It is our first "on location" broadcast!  Just a quick check-in from and overview of the AAMI 2014 event in Philadelphia.  Kelley, Terry and Tim are live and in the same location for the first time since Healthcare Tech Talk's inception.

A data breach in the world of healthcare information technology (HIT) comes with a three-fold tear - patient data is compromised and vulnerable, patient trust is diminished or lost, and there exists a potential for up to millions of dollars in fines and potential insurmountable hardship for an organization. It seems that the amount of issues on our security plate are endless.  Malicious hackers, unsuspecting coworkers, bumbling business partners, and conflicting data needs all pose potential pitfalls. In this episode, Brian Quick, who has spent much of the last decade working to meet these challenges, helps us navigate.

It is estimated that 40,000 women will die of breast cancer this year, and between 45-90 out of every 100 women carrying BRCA genes (of which there are hundreds of BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations) will get breast cancer at some point in their lives.  Everyone agrees that early detection leads to more effective treatment and improved outcomes.  Often when we think of how we diagnose and chart the course for our patients, it starts by scanning the body with imaging equipment or analyzing blood or tissues. What if we told you that a SURVEY that makes meaningful use of demographics, family medical history, personal medical history, and lifestyle could help determine cancer risks and help tailor our approach to win the battle? Dr. Kevin Hughes joins us to discuss the realities and the possibilities.

Everywhere you look in a hospital, there is technology, and with these countless pieces of technology, comes the potential for countless problems. The responsibility for supporting technology falls to front line technical support staff, which is often stretched to their limits in more ways than one. In this episode we explore a new way of deploying resources to support technology which is improving customer satisfaction, technician satisfaction and reducing costs - the expedite technician.

We are all being asked to do more with less, so is desktop virtualization an integral piece in IT efforts? Reducing support labor and disruptions to the user, as well as increased versatility, are some of the touted advantages of desktop virtualization. We all know that the healthcare environment is a challenging place for all technologies to deliever on promised value. So what are the real advantages and possible challenges to virtualizing PCs in the hospital envirnoment? Jeremy Windmiller shares his knowledge on innovating the healthcare user device environment.

It may not be grabbing the healthcare information technology (HIT) headlines, but it certainly puts a stranglehold on healthcare delivery when your organization's network infrastructure is disrupted.  Without your network infrastructure there is no functioning electronic medical record (EMR), no telemedicine, no communication between medical devices, or any other service delivery you have come to rely on that relies on a network.  Alex Moore, network engineer, helps us explore the various networking technologies used to support the numerous applications we ae deploying to serve our clinicians and our patients, as well as the special challenges that accompany deploying network technology in the complicated 24/7-365 healthcare environment.

Mary Logan, President and CEO of the Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation (AAMI), stops by to discuss the past, present and future of this progressive and proactive organization.  Since 1967, AAMI has been the primary source of consensus and timely information on medical instrumentation and technology.  Mary also introduces us to the Healthcare Technology Safety Institute, an AAMI partnership with the Food & Drug Administration (FDA), which endeavors to tackle current and pressing issues surrounding medical instrumentation.  She then goes on to build excitement for AAMI’s upcoming annual conference, as well as imparts a surprising but important life lesson.

Well, we spoke too soon!  Congress voted for another delay and the new due date is October 1, 2015; but bookmark this episode as it seems many people will still need to listen this time next year.

ICD-10 is a major (some may say cataclysmic) milestone that will impact most all healthcare settings, systems and operations. Even given an extension from the previous deadline in 2013, many are still struggling with readiness and even pushing for yet another extension. In this episode, we talk to technical and operational ICD-10 program managers that are on the front lines of readying their organization, its partners, and its payers for the absolute ICD-10 implementation date of October 1, 2014.

In this episode we sit down with Jonathan Linkous, CEO of the American Telemedicine Association  (ATA) to look at the past, present and future of telemedicine, as well as the functions of this organization.  The ATA is the leading international resource and advocate promoting the use of advanced remote medical technologies.  The ATA has been working with technology companies, communications carriers, healthcare providers, payers, state legislatures, and government agencies since 1993 in an effort to better serve the patient by operationally advancing telemedicine presence and use both here in the U.S. and around the world.

For decades clinicians and technologists have been seeking solutions to extend healthcare services to rural and remote locations in order to provide care that patients would otherwise have to travel substantial distances to receive, or would not receive at all.  Telemedicine, using video technology and all that it entails, is one such solution that is not only delivering healthcare over large distances, but is growing in utilization within patients' own communities.  Brad Spangler, telemedicine analyst, provides us with an introduction to telemedicine - its technologies, goals, challenges, successes, current and proposed uses, and advancements.