5 sessions to look out for at HIMSS23 APAC

By Liam On Sep 5, 2023

HIMSS23 APAC takes place in two weeks. For the second year in a row, the event is taking place in Indonesia – and if you haven’t heard, there’s a small digital revolution taking place in the country’s healthcare sector. And with healthcare organizations mandated to implement an EMR by the end of the year, it’s an exciting time to be working in healthcare IT in Indonesia.

Having had a front row seat to covering this event for the past two years, I can confidently say that you will find no shortage of interesting content on the programme. Here are my picks for five sessions not to be missed at this year’s conference.

1. Survival of the Digitalist: How Organizations Around the World Are Transforming with Technology That Cares: September 20, 9:00 AM – 9:30 am

Edward Marx has quite a story to tell. Former CIO of several US healthcare systems, heart attack and cancer survivor, youngest child of Holocaust survivors, best-selling healthcare IT author, combat medic – the list goes on. Marx decided to enter the world of health information and management after watching his daughter defy death through the power of technology and clinical care. During this session, this digital health expert will share frameworks for innovation and how these models are being effectively applied around the world, using real-world examples to bring theories to life. He also promises that he will leave you “inspired to help lead change with health that connects and technology that cares” – something I am more than inclined to believe he will deliver.

2. Implementing 4D-DOSS: Building a multidisciplinary team to implement live monitoring and alerting of infectious diseases using a hospital digital twin: September 20, 3:45 PM – 4:15 PM

I find digital twin technology so fascinating. A digital replica of me that helps doctors know when I’m at greater risk of developing new conditions and potentially changing the course of my health for the better? Sign me up, please.

The applications don’t stop there, of course – which brings me to the second session on this list. SingHealth, a health cluster in Singapore, uses digital twin technology for near-real-time monitoring, analysis, prediction and simulation of disease outbreaks through its 3-Dimensional Disease Outbreak Surveillance System (3D-DOSS). Dr. Indumathi Venkatachalam, principal investigator of the DOSS project at Singapore General Hospital (one of the hospitals in this cluster), will shed more light on the upcoming 4D-DOSS initiative that will expand the ways in which this technology is used, such as predicting of staffing and resource needs in critical situations such as casualties.

3. How the FHIR Interoperability Standard Can Boost Your Digital Maturity: September 19, 11:30 AM – 12:00 noon

It’s great when the content is contextualized for the host country of the conference – and the third session on this list does just that. InterSystems SEA Customer Relations and Sales Director Stella Ramette (who also spoke at last year’s event) will take the stage again this year to talk about FHIR and the important role this standard will play in Indonesia’s SATUSEHAT, a national integrated health data platform . exchange platform.

This platform allows Indonesians to have their medical records securely documented in a digital system with their consent. They also do not have to fill in new forms when they visit another healthcare institution. Ramette will speak about how healthcare organizations can leverage FHIR to share clean, standardized data with SATUSEHAT while increasing their digital maturity and realizing benefits for their organization and their patients.

4. The Double-Edged Sword of Emerging Technology: September 20, 11:15 am – 12:00 noon

They’re exciting, shiny, and have the potential to impact healthcare in so many wonderful ways. Over the past year, conversations about emerging technologies like ChatGPT have increased. We have also discussed quite a few implementations of these technologies by healthcare providers in our publication. But how often do healthcare IT professionals deploy technologies while ‘following the trend’ without considering the potential negatives, I wonder? (A bit rich, coming from someone who was drooling over digital twin technology a few paragraphs earlier, I know)

Veneeth Purushotaman, group CIO of Aster DM Healthcare; Dr. Kun-Ju Lin, deputy chief information security officer of Linkou Chang Gung Memorial Hospital; and Dr. Tamara Sunbul, medical director of clinical informatics at Johns Hopkins Aramco Healthcare, will participate in this panel discussion to explore both the good and bad of emerging technologies. They will also discuss how healthcare IT professionals can avoid the pitfalls associated with deploying emerging technologies, which can ultimately do more harm than good to their organizations. By the way, I had the opportunity to speak with Purushotaman about this subject – you can find that interview here.

5. Revolutionizing Patient-Centered Communications with Zoom Contact Center: September 20, 9:30 AM – 10:00

We have seen the prolific growth of Zoom during a highly contagious pandemic. Healthcare systems around the world have taken notice of its services, especially in how they can use the Zoom platform to provide telehealth services and keep their patients safe and healthy.

As someone who regularly follows new solutions being released in this area, I’m looking forward to seeing what Zoom has in store for the world in the near future. This session presented by Jayraj Nair, Customer Experience Lead of ASEAN at Zoom is likely to yield some answers. Can this company, which rose to prominence during the ‘Covid-19 years’, maintain its momentum in this post-pandemic world?

—

And there you have it. Those are my session picks as we look forward to HIMSS23 APAC, taking place from September 18 to 21. But like I said before, it won’t be that hard to find content you can sink your teeth into. If you haven’t watched the show yet, you can see what interests you here. I’d love to see you in two weeks.