At MEDITECH’s 2020 Physician and CIO Forum, we all saw the impact of how a virtual learning environment can help us to address common challenges in an uncommon time. And with remote technologies, I’m proud to see how we’ve been able to bridge the miles between us and even many of the uncertainties that COVID-19 has brought.

Recently, Interlace Health had the privilege of hosting and presenting with a group of health IT executives from MEDITECH, Salesforce, and CereCore. The exclusive virtual roundtable discussion focused on their experiences leading through the pandemic, strategies for ensuring a safe return to work, and thoughts on what the future of care delivery might look like. It was a remarkable “inside look” into how several leading organizations are responding to the unprecedented challenges we’re facing in the healthcare IT industry.

For our latest Thought Leader podcast, I spoke with Dr. Andy Burchett, CMIO of Avera Health, about his organization’s rapid response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

COVID-19 has hit the healthcare industry so hard that many hospitals have been forced to furlough staff, or worse, close their doors. Relief payments from the CARES Act are a lifeline for organizations under enormous economic strain; though the healthcare portions of the legislation are only a few pages long, addendums are being released intermittently, making it easy for administrators — already in crisis mode — to lose track of the very subsidies the legislation provides.  

To help you stay on top of available relief payments and loans, we’ve summarized the opportunities and included links to helpful resources. Think of this blog post as your cheat sheet for financial support that may be available to your organization. 

The COVID-19 outbreak presents an unprecedented challenge to the medical community — and the pandemic has shaken many of the basic functions of society. It has been an inspiration to see healthcare experts and front-line providers maintain their vigilance and professionalism under exceedingly trying conditions.

The COVID-19 pandemic is likely to test modern healthcare in ways never seen before. Physicians and nurses worldwide are being called to service, risking their own well-being to help an alarming volume of ill and worried patients. How we manage this emergency depends largely upon the quality of tools available to help us improve safety for our patient and clinician communities.

These tools include technologies that can help slow the spread of this new, highly transmissible virus through social distancing, allowing us to work with patients to determine the most appropriate venue of care.

Predictions in a field as rife with change as healthcare can be risky, but I’m going to venture out on a limb and say that 2020 will be our industry’s most pivotal year in at least a generation. A year from now I predict we’ll look back at 2020 as the year of interoperability.

Our mission with the MEDITECH Blog is to share new ideas from thought leaders across the health IT industry — and during 2019, we welcomed more than a dozen new authors representing clinical, executive, and media perspectives.

Tell me about yourself and the company.

I took over as president about six months ago. I was previously chief operating officer over operations and primarily development. I am now being reintroduced to a great leadership team that is responsible for our customer experience implementation and client services. We are re-engineering how we look at implementation to improve the physician experience and how we can improve customer experience as we continue to service them moving forward.