AI, Blockchain and Cybersecurity: HIMSS CEO Hal Wolf on Topics Dominating Upcoming Global Conference

Hal Wolf

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Female : Welcome to Conversations on Health Care with Mark Masselli and
Margaret Flinter , a show where we speak to the top thought leaders
in health innovation , health policy , care delivery and the great minds
who are shaping the health care of the future. This week Mark and
Margaret speak with Harold (Hal) Wolf , President and CEO of HIMSS
the Health Information Management Systems Society a non - profit
organization dedicated to advancing health IT to improve health care
and health care management. The y’re about to host HIMSS Global
Conference a largest gathering in the world of health industry players
providers and innovators all seeking to transform health care.

Lori Robertson also checks in , the Managing Editor of FactCheck.org
look s at misstatements spoken about health policy in the public
domain , separating the fake from the facts . W e end with a bright idea
that’s improving health and wellbeing in everyday lives. If you have
comments please email us at chcradi [email protected] or find us on
Facebook or Twitter , iTunes or where ver you listen to p odcast . Y ou
can also hear us by asking Alexa to play the program Conversations on
Health Care . Now stay tuned for our interview with Hal Wolf CEO of
HIMSS on Conversations on Health Care .

Mark Masselli : We're speaking today with Hal Wolf , President and CEO of HIMSS the
Healthcare Information Management Systems Society a non - profit
organization dedicated to promoting the best use of information
technology and m anagement s ystems to improve the health care
industry. Prior to joining HIMSS Mr. Wolf served as D irector at the
Chartis Group overseeing development of video on demand and
b efore that was Chief Operating Officer of the Kaiser Permanente
Federation where he focused in on da ta management and population
health. He began his career as an executive at MTV using television to
transform the music business. Hal welcome to Conversations on
Health Care.

Hal Wolf: Thank you so much , it’s a pleasure to be here.

Mark Masselli: Yeah , you preside over the world’s largest organization dedicated to
advancing information technology in the health care space . HIMSS
includes close to 600 corporate partners provider organizations and
I’m wondering if you could illuminate for our listeners the ful l scope of
your mission and how you pull all these entities together to facilitate
tech solutions?

Hal Wolf: Well , Mark we a re absolutely dedicated to the transformation of
health through the use of information and technology . It all started
back in 1961 l ooking at computer software and starting to think how
can we make this applicable into health care and start to bring the
focus on the dimensional look at the use of information and of course

Hal Wolf

technology. What we’ve made sure of is to ensure that we are a s
collaborative as possible. We reach out consistently to other non -
profits to see if we can help them . T he point of the matter is that
we’re all trying to solve the same problem which is to improve health
care. The more we can all work together the better w e can challenge
the system as it currently exist.

Margaret Flinter: We hear a lot that the health care industry has to catch up to other
industries like banking and manufacturing in terms of adopting tech
enabled innovations . Y ou’ve said yourself that the pace is if anything
going to continue to accelerate . B ut you’ve also recognized that we
have to do a better job of creating a culture of innovation in health
care that will facilitate such a change . I think very importantly to all of
us who are on the fron tlines w e have to do that whil e still making it
possible for the people who deliver the care , right ? T o use the
innovation the way it is successful for them. How do we do a better
job of creating a culture in health care that facilitates rapid adoption
of innovation and innovation that really works for those who are
delivering the care?

Hal Wolf: When you think about health care as a n industry , it really hasn’t been
one , i t’s been more individual hospitals . H ow do you bring innovation
into health care ? L ets also remember that health care operates under
very important creed which is to do no harm. We spend a tremendous
amount of time in health care to eliminate variation and then we walk
in and we say , oh by the way you need to change things quickly , and
chan ge in health care comes slowly . Y et we live in a world of
innovation which is changing on the technology front literally every six
months. When we talk about this critical need to change culture so
that we can innovate , it really is about workforce develop ment , it
really is about creating an environment where people in health care
can learn to fail fast , meaning if something isn’t working switch it.

