Orchard Software CEO suggests data distribution and analytics could bear the most fruit for labs.
Your career began as the Clinical Director at a children’s hospital – how did that role transition into a new position and career in the field of IT?
Early in my nursing career, I found there were few tools that supported clinical workflow or really helped to support improved patient safety and quality. In fact, much of what involved health information technology (HIT) was viewed as a burdensome requirement that got in the way of patient care. My view of HIT as a strategic tool changed when I saw positive patient identification systems literally save lives and make a meaningful difference in patient safety. From there, it became clear that there was a lot of room for improvement and in fact, HIT can include powerful tools that effectively support clinicians and patients. With my clinical background and experience, I felt I had a distinct advantage and a responsibility to make a difference here.
Further, we were forcing clinicians to collect and document so much data, but rarely were they able to easily use or share it to improve patience care. The idea of making data reportable and actionable in a proactive way was very appealing. I viewed actionable data as the spark to process improvement and collaborative care across teams, disciplines, and care settings.
With the implementation of more IT solutions in healthcare, what have been some of the biggest changes you’ve seen over the last 10-20 years?
Positive patient identification has played a role in saving lives and preventing adverse events. HIT standards and discrete data capture have opened the world of analytics and artificial intelligence to healthcare. Interoperability or the ability to share data has improved care coordination, safety and efficiency. It has also been exciting for patients to gain access to their data and begin to become powerful participants in managing their own care.
Are there any IT-related advances on the horizon in the lab that are forecast to become the next important trend or asset to the healthcare industry?
The effective mining and distribution of data could become the most important asset to the laboratory. Whether it’s used for AI initiatives, for proactive and real-time use to support workflows and decision-making or to manage the data generated by molecular and genetic testing to support personalized medicine – advanced analytics will be key.
As a leading laboratory information systems (LIS) vendor, are there any product or technology launches planned from Orchard Software that you can share at this time?
Orchard is implementing flexible hosting and SaaS solutions, and advanced tools to facilitate cloud-based technology to meet the needs of end users. Our products integrate everything from POC instruments, core lab instruments and automation lines, as well as tight integration with reference labs. We are also working on product expansion to facilitate complex testing and lab workflows
You have a reputation for “driving innovation, generating rapid growth and improving profitability” according to online comments. How will these same assets serve to drive your goals as the new CEO at Orchard Software?
One of our immediate goals is to accelerate the journey to SaaS and cloud-based solutions. I have deep experience in this area—developing SaaS solutions from scratch and migrating legacy technology into the cloud. I am very excited about the partnerships Orchard has built and feel there is a significant opportunity to continue to collaboratively build on these relationships to improve patient care and promote delivery of new solutions. Regarding efficiency, we are working on tools to expedite our implementations, automate testing, support client-side validation and provide more relevant and well-timed education through e-learning.
What are three items at the top of your to-do list in your role as the new CEO at Orchard Software?
1. Get to know our clients 2. Accelerate the movement to SaaS and hosted solutions 3. Rapid deployment of our advanced new LIS and POCT tools to deliver added value to the healthcare marketplace.
What is the biggest challenge currently faced by labs/LIMS, and does Orchard Software offer any solutions at this time?
One of the greatest challenges across all healthcare IT is achieving interoperable systems that actually store and provide patient data in a way that is beneficial to patient care. Laboratories have worked with an LIS or LIMS for decades, even prior to the advent of the EHR. However, these systems must be able to meet today’s connectivity and security requirements and continue to improve laboratory productivity. As mentioned, one of our immediate goals is to transition our products to SaaS and cloud-based solutions, as this architecture proves beneficial to many of today’s laboratories. In addition, Orchard stands out as an expert in systems integration with the ability to interface with a multitude of third-party information systems and laboratory analyzers.
With the knowledge that point-of-care testing (POCT) is expected to continue to gain traction in value-based care and the laboratory is expanding its oversight of disseminated laboratory testing sites, we are focusing on development of Orchard Trellis, our POCT connectivity solution. Trellis offers multiple deployment options and utilizes the Orchard Device Engine (ODE) to support cloud connectivity between laboratory instrumentation and the LIS application. The ability to connect within the lab testing spaces to give providers more types of data (not just lab results) to improve patient care is what our cloud-based technologies are all about..
