“We are going to have data coming out of our ears”

- Mark VanKooy, Medical Director of Informatics, Information Services, Virtua, Gibbsboro, NJ (Master Black belt in Six Sigma)

Mark spoke about their use of Amalga Unified Intelligence System (UIS). I was especially interested in the data exosystem (YES “EXOSYSTEM” – you heard it first here) that he presented. He said that they read extensively from clinical downtime literature.

Virtua has adopted the GE problem solving methodology (Six Sigma,  rack and stack human resources approach). One thing that really struck me with Marks’ presentation was his statement that “[we have learnt] how to listen to the customer in a very profound way”.

The other important references he made were to the need to still print – because eHealth has downtimes (unintended or otherwise) and “KIS” – “keep it simple”. Not forgetting that separate generators are available in many cases.

So What happens WHEN the lights go out? What his group found was that Amalga UIS was excellent at allowing business continuity. Paper is still useful. Readiness to cope with catastrophic eHealth events. The way they do this sounds a lot like the way Nuclear Submarines manage launch codes…a-la Sean Connery and Red October.

Mark was a great source of sound bites:

• “We are going to have data coming out of our ears”
• “The Amalga UIS is a flexible "INHALER” [of data].”
• “Perpetually Prepared for a rare catastrophic event”
• “{Amalga UIS is] woven into the fabric of the organisation”
• “What do you do from Zero power to the first 1/2 hour”

I enjoyed Marks presentation immensely. I hope I can interview him for academy mobile later…

He is showing how HIT can help healthcare just WURK!