I t takes a change in the way that an organization thinks about its use
of information , about how its staff ne eds to work outside in, meaning
from the patient back into the clinic versus we are the medical
industry and you will come to us. That has changed and consumer
expectations have ch anged. There’s a formula that we use at HIMSS
which is OO+NT=COO which means Old Organization plus New
Technology equals Costly Old Organization. I t takes people process
and technology in order to be able to move forward quicker and
faster in innovation.

Mark Masselli: I was thinking back that we have your predecessor Steve Lieber on the
show , back then we were focusing on adoption and interoperability . I
think we’ve moved the needle on adoption still are struggling for the
interoperability to be out there on the horizon . W e’ve seen this
enormous amount of data that’s been generate d out of all the se

Hal Wolf

health systems and on the other hand we have this rise in
cybersecurity . I know HIMSS has been concerned about that, the
hacks that are happening in the health care industry . I think it ’ s
axiomatic that as innovation accelerates so h as t his pace of new
challenges have risen . I’m wondering if you could talk to our listeners
about how you’ve addressed both ongoing and emerging challenges
at HIMSS .

Hal Wolf: We are dealing in a world right now where the amount of data that
exist is doubling globally about every 18 months. Health care is no
exception , in fact, I would say we’re more than doubling every 18
months just within our particular sector . T he reason for that is they’re
both in the medical model , meaning , at the hospital level, clinical
level, physician level , nurse practitioner, they are using information
that they have never used before . O f course each one of us as a
consumer with our smart phones, our computers, our laptops , we are
generating a massive amount of social exhaust . W e als o use it every
day to think about in health care what treatment should we get doing
self - diagnosis , looking up doctors etc. There’s a huge amount of
information that’s pouring in .

O ne of the big items that’s missing is lack of actionable information.
How d o I take the information that is needed for clinician decision
support which includes my clinical data, my personal data, where I
want to be contacted , who is in my support group, who ’ s in my family .
A ll of these things were part of the information pieces that come
together to help facilitate best procedures , be st outcomes for an
individual about personalized medicine . W e haven’t even gotten to
the point of adding in genomics.

We need two things , one is we need access to the right information at
the right t ime . B ut all of that information that data must be suppo rted
in an extremely secure way. Our focus on cybersecurity , the sessions
that we run , the policy makers that we talk to both in the United
States and the EU and Asia , we talk about cybersecurity as a critical
stepping stone independency because individuals need to know who
has access to my information and how is it being used . I cannot
emphasize enough that we at HIMSS continue to work on
interoperability .

I t has a consistent format whether you are lo oking at a device on your
arm like a Fitbit or an Apple Watch just to name two and there are
many, many others , to large EMR machines that are gathering
information , putting it down and transporting it for someone else to
be able to interpret half way acro ss the globe because it ’ s 2:00 in the
morning. T hese are the ways that cybersecurity becomes so critically
important and we have to be very conscious of the cyber environment
and making sure the people’s information is protected but available

Hal Wolf

for our use o r we’re going to miss the opportunities to be even better
in care delivery.

Margaret Flinter: Well I would assume that all of that adds up to one very exciting
agenda for the upcoming HIMSS 2019 conference. B iggest global
health information and technology conference in the world. I
understand you draw out more than 45,000 participants together to
showcase innovations and share insights . I n addition to the speakers
and the hundreds of learning sessions, you have an exhibit area where
people can walk right in to a demonstration of IBM ’s Wat son, or
Intermountain Health’s video simulator, Google’s latest cloud and
iteration. Share with us the theme of this year’s conference and what
do you think the highlights are likely to be?

