Tech Innovations Don't Need to Be Complex When Trapped Under Pandemic Pressure

For all of the weight healthcare disruptors throw behind the idea of innovation, there's something to be said about moving too fast and breaking too many things. Adoption of new digital tools should never lead to an interruption in patients' care.

COVID-19, however, wasn't the type of disruption that health systems had on their calendars. For those on the front lines of this emerging disease, "everything was innovation," Emily Kagan-Trenchard, VP of digital innovation and strategy at Northwell Health said during a recent HIMSS (MobiHealthNews' parent company) Accelerate Health virtual discussion.

Repurposed CPAP machines and EHR-based treatment-outcomes analysis certainly played a key role in reimagining acute care, but "the real stars of the tech response during the pandemic were those technologies we didn't think so much about, but got to shine," she said.