Health IT giant Allscripts Healthcare Solutions will have a massive footprint on the HIMSS19 exhibit floor. It will be showcasing its popular electronic health record system and other related technologies.

And the company will be focusing discussions with HIMSS19 attendees on two trends it says are key in 2019: consumers demanding better healthcare and technology experiences and machine learning gleaning more insights from patient data.

From patient to consumer

The transition from patient to consumer has progressed, said Allscripts CEO Paul Black.

"People are taking more ownership of their healthcare, and they expect user-friendly technologies to help them do so," he said. "The solutions that deliver what consumers want are the ones that will be successful."

New entrants to the marketplace – such as IBM, Google and Amazon – will be focused on the patient experience, he said. They will be focused on making it much easier for the consumer to manage wellness and engage with providers.

"As consumers, we are looking for solutions as mobile as we are," Black explained. "We're looking for technology to make it easy for us be active in our own care before, during and after visits. For example, our FollowMyHealth consumer/patient platform expanded capabilities in 2018 to enable real-time SMS messages and alerts. Consumers no longer need to log into the portal; providers can reach them on the go and simplify activity."

When approaching consumerism, healthcare CIOs should simplify their efforts by focusing on a unified platform that integrates all outreach technologies, he said.

Customized services

"In addition, healthcare organizations need to implement solutions that customize services for each patient, recognizing their specific needs," said Black. "Outreach methods such as e-mails, text messages, social media posts and automated voice responses can assist in the delivery of reminders, check-ins and post-care summaries, resulting in better outcomes and lower costs."

Beyond consumerism in healthcare, another trend Black sees in 2019 is machine learning expanding its ability to gain key insights from health data.

"As we shift to value-based care, the industry must be able to draw insights from ever-increasing amounts of information," he said. "EHRs should be smart enough to deliver the right information at the right time, customized for the user. Machine learning helps deliver real-time insights to the clinician at the point of care, which improves both the clinician and patient experience."

"People are taking more ownership of their healthcare, and they expect user-friendly technologies to help them do so."

Paul M. Black, Allscripts Healthcare Solutions

Machine-learning capabilities within Allscripts' new EHR, Avenel, learn treatment patterns for each clinician, Black explained.

"It pre-populates information based on these patterns and delivers preference reminders," he said. "The technology is monitoring usage trends and identifying opportunities for more efficiency by user, organization and location.

Honing algorithms with analytics

"And through Allscripts Analytics, we're also honing algorithms on our 'data lake' of more than 50 million de-identified patient records," he added. "We're gleaning insights and will bring them to bear on some of healthcare's most difficult challenges, such as chronic care management and the opioid crisis. Stakeholders across the industry must work together to make the most of the opportunity."

Black's advice to healthcare CIOs looking to succeed with machine learning is to make insights easily available within the technology so that clinicians can actually use them.

"In addition, building trust with your clinicians is critical," he concluded. "Sharing how and why these technologies curate knowledge to automate and improve function will help build trust within your organization."

Allscripts will be in Booth 3501.

Twitter: @SiwickiHealthIT
Email the writer: bill.siwicki@himssmedia.com