Hal Wolf: As you mentioned we have 45,000 people coming into the conference
each year. The theme this year is Champions of Health and when we
have our global conference, people come literally from around the
world in order to share best practices , to understand what might fit in
the ir parti cular environment . W e’re starting off with an initial keynote
on consumer driven exchanges and with this is Secretary Verma [ph] .
W e have Karen DeSalvo who formally was with HHS. When you have
Governor Mike Leavitt up on stage at the same time discussing h ow
do we work on different components of this marriage between
government, citizen, patient, consumer all three haves.

We have forums on pharma we have cybersecurity conversations
taking place. We have incredible areas called Venture Connect where
brand ne w startups companies in their second and third round of
funding get exposure to people who are interested in investing . T hen
finally on a global basis we also have showcases from countries and
the government as a matter of fact. O ur own government from CMS
will show some of the different products and services that people
need to use in order to transport their information , and what are they
doing from the DEA standpoint to make life easier from a Blue Button
program and data sharing .

Israel is an example. I ta ly is an example of countries, Finland, that are
showcasing their particular innovations that they want the world to
be able to see. This is about global thought leadership , it ’ s about an
amazing array of products and services that you will never see
any where else in one place on the globe. Tens and tens of thousands
of square feet , h undreds of thousands of square feet of exhibits and
conversations that are taking place. I think this year we’re going to
see a lot of emphasis on cybersecurity and a lot of emphasis on data
and data management , I think those will be huge topics .

W e are recognizing that we’re being impacted globally by GDPR which
is how information is managed from Europe and the rules and the
restrictions there having a downstream impact on us . W e’re expecting

Hal Wolf

a very vibrant and assertive program for the global conference around
C hampions of Health unite.

Mark Masselli: We’re speaking today with Hal Wolf , President and CEO of HIMSS the
Healthcare Information Management Systems Society dedicated to
promoting the best use of technology and Management Systems to
improve the health care industry. Hal, that conference sounds just
great and this year there will be a larger focus on the emergence of
Blockchain in health care . Y ou said that the industry player who cracks
the Blockchain code for adoption and health care will , “own the
market . ” I think I’ve seen recent information out there that suggest
that maybe we’ll see about a third of large systems in the next five or
six years embrace Blockchain . B u t tell us why you are so bullish on
Blockchain and why you think it may hold the power to truly disrupt
the industry?

Hal Wolf: Let’s talk about where Blockchain comes from. Traditionally it was set
up as a ledger capability , so that on a monetary basis or an
information basis I can distribute an individual’s record , in this case , a
banking record but now think about it as health care in a multitude of
places so that it doesn’t sit or reside in one specific location. One of
the challenges in cyber security has always been if I can break into a
computer and I can look at someone’s entire record at one time . I f I
can grab a hold of that then I’ve stolen critical information. What
Blockchain does is that it creates a distributed chain of the
information with a particular key that then draws it all back together.

We absolutely see areas where Blockchain is an example can be very
helpful in health care. Record formation is a perfect example. The
exchange of data on a secure basis is another. If you think about its
traditional use in terms of financing imagine Blockchain tied to your
particular benefit with your particular insurance company , and then
people have access to the information of what you’re paid for , what
you can pay for it’s a more real time , so benefit administration is
another example. All of that is predicated upon two important points,
I need the data , it needs to be secured and it needs to be available.

We believe that Blockchain is super important to speed
administration and security of informatio n and accessibility of it on a
global basis through your individual key or through an organization’s
individual key . T hat’s why we’re so excited about it and we continue
to push for interoperability and exchange . W e see it ’ s a major upside
and there will b e a lot of focus on it at the upcoming global
conference as well.

Margaret Flinter: Well , Hal, I was taken by some of your information about the work
that HIMSS does in extending education and certification
opportunities to people not just at the conferenc e but actually all
throughout the year. This is something we’ve recognized it’s so

Hal Wolf

important in health care that’s really got to be targeted, focused,
what you need to know now, ongoing continuing education
throughout the career. Tell us how you’re connect ing the training and
education mission to people in the field and the impact that you think
this has potentially on advancing your goals of creating this cultural
change?

