Women in Health IT — Helen Waters

Helen Waters

 Executive Vice President, MEDITECH

 

What does innovation in Health IT mean to you?Helen Waters 

Innovation is all about possibilities—imagining what is possible and then determining how you can get there. For us, innovation is the most essential element for continued growth. As an organization, we have leaned in to change and see the possibilities for healthcare and the challenges that we can help address in the industry. Innovation is not just about technology, but about identifying opportunities and solutions. We may be a healthcare technology company, but our focus is on people, and how we can make life easier for clinicians, patients, and all of those involved in providing quality care. It starts by developing solutions that mirror the technologies they use in their everyday lives, like smartphones, tablets, voice-driven navigation, and fitness devices. We’ve had physicians tell us they’ve shaved several hours off their standard shift just by completing their documentation on time, even while spending more time with patients. Stories like this are why we do what we do.

We are constantly evaluating, evolving, and developing new technologies that help our customers improve outcomes, empower patients, and drive the industry forward. Some of our recent innovations include Virtual Assistant, Virtual On Demand Care, and cloud-based offerings that provide for greater accessibility, security, and scalability. It is imperative that we continue to deliver solutions which are relevant for today's market and customers.

What changes would you like to see in health IT?

Healthcare costs continue to skyrocket and health IT, in many cases, is a contributing factor. EHRs should help lower the cost of care delivery, not increase it. It is everyone's responsibility to have an open conversation in the market and drive a discussion around value and cost containment. Our focus is on reducing overall healthcare spending as a percentage of GDP by delivering a functionally sophisticated, modernized web-based EHR in the cloud. We remain committed to delivering extensive value to the market, though state of the art tools, built for today's healthcare paradigm which are both sustainable in cost and impactful to quality patient outcomes, as well as physician and nurse satisfaction levels.

We do not see the industry talking about sustainability and the escalation of the EHR technology as a higher and higher percentage of the operating cost model. Why isn’t that more openly reflected on? We are steadfast in the belief that you can deliver deep EHR functional capacity and a modernized UI platform and still keep the cost of healthcare delivery manageable for payers and provider organizations. To achieve that goal, we believe it is important to develop and deliver modern sustainable technologies that enable organizations to provide the best possible care for their patients, delivering maximum value and keeping costs low. This has been our focus for many years, since the company was founded.

What made you become involved in healthcare technology?

I grew up in a family with a lot of healthcare workers, nurses, and physical therapists. During high school and college, I worked at a community hospital and had the opportunity to engage with patients, physicians, and nurses regularly. I met a lot of different people and formed strong relationships. Those experiences there had a real impact on my life. I was impressed by the compassion and intrigued by the complexities of healthcare delivery. After college, I joined a tech company that focused on financial computer software and was inspired by the growth and impact that mainframe software systems were having in key verticals. I connected well with the company and the passion that my coworkers had for what they were selling. Eventually, I was presented with the opportunity to become part of MEDITECH and it seemed like the perfect balance between my interest in innovative technology and my love of healthcare. In addition, the company’s views on integrity and commitment to building relationships, especially with healthcare professionals, are in alignment with my own. My interest in technology and healthcare has never waned and continues to fuel me today.

How do you ensure your organization is keeping up with the continual advances in technology?

MEDITECH would not have survived, much less thrived, for the last 50 years if we had remained complacent. As an organization, we recognize innovation is essential to continued growth. We work collaboratively with practicing physicians, nurses, and other health leaders to imagine the possibilities of tomorrow, and design solutions to meet them today. Solutions are designed to work the way our customers do. Our Expanse platform is evidence of this. While still early in its lifecycle, over 630 sites have already selected Expanse as their go forward solution, helping them connect care across their communities while maintaining interoperability with the outside world. As the industry’s first web-based, mobile EHR, Expanse enhances the experience of physicians, nurses, and patients by increasing physician mobility, which in turn enables more meaningful face-to-face patient interaction.

We feel the best way to advance technology is to start by listening. Agile development processes, user-centered design, customer advisory boards, and usability testing are all vital to our development process. We’re also collaborating with industry pioneers to integrate the latest innovative technologies into our EHR, including Google for our cloud services, Nuance for our AI-enabled Virtual Assistant, and Apple Health for Health Records on iPhone®.

 

What do you believe is the biggest challenge facing leaders in the healthcare sector?

Currently, the pandemic is challenging all parts of the healthcare sector—from frontline workers to healthcare leaders, to supply chain staff. Staff and resources have been strained immensely while the demands placed on them continue to grow with ever-changing priorities. As an industry, we have found ways to continue to support each other and address the challenges that have arisen from the pandemic. As a company, we have worked to meet these obstacles by focusing on supporting our customers. We offered a complimentary deployment of our Virtual Visit technology for a period of time, made available to all of our customers. We shifted to virtual implementations almost seamlessly and created a virtual command center to drive successful go-LIVEs. And we aided organizations with their new and demanding needs, such as establishing remote testing sites, leveraging analytics to meet COVID-19 reporting requirements, and tracking and reporting vaccine administrations.

COVID-19 has also placed a financial strain on healthcare organizations, making it even more critical for us to provide cost-effective and sustainable solutions. Our cloud solution has quickly become a popular option for healthcare organizations that want to invest in the latest technology, without the large upfront capital expenditure that they just don’t have available right now. Today as we talk, we also have the hope and optimism that the ongoing vaccine administrations will relieve what has been a challenging period for the industry.

How are current trends in Health IT impacting your organization?

As I noted earlier, healthcare costs and the need to keep these costs under control has had a major impact on our strategy, and in particular, the popularity of our cloud platform and our cloud development efforts. Integrating cloud technology into our business plans has been an essential part of our strategy. It has proven to be a wise choice. We have leveraged the power of cloud technology in many areas of our organization— from our subscription-based MaaS offering to our cloud-hosted solutions, such as High Availability SnapShot and our Expanse Now physician app. Cloud-hosted subscription services require less upfront investment from our customers given the financial restraints they face, are easier for them to manage, and provide the added security as the industry faces an unprecedented threat of cyberattacks from ransomware to phishing. This makes our approach a natural fit for the industry.

Interoperability is also top of mind for us, not because of all the new regulations like TEFCA and 21st Century Cures, but because it is the right thing to do. By eliminating those barriers that prevent patients and providers from freely exchanging information, we can drive innovation and save lives. When patient records are not confined to vendor silos, healthcare organizations and App developers all have the ability to innovate and develop solutions that truly improve patient care.

Lastly, consumer demand is fueling the need to create consumer-facing technologies. Patients are empowered consumers and are increasingly requesting access to information and technologies to help manage their health and engage more easily with their healthcare providers. We must continue to seek new and innovative ways to support patients and provide them with a frictionless care experience, including seamless access to their records. Virtual care technology, remote patient monitoring, patient self-service features like self check-in and questionnaires, and patient-facing apps are all critical elements of our consumer engagement solutions.

 

What is the most rewarding part about being in the healthcare industry?

Healthcare is a unique industry because all people across the globe are really consumers, regardless of geography or demographics. It is a unifying topic and COVID-19 made that more obvious than ever. As a healthcare organization, we have an opportunity to make an impact on the industry, and to help improve healthcare. It is exciting to be part of change and help develop new and impactful strategies for driving the industry to a new level. In the process we are solving problems, enhancing patient care, and most importantly, improving patient outcomes. Each time one of our customers tells me about how our solution helped them save lives, lower costs, or simply made their lives easier it is the most rewarding part of my day.