EHI Live 2013 in review: What was everyone buzzing about this year?

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Now that sun has set on EHI Live for another year, it’s time to take a moment and reflect on the big ideas that dominated this year’s show.

Microsoft were joined at EHI Live by some stellar partners in the healthcare space: Ascribe, Concentra, Esteem, OSCL, Cloud2, IMGROUP, Optevia, Risual and Steljes, each of whom brought a different expertise and a different outlook on UK healthcare to the show. During the two days of this year’s EHI Live, we met a wide cross-section of the UK health community and answered a ton of questions. Here are the topics that were most on the minds of EHI Live attendants this year:

  • Doing more with data: Many of the questions directed at the Microsoft stand this year focused on Big Data and business intelligence. Many healthcare providers are interested in ways that they can analyse data to spot meaningful trends that will help them improve care. But the interest in data analysis goes deeper than that – researchers are realising that BI can play an essential role in the work when combined with 3D imaging. Administrators are also looking to analyse workflow data, as they seek to improve performance.
  • Doing more on the go: Clinicians want increased flexibility in the daily work. Mobile devices allow them to have access to critical health data at the point of care and allow them to spend more time working with patients, instead of running back to workstations to manage files. There’s a strong interest in making sure that clinicians are outfitted with the mobile devices that can handle the wide array of tasks they face each day. Of course, as more devices are introduced, application compatibility and device interoperability are increasingly important concerns.
  • Doing new things with fewer resources: In an austerity environment, many healthcare providers are looking for ways to do more with the resources they already have. At this year’s EHI Live, much of the conversation was around ways that technology can give clinicians back time in their day and help administrators lower their costs. Many providers are looking to educate themselves about all the ways that a new set of tools can help improve performance, while looking to shift their organisation’s culture to be more accommodating of new ways of working.

Of course, just because the show is over doesn’t mean the conversation has to stop. Share your favourite big ideas from this year’s EHI Live in the comments and continue to check this blog for roundups of the most important ideas discussed at this year’s show.

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