Hal Wolf: We live in a situation where we have this changing environment
health care. Traditionally people have relied on what they learned in
college and maybe some courses that they take in between. We’re
about to tap into a world where clinical decision support is online it’s
extremely robust . I t encompasses knowledge management the
cri sscrosses literally over 3,000 to 4,000 peer review articles per year.
That’s more than any one individual can keep up with . W e’ve always
recognized that workforce development is absolutely imperative in
order to be able to keep people up with the changing of the
environment and take full advantage of the information that’s
coming.

We operate certification programs in H ealth care i nformation and
m anagement s ystems for the professional. We have early career
communities that we’ve established. We have e - mento r programs to
connect people with others who ha ve gone through it so if they’re
working on innovation , if they’re working on technology challenges
they’re tied in with someone who can help and support them. We
even have veterans’ career services initiative s that help military
veterans. Now when then come back in the health care we find them
the right place to go.

One of the more exciting ones this year is we’ve just created a new
affiliation with Harvard Medical School . W e’ll be teaching a class
th at’ s comi ng late s pring early s ummer at Harvard educating
executives, CEOs as well as c hief m edical i nformation o fficers on the
use of information and how they need to think about that information
with their systems, how they’re going to train their staff and how
t hey’re going to be able to transform the industry. Workforce
development in our certification programs are designed to do that
and we’re extraordinarily proud of our group.

Mark Masselli: We’ ve been talking somewhat about trends or I would say new
technolo gies the AI, big analytics, Blockchain , t he additional data
that’s going to be generated out of the genomics and personalized
medicine , voice technology. What do you see as trends that we
should keep our eye in the future?

Hal Wolf: Mark the impact of arti ficial intelligence is going to be monstrous as
well. Part of what AI does , artificial intelligence , is that it takes our
algorithms what we know now and then it applies other components
and comes back with new connected dots. We’re beginning to see AI

Hal Wolf

wor k its way into clinical decision support thinking about what is the
best delivery of care for an individual in this particular setting . F ar too
often best practice in health care is based upon almost a perfect
standard. Someone develops something for their facility , it produces
the very best results possible and then we publish it. Now I have to be
able to take that best practice and I have to apply it to my setting and
then I have to be able to apply it to my individual who I’m trying to
treat.

What AI all ows us to do is be able to take all those different
components into account simultaneously and to be able to get a
recommendation to a clinician or to the patient in very short time ,
something that takes place in a minute versus weeks or months of
research . As we develop ed our artificial intelligence programs we
need to be able to document them to the best of our ability. But
things are going to happen at a faster pace and recommendations
could happen at a faster pace than traditional peer review process .
T hat’s what I meant earlier by saying this is going to be interesting
time , it’s going to challenge us in how we think about that innovation
and how we think about those recommendations. I believe that
artificial intelligence will have a tremendous impact i n the next two to
three years and continue to accelerate in health care.

Margaret Flinter: We' ve been speaking with Hal Wolf, President and CEO of HIMSS the
Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society. You can
learn more about their work by going to himss.org or follow them on
Twitter @HIMSS and that’s spelt H - I - M - S - S. Hal thank you so much for
joining us today on Conversations on Health Care.

Hal Wolf: Thank you so much.

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Mark Masselli: At Conversations on Health Care we want our audience to be truly in
the know when it comes to the facts about health care reform and
policy. Lori Robertson is an award winning journalist and Managing
Editor of FactCheck.org a nonpartisan nonprofit consumer advocate
for voters that aim to reduce the leve l of deception in US politics. Lori,
what have you got for us this week?

