We asked a variety of healthcare players to look back to 2011 and forward to 2012, taking the temperature of a rapidly changing landscape. Here’s what they had to say:

Billie Blair, CEO of healthcare consulting firm Change Strategists

• 2011: “With EHR adoption, there are some technical issues still to be solved, but for the most part the stumbling blocks are more in the human domain. There will be a continued slow, steady increase in the movement toward digitization and ‘open’ access to health records.
• 2012: “There will greater pressure to get records digitized. Those that have been resistant will need to face that reality and figure out the most reasonable approaches for their practices/ health care systems.”

David Lagrew M.D., Chief Integration and Accountability Officer, MemorialCare Health System in Southern California  

• 2011: “If we use our healthcare system as a model, we have witnessed a remarkable transformation of our clinical care and attitudes of physicians, nurses and other care providers in using electronic medical record. In 2006 we spent literally thousands of hours of change management training to prepare staff and physicians for the radical changes needed to incorporate electronic records.  I contrast such efforts to the attitude of a hospital that recently joined our health system - that at our management retreat, (they) sent a video with a group of staff in front of piles of paper charts holding a sign saying “please send the EMR soon!” It is very clear that it is no longer a matter of ‘if’ but rather a matter of ‘when’ all our care is rendered electronically.”
• 2012:  “As the first stimulus checks from the Meaningful Use program arrive, I think you’ll see many hospital and clinic executives reassessing their needs and timetables. With the recent extension to 2014 of stage I guidelines, late adopters will have another reason to rethink their plans and start joining the process. I base these beliefs on the fact that 2012 will also bring greater recognition to the fact that those with electronic records are more likely to be able to succeed at meeting quality and safety objectives in other stimulus programs.”

 David Finn, Health IT Officer for Symantec, HIMSS board member

• 2011: “Stories of patient data being compromised because of lost or stolen laptops and devices dominated the news. Many of these breaches could have been easily prevented through proper handling and encryption of private data. This is an area for tremendous improvement and one that will certainly be top of mind in the new year.”
• 2012: “‘Consumerization of IT’ has already made its way into the enterprise with employees demanding to be able to use personal Smartphones and tablet devices in the workplace. As this trend trickles over into the healthcare space it will become increasingly important for healthcare IT organizations to understand best practices for protecting patient data on mobile devices.”

 Amit Trivedi, healthcare program manager at ICSA Labs

• 2011: “From state agencies to hospitals to single physician practices, records are being digitized, systems are being updated, and new devices are being introduced that push sensitive information beyond the traditional boundaries of health care providers.”
• 2012: “Healthcare compliance will grow in complexity. Healthcare organizations will face mounting pressure to maintain compliance with government regulations, such as HIPAA and the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act.  Privacy and security breaches related to patient health information will continue to attract negative media coverage and penalties for non-compliance are being actively enforced by the Office of Civil Rights. The trend toward greater sharing of clinical information also will likely introduce new challenges for organizations with regards to crafting policy and controls around user identity management, maintaining patient privacy and securing patient health information.”

 Albert Santalo, CEO of CareCloud

• 2011: “Many of the problems we saw in 2011 were based on security and lagging in technological adoption. The strict HIPAA standards help protect patient data, but human error and outdated systems allowed servers, laptops and hard drives to be lost or stolen, exposing large amounts of sensitive patient data. Practices and hospitals that are not evolving with the HIT landscape will find higher costs of operation and less secure data.”
• 2012: “EHR adoption is really going to be a game changer in continuity and quality of care. Better reporting and analytics will help physicians make better informed decisions both for the patients and their practice. Doctors will have greater flexibility and accessibility to patients and other providers through cloud computing. The changing landscape of healthcare will require doctors to leverage technology to streamline their workflow and cut costs.”

Ken Singer, AppCentral’s CEO and Co-Founder

• 2011: “With the new trend of BYOD (Bring Your Own Device), medical professionals are utilizing their own Sartphones and tablets to access medical records and other applications. IT departments are faced with the reality of managing personal information of patients while abiding by strict regulations. On top of this, these devices are streaming professional data alongside personal data.”
• 2012: “With regard to policies and processes, hospital networks are now utilizing mobile application management (MAM) to remotely deploy, manage, update and wipe applications from employee-devices over-the-air. This is done instantly, and apps with sensitive information are removed from the device. This can apply for major security threats to an doctor’s tablet or smartphones.  IT can simply remove the app off of the device without the threat stealing or leaking corporate data.”