value.” Teladoc will showcase the value of this integration at the HIMSS Conference.

A few days ago, Peter Lee, Corporate Vice President of Microsoft AI and Research, unveiled AI accelerators and several related projects. Meanwhile, Microsoft also announced a collaboration with St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.

Microsoft has developed a new application, the Microsoft Azure Security and Compliance Blueprint, targeting HIPAA and HITRUST security and compliance. This end-to-end application helps healthcare organizations transfer data to the cloud in a simpler, compliant, secure, and standardized manner.

Microsoft will provide more detailed introductions to several of its new projects at the HIMSS18 conference, where it may also announce new acquisition plans.

At HIMSS18, Dell EMC will showcase how the company is driving digital transformation in areas such as accountable care and electronic health records.

“Our focus is on four initiatives: Health IT, precision medicine, connected health, and secure digital transformation,” said Roberta Katz, Global Industry Director. “We will demonstrate our four pillars based on the medical cloud using virtual reality.”

Dell EMC is also committed to projects in precision medicine, genomics, and risk management, including collaborating with independent software vendors to develop clinical applications and electronic medical records, as well as working with clinical partners to create interactive healthcare applications.

At this conference, Sonifi Health stood out as a unique company by focusing on the digitalization of healthcare service processes.

In the past, healthcare staff were accustomed to writing patient assignment details and other information on whiteboards outside hospital rooms. Sonifi Health aims to digitize this process, transforming a record-keeping method steeped in a “classical” ambiance.

Sonifi Health will showcase its digital whiteboard at the conference, which electronically displays clinically relevant patient information, staff/patient assignments, current laboratory results, medication schedules, risk indicators, and more. The aim is to enhance hospital operational efficiency.

eClinicalWorks primarily builds electronic health records (EHR) for patients and hospitals, while also providing personal information cloud services. At this exhibition, eClinicalWorks will launch a new software designed to create unified electronic health records, enabling seamless data integration between outpatient and emergency care.

eClinicalWorks also announced that it would deepen its collaboration with Hamilton, a healthcare company operating a 42-bed community hospital headquartered in Texas. The hospital will be among the first to adopt the new software in the second half of 2018.

According to the company’s management, the tool was designed under the guidance of clinical physicians and provides Hamilton clinicians with real-time information to display all clinical details in both the emergency department and the operating room.

According to VCBeat, as many as 100 companies participated in this HIMSS conference, with the aforementioned technologies and innovative products representing just the tip of the iceberg. VCBeat will continue to provide real-time coverage of the HIMSS18 conference; stay tuned.