Originally published on VMware Blogs by Enrique Estrada

It was a busy week at HIMSS 2022, meeting leaders in healthcare IT and checking out the latest technology and industry trends. Top of mind for attendees (besides being thrilled to see each other in person) was how to accelerate digital transformation and keep up with the changing realities shaping healthcare.

According to an MIT Technology Review Insights Study, 89 percent of healthcare leaders surveyed are accelerating their digital transformation. It’s an abstract goal, but when we dig down a layer, we’re hearing that IT teams are focused on initiatives like hybrid work and the distributed workforce, running modern apps for better patient care, and of course making the shift to cloud.

With those goals in mind, here are my top takeaways from the event.

1. Quick pivots to telehealth are seeing long-term success

As remote and hybrid work became more the norm during the recent pandemic, healthcare providers had to quickly deploy solutions that supported this new model. This work was highlighted in the VMware theater during HIMSS with our partner IGEL, and two of our customers – Indiana University (IU) Health and RWJBarnabas Health.

At IU, through the utilization of IGEL OSVMware Horizon and VMware Workspace ONE, they were able to quickly repurpose inpatient units, support the rise of telehealth, and support hybrid work across 200 locations.

At RWJBarnabas, the pandemic also pushed an immediate need for remote work. RWJBarnabas was able to expand their remote access 10 times overnight by delivering desktops and apps using VMware Horizon and IGEL – moving from 400 devices to 4,000.

2. Artificial Intelligence has a growing role in patient care

Highlighting the need for modern apps to deliver better patient care, VMware partnered with NVIDIA to deliver two showcase events focused on our artificial intelligence (AI) platform in healthcare to improve patient experiences and outcomes. iCAD’s ProFound mammography AI can reduce radiologists’ reading time by an average of 52.7 percent. For cases with dense breasts, it can reduce reading time by an average of 57.4 percent. It is also clinically proven to improve radiologists’ sensitivity by 8 percent and reduce unnecessary patient recall rates by 7.2 percent on average, thus improving the patient experience dramatically.

Another provider, Rhino Health, featured its AI federated learning platform that has been adopted by the American College of Radiology (ACR). With the Rhino Health solution, data remains at the site where it was created. Patient privacy is always protected. Copies of the AI model are sent to each site, and training is performed locally. You don’t need to move massive amounts of data and create redundancies.

3.  Future innovations will drive toward scale, speed, and equity

Lastly, we continued to hear that the speed of innovation and business scale are essential. Optimizing workflows, security, and improving the patient experience are critical in how data is moved across a multi-cloud environment. I was able to take part in two focus groups, where healthcare leaders discussed remote patient engagement and app modernization. These two sessions – plus numerous other conversations at the event – drive home the point that the healthcare industry is living through major market transitions in digital health and patient-centric care models. What’s more, through these transitions, providers are focusing on health equity – bringing care to all people and communities, especially rural areas with traditionally limited access to care.

As with any good conference, HIMSS’ impact will extend beyond the event itself. Let’s continue the conversation. To learn more about what VMware is up to in healthcare IT, visit our website.

Jens Koegler

Jens Koegler is VMware's Healthcare Industry Director in EMEA. He is helping our healthcare customers develop and run modern applications to drive innovation and ensure better patient care through a digital foundation that includes data center, hybrid cloud, mobile, networking and security technologies. VMware plays a strategic role in the healthcare industry. Its leading innovations in enterprise software help ensure consistent patient care and reduce IT access time for healthcare professionals so they can spend more time with their patients. Jens plays a key role in helping customers understand how new applications, devices, the latest IT technologies and digital transformation are driving innovation in healthcare.