Free: Telemedicine is what many feel will be the new normal in healthcare. What are your thoughts on how telemedicine fits within the field?
Sanford Health, Sioux Falls, South Dakota
Broekhuis: We do believe that telemedicine will become the norm for many patients and healthcare organizations, but it is going to take time and many hard lessons to get there.
The traditional telemedicine where you have a fixed camera in a room is certainly a viable option yet today. But, with the technology evolving with what a mobile phone, what a mobile device can do today, I think that old technology rapidly gets replaced with something people can use wherever they are at. I think that’s what we’re seeing growing numbers [with our video visits]. These types of technologies make it much easier and much more desirable for patients to use.
Right now, some regulatory elements are placing limitations on the telemedicine technology in use today, but I think over time the regulations will evolve to accommodate the way these portals need to function for patients. Like I said earilier, it’s going to take some time. Actually, today we cannot provide video visits to many areas we serve because of our current government regulations. However, we are confident that that will change fairly quickly as patients and government officials become more comfortable with the technology.
Free: In terms of regulations, many cite Meaningful Use as being a well-intended, yet awkwardly, set of government expectations. What are your thoughts on Meaningful Use?
Broekhuis: If you look at Meaningful Use, in general, many of the requirements are very good things for healthcare organizations to do. They’re good for patients. They’re good for organizations. They have reduced the cost of healthcare. They improve quality. I think at times that there are requirements in Meaningful Use that are little out of touch with the reality of our world. But, for the most part, they are pretty well aimed.
I think what I would stress as you look at things like Meaningful Use is, make sure you are in touch with technology and what is really happening in healthcare. For the most part, they are, but that’s continuing to evolve. As technology evolves, the regulations need to evolve to accommodate the different technologies.
Free: Many would say that this disconnect does not only exist between healthcare and our government’s regulations, but it also exists between healthcare and its vendors. What is your perspective?
Broekhuis: If you look back a period of years, the disconnect was that the vendors probably didn’t understand that they had to have a totally integrated solution. They all understand that point today because the vendors are providing integrated solutions and they are very successful.
Their next step is to take the solutions and do what we call optimization. It’s to fine tune those applications and make them truly work in a manner that provides value to the clinician. Those applications do today because of how they have done integration, but I think that there is that next step of, “We got some great tools out here. Let’s figure out how to make them better now. They’re all integrated. They all work together. We got them fully implemented. Most of healthcare has an electronic health records. Let’s make them better now. Healthcare IT is still in its infancy, but they’re on the road to advancing the technology to making it what it can ultimately be.
Free: Sanford Health is about to begin a project with IBM Watson. Can you describe the work you plan to conduct?
Broekhuis: It’s a very exciting time here at Sanford Health especially for someone like me who has had the privilege of witnessing so many exciting developments for the past couple of decades.
We are amongst 14 organizations working with IBM to advance cancer genomics. So basically what is going to happen here during this next seven months, is we’re going to be using IBM Watson. We’re going to submit genetic information to Watson and Watson has the artificial intelligence to go look for treatment options, for clinical trials, for different literature based on the genomics that we submit to Watson and then provide a report back to our clinician that they can use to make some treatment options for that patient. These are typically patients where the general treatment options may not work. All that work that Watson is going to do can be done in minutes versus having to have someone research and look through all the literature to find this information can take hours, if not days.
