‘Tap Into TechSpring’ is off to a strong start! On Thursday January 8, we had our monthly open house event with networking and informal discussions of change in healthcare. The group included representatives from Baystate Health leadership, clinical and IT staff, as well as a Boston digital health start-up, local and national entrepreneurs and technologists.

Angelo Pananas from Baystate’s Adult Inpatient Psychiatry shared ideas for how technology solutions could help decrease risk and prevent harm in mental health, a technology ‘under-served’ clinical area.

Population health is top of mind for Dr. Neil Kudler, a self-declared advocate for social justice and Baystate’s Chief Medical Information Officer. Throughout the evening, Neil shared ideas and observations for how Population Health is transforming healthcare delivery across the Baystate patient population.

Scott Parlee, VP of Marketing from Twine Health, visited from Boston. He spoke about the need to change our healthcare delivery model. "We are still primarily using the same episodic acute care delivery model from 50 years ago, but in 2013 over 75% of the $3 trillion spent on healthcare was caused by chronic disease." He went on to say, "We need to move to a more continuous care model where patients can tap into their clinician's expertise in-between office visits." Parlee predicted a new model of care will emerge where patients can collaborate with their care teams via their mobile phones, getting the support they need to tackle and ultimately take control of their health.

Perrish Dailey - Practice Lead from Dell Healthcare and Life Sciences spoke about cutting-edge technologies that are changing the way patients are monitored and treated outside of office visits. This technology is moving fast and is accelerating change in healthcare.

Nick Sophinos from WDean Medical, who like many of us here grew up in this area, has recognized the need for more communication across different medical providers.  He pointed out that if he were to need to go to a different hospital, the staff would know nothing about him. His company is currently working on developing a platform that would decrease this gap in communication.

Christian Lagier, Managing Director of TechSpring, spoke candidly looking across the room saying: “The pieces are all there, but we are the limiting factor.  It’s on us to bring together the technology with workflow and culture change, to make change happen. We hope the TechSpring community, - you -, can play a part in bringing it all together.”