Issue link: https://beckershealthcare.uberflip.com/i/674245
78 HEALTH IT The Guide to Cringeworthy Health IT Conversations: 10 Leaders on the Terms They Dread Most By Carrie Pallardy I n health IT, "innovation" and "uberization" are all the rage. Once rep- resentative of new, creative endeavors in the industry, these words are now little more than white noise. Despite the powerful potential of language, overused, outdated or misused terms start to fall on deaf — and irritated — ears, diminishing any sincere intent behind the buzz. From overzealous acronyms to "user-friendly," 10 health IT thought leaders share with Becker's Hospital Review terms and phrases that make their skin crawl. Editor's note: Submissions have been lightly edited for clarity and concision. 1. Acronyms Neil Smiley, Founder and CEO of Loopback Analytics (Dallas): Health IT is awash in acronyms. I'm generally okay with three-letter ac- ronyms. However, when health IT acronyms are four letters or more, they should either form some catchy word that is suggestive of its mean- ing, such as HITECH or FHIR, or be scaled back to a more manageable acronym. ankfully, some unwieldy four-plus letter acronyms we use every day have already been chopped. Do you remember the early days of the PPACA? Mercifully, we now can just say ACA! However, we still have too many complicated acronyms in need of reform. e all-time worst: Certification Commission for Health In- formation Technology (CCHIT). Not only does this acronym fail the three letter test, when it is pronounced as a word, it suggests a different meaning altogether. 2. Analytics, big data and population health Sean Benson, Vice President & General Manager of POC Advisor, Clinical Soware Solutions, Wolters Kluwer (Philadelphia): ese amorphous terms [analytics, big data and population health] are used too frequently as marketing buzzwords in too many different con- texts. As a result, many vendors ultimately mislead providers by giv- ing them the impression that they are providing a complete solution, which, in most cases, is completely untrue. 3. Big data Rich Berner, President of Allscripts Global (Chicago): Its an ambig- uous term that doesn't do justice to the size or scope of information available today. What people actually care about is finding trends and insights within this enormous resource. Identifying insights about pa- tients or populations is not enough if you cannot meaningfully turn those insights into behavioral change at the point of care. 4. Biomedical engineering Pamela Arora, CIO of Children's Health (Dallas): A term in need of up- date: "biomedical engineering." Given a significant percentage of biomed- ical equipment has a technology component, Children's feels that "health technology management" is far more accurate. In 2011, Children's Health System of Texas (formerly Children's Medical Center of Dallas) made the decision to integrate the biomedical team with the information services team. is decision has proven to be a benefit to the organization. e combined team applies IT security practices and concepts to biomedical equipment, helping to reduce device vulnerability to security attack. is HTM partnership has also allowed Children's Health to integrate biomed- ical equipment more effectively and efficiently into our EHR, thus improv- ing care delivery to pediatric patients. 5. Disruptive, next-generation, mobile, cloud-dased, big data enabled and patient-centric Rasu Shrestha, MD, Chief Innovation Officer of UPMC (Pitts- burgh): ere was a particular regional conference where a vendor was touting a "disruptive, next generation, mobile, cloud-based, big data enabled, patient-centric platform." It turned out to be an app. Some of my favorite ones also include "new health economy," "plat- form" and "paradigm shi." But perhaps the most confusing one cur- rently is "population health" since everyone seems to be getting on this bus to a point where it's quite cringeworthy! 6. Enterprise software Jonathan Bush, CEO of athenahealth (Watertown, Mass.): e con- cept of selling — or buying — soware rather than services in healthcare today is complete anathema when you consider the way we purchase technology in the rest of our lives. Soware's fixed costs — annual main- tenance, hardware upgrades and personnel — add significant overhead to our health systems, but offer very little return on investment. Cloud services convert these fixed costs in variable operating costs and are di- rectly tied to results. I cringe when I hear CXOs talk about purchasing soware. How about purchasing results, instead?