MOBILITY IN HEALTHCARE – EVENT RECAP
Posted on: March 22, 2010 – Filed under: Philadelphia
Fresh off the success of the 3rd Annual DEMO Night, Mobile Monday Mid-Atlantic was back at it with a strong showing for its latest networking event, “Mobility in Healthcare”, produced in collaboration with the Canadian Consulate in Philadelphia.
Close to 300 entrepreneurs, wireless mobility executives, technology and healthcare professionals gathered at the state-of-the-art Cira Center on March 15 for a panel presentation moderated by KYW Newsradio’s Dr. Brian McDonough, M.D., FAAFP.
Mobile Monday Mid-Atlantic board member Chip Cleary welcomed the crowd and set the stage for the evening’s panel discussion by framing the mobile industry’s role in contributing to the overall efficiency of healthcare.
With healthcare being such a hot-button topic all across the United States, Cleary welcomed the event’s sponsor, the Consulate of Canada, as he introduced David Marshall, Consul and Senior Trade Commissioner in Philadelphia. Marshall pointed to Canada’s investment in mobile technology and to the more than 3,000 healthcare professionals leveraging telemedicine as ways in which mobility can support and transform the provision of care in the region.
Marshall then turned the microphone over to the panel moderator, Dr. Brian McDonough. McDonough discussed how the panel would address the topic of wireless technology supporting medical service providers (physicians, hospitals, home healthcare companies, nursing homes, etc.) in their primary mission – delivering high quality personalized medical care. He also highlighted the concerns of the medical community in achieving “meaningful use” with mobile technology. He then turned the program over to introductions. The diverse panel included:
- Mark Baiada, Founder and President of Bayada Nurses
- Gregory Barnowsky, Chief Architect, Enterprise Architecture for Independence Blue Cross
- Dr. John Kairys, M.D., FACS, Assistant Professor of Surgery at Jefferson Medical College
- Howard Rosen, President of Life:WIRE
- Harry Martin, Director of Advanced Technologies for Verizon Wireless
Highlights of the panel discussion included:
- Speeding up communications services
- How the healthcare field is using federal funding
- Tapping into residents and “younger talent” that are more likely to adopt new technologies
- Security concerns over how data is collected, mined, stored and deleted
- Barriers for entry – “breaking old habits”
- The importance of having the “right info at the right time”
- The challenge of integrating into existing systems
- The challenge of investing resources in applications that might not be “the next big thing”
- HIPAA compliance issues