Innovation & Social Media Inside the Enterprise

Recently, the Wall Street Journal noted that Facebook is transforming journalism. This is a great segway into something we've been watching for a while. Social media is not just for social consumers anymore. Journalists can use 'friends' on Facebook as sources without filtering or the usual controlled introductions so common with media firms in the past. A publishing company is therefore using social media to become more efficient.

Similarly, the texting movement where ideas can come from the masses is taking hold in the enterprise, in several intertwined ways. See the video clip below regarding Financial Advisors who "tweet" using Twitter. The Twitter network is helping them connect better with clients. (See our blog, "Twittering in Congress")

New digital imaging products such as Flip video and Canon's new long-recording video / still cameras mean more people can contribute and share ideas among friends on social networks, but also among colleagues in the enterprise.

Finally, 'crowd sourcing' of ideas using open source computer code development, blended with the ideas above means good ideas spread rapidly. (See our blog "...Software Advertising & Innovation). In particular, open source technology is rapidly being adopted in emerging markets. These markets have less to lose by doing things the old way, and much to gain in innovation by being open to free exchanges of ideas. The developed world must embrace these concepts or be left behind. Brazil and South Africa are two examples. This has helped 'lubricate the flow of information,' and save money. Pioneers are often the last to get on the wave. North America is actually the slowest in adopting open source.

The result is an innovation renaissance just waiting to happen outside corporate firewalls. We predict that the companies whose walls do not come down will be left behind, and those enterprises that intelligently embrace social media, open source, imaging of ideas and texting tweets will thrive.

To learn more about how social media can help your organization enhance their customers' experiences, facilitate learning and improve employee productivity contact www.noworldborders.com

Below are for video clips that explain these concepts. They can be blended together powerfully in social media. (See the No World Borders blog entry Innovators in Social Media).

Click the play button below to view "Facebook Transforming Journalism"



Click the play button below to view "When Financial Managers Tweet"




click the play button below to view "Flip Video vs. Canon"




Click the play button below to view "Open Source in Emerging Markets"

Electronic Health Records and Patient Privacy, Medical Identity

Yesterday, an important message titled “Don’t Rush eHRs Without Addressing Medical ID Theft” was posted on ModernHealthcare.com by Martin Ethridgehill, formerly a provider training specialist with Blue Cross and Blue Shield of New Mexico.

Mr. Ethridgehill points out that if a patient’s electronic medical identity is stolen by someone for health insurance benefits, critical information about the patient can be imperceptibly altered, leading to accidental death in an emergency room for any number of reasons. Furthermore, he points out that even if the real patient is aware that his or her record is tainted by a false patient’s data, it is very difficult to get the comingled record cleared up.

I have also read elsewhere that HIPAA actually impedes resolution of the nightmare because the Rule also protects the privacy of the false patient - prohibiting the real patient from examining his or her own health record.

Reasons to Go Slow

Ethridgehill is particularly critical of the EHR industry which lately has downplayed the importance of patient privacy in order to sell dangerous products. He gives these reasons for the need to slow down in the rush for interoperability:

• “Adding safety and records mitigation protocols ensures patient safety as an ongoing concept and practice.”
• “No industry would be allowed to operate, where the officials in charge of it stated that the market or other bodies would be responsible for creating safety procedures. Can you imagine if the auto industry stated, “We make cars, let the market figure out how to regulate safety”? I doubt that Congress or any other body would consider these people as remotely credible, yet I hear time and time again these statements being made in public and private forums by executives, lobbyists, and even so-called healthcare leaders.”
• “For the public and providers to embrace a product that has no regulation, no built-in safeguards and obviously no importance to safety from the makers of these products, why would Congress expect the American public or healthcare providers to embrace a product or concept that involves the unregulated risk of injury, death, or staggering liability opportunities, let alone without any hope of remedy or proper relief?”

One of the keys to improving life for payors as well as providers and patients will be process innovation. This is accomplished by clearly documenting the existing or "as is" process as well as the "to be" of the desired process. That can only be accomplished with combined disciplines of technicians who know business process modeling (BPM), facilitators who are professionals that can interact with all levels of stakeholders in the health care service chain, and "content" experts who understand legal, medical, and workflow implications of making changes to major functions such as provider management or claims adjudication.

No World Borders has been consulting with several health care payors on process improvement, and preparation of the conversion of systems for electronic health records.