Get Real Health President and Founding Partner, Robin Wiener, was honored to be a panelist at The American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) National Convention on October 17th in Baltimore.
AHIMA is the premier association of health information management (HIM) professionals worldwide. Founded in 1928 to improve health record quality, AHIMA has played a leadership role in the effective management of health data and medical records needed to deliver quality healthcare to the public.
Wiener was part of the Luminary Healthcare Panel exploring ways to improve healthcare with an emphasis on global health IT. Moderated by AHIMA CEO, Lynne Thomas Gordon, other panelist included Jenniver Covich Bordenick, CEO of eHealth Initiative, and Dr. Susan Turney, CEO of Marshfield Clinic Health System.
The moderator kicked off the session discussing the technology trends and gaps impacting today’s healthcare landscape. Our global presence allowed Wiener to speak directly to the challenges and successes of creating a patient centered model across varying demographics. Our experience is that patient engagement is here to stay and with that, patient home health data jumps to the forefront of the discussion about consolidating records from myriad sources. Wiener also noted that patients have come to expect all their information housed in one place and the importance of patients not being able to just see their health data, but being able to interact with it in a meaningful way. Additionally, Wiener emphasized that as an industry we need to focus on gathering patient data from home health devices to get a holistic view of a patient.
“We really need to look at combining what’s going on at home with clinical to get a 360-degree view of the patient,” Wiener said. “We need to be able to pull information from outside clinicians together as well. They’re seeing one little piece of you; we need to get the whole picture.”
The focus then shifted to strategic partnerships as they relate to improving healthcare for patients and providers. Wiener was able to expand on the philosophy Get Real Health employs when seeking partners and the protocol once they are secured. Get Real Health looks for organizations that not only offer an enhancement to our products, but also share our commitment to patient engagement. We have seen that once roles, capabilities and expectations are laid out, both parties can move forward assured that they are bringing the optimal experience to the end user. With an array of strategic partners around the globe–many of which are being used to bolster current deployments—we are well versed on successful partnership strategies.

From left to right: Lynne Thomas Gordon, Robin Wiener, Jennifer Covich Bordenick and Susan Turney
The conversation was robust, so much so that the allotted time expired before the panel could broach the final question regarding the shift from volume to value and the goal of the Triple Aim (better care, better health, lower costs) to improve quality, decrease costs and take care of the populations we serve.
We fell so fortunate to be included in these relevant discussions. Luckily, these types of panels and exploration are becoming more frequent and in-depth which bodes well for the future of patient centric health and health IT overall.