Dispatch from China

On Saturday I flew to South by Southwest for a keynote about cybersecurity.   Luckily, President Obama warmed up the audience before I arrived and offered balanced remarks about the need to balance privacy and security.   Two hours after my presentation, I flew to Hong Kong for all day meetings in Shenzhen.

The themes we discussed are very similar to those facing the US

How do we implement structured electronic data collection in support of a learning healthcare system, quality measurement, and clinical trials/research?

  Do we replace existing systems or augment them?

  How do we exchange data?

  How do we ensure security?

  How to do we manage the change and mitigate risks of clinician dissatisfaction?

There are a few aspects of China that help us address these issues.    There is a great willingness to change.  There is less regulatory burden at this point.   There are significant resources available.   In someways, China in 2016 is like the US at the beginning of the HITECH era.

From Shenzhen, I traveled to Suzhou and presented an overview of innovation in team-based care,  mobile, cloud, analytics.  

From Suzhou we drove to Shanghai for meetings with academic, government, and industry leaders.

The advantage of working in China is the 12 hour time difference with Boston.  You can work 12 hours in China, then work 12 hours in Boston every 24 hour cycle.   Back to the US tomorrow!