HIMSS14 Hot Button Trend – Mobility

By Terry Edwards  /  05 Mar 2014

Last week at HIMSS14 the PerfectServe team hit the ground running – from one-on-one customer meetings to high-level group sessions, we had a tremendous time networking and collaborating with our customers, prospects and health IT peers.

One theme stood out in all of my conversations and interactions throughout the week – mobility. I’m sure this has something to do with the fact that I run a clinical communications company—and discussions of mobility and communications go hand in hand. My discussions drilled into what the market wants and needs, where the market is at today, and how the market will develop over the next five years.

In terms of what the market wants and needs, hospitals and integrated delivery networks need a way to easily provide and support mobile devices that are modified and hardened for clinicians working in the acute care environment. They also need communication and collaborative applications that run on these devices, and those applications need connectivity that extend beyond the four walls of the hospital to enable communication with clinicians carrying BYOD devices who work across the acute, pre- and post-acute care settings.

In terms of where the market is today, many hospitals and health systems seem hell bent on finding a secure messaging vendor. For many, this is more of a “check the box” approach to HIPAA compliance, which has fueled a plethora of secure texting apps and vendors. Each one is like a messaging island struggling to drive meaningful adoption. Most of these companies are undercapitalized and it will be interesting to see how many will be around for HIMSS15.

In terms of how the market will develop over the next five years, I don’t have a crystal ball, but I can say that the health systems we work with are crafting a more comprehensive secure, unified communications and mobility strategy. They understand that security extends beyond text messaging. They understand the complexity associated with clinical workflow and the need to build reliability into their communication processes to support those workflows. Moreover, they are looking at their entire ecosystem—beyond their immediate enterprise—to facilitate the efficient flow of communications and information among interdependent clinicians in all care settings.

Mobility will remain a top trend for me post-HIMSS and an area where PerfectServe will continue investing. What role do you think mobility will play in the next year?

Posted By Terry Edwards
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