During the first few days and weeks of response to the COVID-19 pandemic, healthcare leaders scrambled to prepare clinicians for a wave of new patients and worked tirelessly to enable as many employees as possible to work remote.
IT departments were fielding requests from stakeholders to develop creative ways to provide care without exposure and provide much needed data, whether that pertained to tracking patients, equipment or disposables, like personal protective equipment. In turn, technology providers were searching for ways to help, reaching out to customers to see what was needed.
That focus prompted innovation and, in many ways, acted as an evolutionary catalyst for some healthcare systems. Telehealth initiatives moved from long-term project road maps to immediate implementation and designing new ways for doctors to communicate became an absolute necessity.
In this article, three notable healthcare IT leaders - Sherri Mills, CNIO, LCMC Health, New Orleans; Lisa Emery, Chief Information Officer and Chair London CIO Council, RM Digital Services, The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust; and Colleen Sirhal, Chief Clinical Officer, Global Healthcare Consulting, Hyland Healthcare – sit down to discuss how the COVID-19 pandemic changed health IT overnight.