Center for Connected Health Symposium

Lubna Hammoudeh

Fellow at BWH/PGY6

I greatly enjoyed attending the Center of Connected Health Symposium.

As a first-time attendee, it was interesting to see how technological developments in medicine significantly impact patients’ lives and help physicians move forward in future advances of healthcare, connecting care & discovery.  One such development stands out to me because in my field as radiation oncologist there is a big technological turn over in our machines & the ways to treat patients with multiple different set up that change rapidly from previous era for example after being simulated patients for planning relying on CT based machines now there is moving towards the use of MRI mapping instead.

This symposium gives us the opportunity to take part in the new era of health, reduce burnout on physicians by improve their satisfaction, practice efficiency, time saving, efficient practice and decrease the cost of healthcare.

One of the challenges in this era of a digital health system is the patient-physician relation which I believe is still the cornerstone in this zone of technological changes.  I believe this is the cornerstone because we as physicians & healthcare team have to focus on not losing patients’ trust, consider quality of care, continuous engagement with patients & understanding their concerns to have a valuable outcome. The conference touched on these themes ….

Attending this conference has impacted my thinking on implementing a mobile app which will assess radiation treatment toxicities to evaluate & assess patients’ disease outcome after completion of radiation course; this app that would incorporate a list of yes or no survey questions with the expected side effects including grading parameters for each one & according to score results observation vs. intervention will be decided to deal with different patients’ status.

An app like this was talked about at the conference.  Apps like these will be a great convenience to patients by avoiding extra trips to the hospital, it would also be cost effective and reduce medical team efforts. I would like to be a part of implementing this type of change and attending the conference helped give me the boost to do this.

We as radiation oncologists have also implemented a pre-encounter questionnaire by use of an iPad, we have been able to save time & employee workload in patient evaluation, this idea was similar to one that was shown in the conference that enable the patients to do pulmonary function test from their home & send the results to the clinic.

My future plan is to work on a project within my field of radiation oncology to generate a new modality of radiation that would improve and widen the treatment course and decrease radiation related toxicities which will in return benefit patients , this was highlighted clearly in the conference talks especially the topics that were related to pediatric patients with ADHD & autism using new tools that help them concentrate & deal with daily activities with less harm possible whether it is physical side effects or negative psychological impact.

The Live Music Capital of the World Welcomes the AAMC

Yan Emily Yuan

Resident in Internal Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital

PGY-1

The Live Music Capital of the World Welcomes the AAMC

Austin, Texas is known for hosting performers and showcasing talents. Over the first week of November, a different stage was set: more than 4500 medical professionals—educators, administrators, leaders and influencers—gathered for the 2018 Annual Meeting of the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC). The signature tagline ‘Learn Serve Lead’ was both brightly displayed and boldly embodied by the plenary sessions and presentations across the multi-day conference.

Dr. Darrell Kirch, president and CEO of AAMC addressing conference attendees

The value of humanities training in medical education continues to be a topic of emphasis. In her talk ‘Innovations in Professional Moral Development,’ Dr. Gail Geller of the Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics discussed the ‘tolerance of ambiguity’ as a key to cultivating resilience among medical trainees; she invited attendees to consider ways to use the arts and humanities to develop and hone this critical skill. At the focused lunch discussion, Dr. Stephen Schoenbaum of the Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation explored incorporating the principles of performing arts—acting, improvisation—to teach medical students how to engage in productive interactions with patients, other health professionals and each other. Dr. Schoenbaum referenced actor Dame Judi Dench, who says that acting is not about learning the lines but rather about understanding why the character is saying those lines in response to something that another character has said. As doctors, we are often searching for “the right thing” to say to our patients; perhaps, we should spend more time understanding why our patients are saying what they are saying.

Storytelling was not only a highlighted topic within medical education, but also in leadership training. In a standing-room-only conference hall, Dr. Alicia Monroe, Provost of the Baylor College of Medicine shared her experiences of utilizing storytelling to capture an audience. While an engaging story is helpful in sharing our successes, she has found even more power in using narrative to connect with others when “confronted with a mess.” To do this effectively, Dr. Monroe offers, tell a story “through the lens of values that matters to your listener.”

As an internal medicine resident with background in Narrative Medicine, the themes of this conference resonated strongly with my values of how to practice, teach, and lead in medicine. I was able to connect with former mentors and meet other medical educators who are passionate about operationalizing the humanities skillset within medicine. Our conversations highlighted the potential to develop innovative curricula for both students and trainees. More than ever, I am eager to incorporate medical education into my residency training and future career. I would advise future attendees to connect with other Boston-area attendees prior to the conference to share ideas and find opportunities to collaborate.

Link to interview with Judi Dench: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Rnv2V3Drik

Connecting at Connected Health 2018

Lisa Rotenstein

Brigham and Women’s Hospital

PGY-2 in Internal Medicine

Connecting at Connected Health 2018

I recently had the chance to attend the 2018 Connected Health Conference in Boston. It’s the main event of the year for Boston techies interested in health. First and foremost, I enjoyed learning about the wide swath of technologies being developed to tackle almost every issue we have in delivery of modern healthcare – inability to access or own records, chronic disease management, care convenience, etc. It was a pleasure to meet entrepreneurs putting forth diverse solutions to these challenges.

One of the conference’s most memorable sessions was led by BWH iHub speakers, including Jose Elias, Brian Mullen, and Mark Zhang. This trio discussed what it’s like to undertake innovation in an academic medical center, including how internal innovation groups can help clinicians bridge their ideas with those of technical experts who are building solutions.  I also particularly enjoyed a panel on the “Uber Primary Care Experience” from entrepreneurs building non-traditional, tech-enabled primary care systems. Their reflections emphasized how to use technology to support primary care rather than building care around technology, although the latter often happens because of disconnects between tech companies and healthcare systems

My biggest takeaway from the conference had to do with the diverse opportunities for innovating outside of the EHR, particularly in terms of patient-facing technologies. While much of my exposure to technology in training has centered on Epic, the Connected Health Conference offered a vision of how we can move past this to apps, telemedicine, and connected wearables that enhance the doctor-patient relationship and accordingly, outcomes. The conference specifically exposed me to some app-based technologies that I can look towards implementing in my own primary care practice in the future. For example, Bradley Crotty’s group at the Medical College of Wisconsin uses an interesting application called Patient Wisdom, which allows patients to share stories about themselves and set an agenda for their next visit. Providers then access this information, enhancing their visits. The FeatForward mobile application (which encourages patients to increase physical activity) is well accepted by patients and its use is associated with weight loss and decreased cardiometabolic risk. I can see myself using similar applications in my own practice and have connected with the researchers behind this work.

Attending the conference furthermore allowed me to connect with both new and old contacts in health technology and strengthen mentoring relationships. Post conference, I have connected with important health technology figures including Adam Landman and Rushika Fernandopulle, while meeting new contacts in the vendor world who have implemented patient messaging and wearable applications across diverse health systems.

This conference strongly met my expectations and broadened my horizons of how I can collaborate with industry in the future to achieve healthcare improvement goals related to chronic disease management, and patient and physician engagement.