A new way of seeing things in health
The end of February brought sun and HIMSS17 to Orlando, Florida—and I was thrilled to be there to soak it all in. Innovative healthcare IT companies gathered to show off innovation, network, and learn at one of our industry’s biggest annual events. I certainly learned a lot. This year boasted a record crowd of 42,000 attendees and the activity was simply overwhelming. Some booths were mini-conferences in their own right. The Microsoft booth alone, for example, ran a series of 29 educational presentations in our Innovation Theater, as well as lunch-and-learn sessions and breakout events like the Health Innovation Awards.
Each year at HIMSS, we see incremental innovation from health IT vendors, but sometimes there’s a definitive shift as a certain technology or solution area moves from concept to early stage adoption. About five years ago, it was a shift in focus from electronic medical record systems (EMRs) to health analytics and population health. Health analytics is now mainstream as a key enabler of extracting value from EMRs. Population health has gone from start-up to a burgeoning new industry.
This year, I noticed smart devices and the Internet of Things show up in force. The amount of innovative devices and various form factors was staggering. Everything from a smart health toothbrush to sunglasses that capture EEG brainwaves. One wearable device in particular, HoloLens, made appearances in many different booths quite independent of Microsoft encouragement.
It’s exciting to see mixed reality start to take hold in health and redefine how health professionals can learn, collaborate, and practice. Case Western Reserve University made waves two years ago when it dramatically announced that its new medical school would use HoloLens to go cadaver-less. Subsequently, I’ve seen increasingly sophisticated applications of HoloLens for simulation learning in health.
Most recently, I came across a mixed-reality solution from CAE Healthcare that overlays imaging modalities like ultrasound to help practitioners get a live feed of where their instruments are while learning procedures.
Outside of the regulated environment of the U.S., we’re even starting to see HoloLens make inroads in mainstream medical practice.
The Oslo University Hospital in Norway currently uses HoloLens to plan complex liver and cardiac surgery. In a sign of the times, this kind of innovation has already dated the prior method of 3D printing. In Brazil, surgeons are starting to use HoloLens intraoperatively, calling up a 3D reference model for complex spinal surgery.
It’s clear that this new way of seeing the world through mixed reality has found a ready home in the health industry. Personally, I can’t wait to see what new use-cases the future holds!
![[4:56 PM] Jordan Davis (Wipro Designit Services, Inc.) Green background with colored swoops on the top and an image of a young adult helping older adult with a computer.](https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/industry/blog/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/MSFT_Azure_APR08_328468_Blog_Blogheader_240408_V01-1-300x169.webp)