Lori Robertson: In December two children from Guatemala died while in the custody
of US Customs and Border Protection , a 7 - year - old girl and an 8 - year -
old boy. That sparked criticism of th e government’s ability to care for
young immigrant and that criticism in turn sparked some false social
media claims . V iral posts argued that , “during the Obama
administration 18 children died while in custody of Border Patrol . ”
That’s false. No children d ied while in custody of Customs and Border
Protection during the Obama A dministration. In fact the Department
of Homeland Security, Secretary Nielsen said in a December 26

Hal Wolf

statement that , “it has been more than a decades since CBP has had a
child pass ed aw ay in their custody . ” US Border Patrol is a part of CBP
which is an agency within DHS.

The most recent data publically available from a 2016 report to
c ongress s how that CBP reported 13 deaths in fiscal year 2015. 10 of
those deaths were the result of , “u se of force . ” We asked CBP for
more information on the deaths of immigrants in its custody but did
not get a response. According to data from US Immigration and
Customs Enforcement none of the 67 immigrants who died while in
ICE custody during the Obama ye ars were children. The 18 children
claim may be a misrepresentation of a story published December 18
by The Daily Caller. That story revisited a 2016 analysis by Human
Rights W atch on 18 immigrant detainee deaths f r om mid - 2012 to
mid - 2015. But t he story sa id that those detainees were age s 24 to 49.
That's my fact check for this week . I'm Lori Robertson, Managing
Editor of FactCheck.org.

Margaret Flinter: FactCheck.org is committed to factual accuracy from the country's
major political players and is a proje ct of the Annenberg Public Policy
Center at the University of Pennsylvania . If you have a fact that you'd
like checked, email us at chcr adio.com we will have FactCheck.org ’s
Lori Robertson check it out for you here on Conversations on Health
Care .

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Margaret Flinter: Each week Conversations highlights a bright idea about how to make
wellness a part of our communities and everyday lives. Vaccinations
are considered one of the great public health achievements of the
20th century reducing fatalities from most common and failed
diseases by up to 99%. As recently as 2009, only 45% of the nation’s
pre - school aged children had received all of their recommended
vaccinations and boosters . R esearchers at the Children’s Outcome
Research Program at Children’s Hosp ital in Colorado decided to take
an in - depth look at the problem.

Dr. Allison Kempe: Primary care practitioners are so over - stretched that it’s rather
impractical . T hey also require a level of technical expertise that
sometimes they don’t have.

Margaret Fl inter: Dr. Allison Kempe conducted a study on what would help to generate
a better compliance with the required vaccinations. She found that
when parents receive timely reminders from their state and local
health departments, parents were much more likely to get the
vaccinations and boosters for their children that they needed.

Dr. Allison Kempe: What our study did was to centralize those efforts. It didn’t take away
from the primary care providers but it helped them to do the

Hal Wolf

reminder recall for their prac tices centrally using a state registry.

Margaret Flinter: Dr. Kempe says her research shows that when a reminder message
can be generated , it takes the onus and the burden off of the primary
care in pediatric practices.

Dr. Allison Kempe: In a fairly short six - month period about 19% of children who are not
up - to - date became up - to - date , which on a population level within six
months, it’s really very powerful.

Margaret Flinter: T he study also suggests that there’s a cost savings for the centralized
state or c ounty run database in reminder system .

Dr. Allison Kempe: One a case of Influenzae h aemophilus m eningitis can c ost tens of
thousands of dollars. The costs are of not preventing these illnesses
are very high.

Margaret Flinter: A state health department driv en vaccination program that assist
private practices in vaccine compliance for their patient population ,
improving vaccination rates of young and vulnerable children. Now,
that’s a bright idea.

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Mark Masselli: You’ve been listening to Conversation o n Health Care. I am Mark
Masselli.

Margaret Flinter: I’m Margaret Flinter.

Mark Masselli: Peace and Health.

Female : Conversations on Health Care is recorded at WESU at Wesleyan
University, streaming live at. www.chcra dio.com iTunes or wherever
you listen to podcasts. If you have comments please email us at
[email protected] or find us on Facebook or T witter. We love
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Health Center .

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