Kelly Summers, CHCIO, CDH-E

This statement on information blocking could disrupt EHR vendors’ plans to corner the healthcare data exchange market. Here’s some quick background: EHR vendors like Epic, eCW, and Cerner set up (or are setting up) Qualified Health Information Networks (QHINs) that connect with other QHINs to form a national data exchange network. Healthcare provider organizations must decide whether to participate in the national network, and if they do, whether to join the QHIN that their EHR vendor offers or an independent one. It would have been tempting for the EHR+QHIN vendors to strongarm their provider clients into proprietary QHINs. The EHR vendors could have said things like: 🫸 “Choose our QHIN or you will be on your own to bring data from the national network into the EHR.” 💰 “You will have to pay us so much to ingest data from a competitor QHIN that you might as well join ours.” 🏆 “Joining our QHIN may be costly, but it would help you qualify for our Super Amazing Client Program and avoid costly EHR penalties. And we’ll waive our QHIN costs for a year or two.” ⏳“You could submit a request to bring data from a competing QHIN into the EHR, but it’s not really a priority for us and could take a while. Just join our QHIN.” The section of the FAQ document pictured below says that attempts to limit their customers’ ability to select a QHIN would be considered information blocking. EHR vendors that engage in such behavior could face monetary penalties and legal consequences. I agree with this guidance from ASPT/ONC. Providers and other organizations should be able to select the QHIN that offers the best services at the lowest price - not the QHIN that has the most leverage. EHR vendors that offer QHINs already have systems to connect with other QHINs to bring data into the EHR from the national network. They should allow their provider partners to bring life-saving clinical data into the EHR without forcing them into their QHINs. I’m looking forward to seeing whether the four-sentence FAQ response from ASTP/ONC will change the direction of the market on this. Perhaps you are reading this differently. What do you think? Will the EHR+QHIN vendors still convince most providers to join their QHINs? https://lnkd.in/gwgJTSvC

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A JAMA study examined the impact of last year's CrowdStrike outage by surveying 2,232 hospitals and found that more than a third experienced significant system downtimes caused by a faulty cybersecurity update from the vendor. The outage disabled lab systems, disrupted scheduling tools, and cut off access to electronic health records in hundreds of #hospitals. #CIOs faced more than just disruption; the crisis forced them to rethink how they manage automatic system updates.  https://lnkd.in/gdnVNmrV

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The Cost of Compliance Failure in Healthcare & Other Regulated Industries Compliance isn’t paperwork. It’s risk management at executive level. When it fails, the impact is never small. Under HIPAA and General Data Protection Regulation, fines can reach millions. But the real damage is operational shutdowns, ransomware exposure, lost patient trust, and board-level scrutiny. In regulated industries, “the IT team handles it” is no longer acceptable. If your architecture doesn’t include: • Clear data ownership • Role-based access controls • Encryption & monitoring • Documented audit trails You don’t have compliance. You have liability. After 22+ years in healthcare and regulated environments, I’ve learned this: • Digital transformation without governance is reckless. • AI without data control is dangerous. The modern CIO/CTO isn’t just driving innovation. They are designing resilience. Compliance done right doesn’t slow growth. It protects it. #CIO #CTO #HealthcareIT #CyberSecurity #DataGovernance #HIPAA #GDPR

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From technology alignment to data intelligence and cross-functional collaboration, HIM leaders are helping shape connected, compliant organizations. Take a look at four focus areas defining 2026.

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Key Focus Areas for the Modern CIO 1. Business Alignment: Modern CIOs align technology initiatives directly with business goals. They ensure that every tech investment has a measurable business impact, from enhancing customer experience to optimizing supply chains. 2. Innovation Balanced with Outcomes: CIOs foster innovation but always tie it back to business value. Whether it’s AI, ML, Cloud, or emerging technologies, they prioritize solutions that deliver real results, not innovation for the sake of buzzwords. 3. Data-Driven and Outcome-Focused: CIOs leverage data to inform every decision, ensuring that technology investments are backed by insights and aligned with strategic objectives. 4. Cost Optimization: Running IT as if it’s their own money, modern CIOs focus on optimizing cost without compromising innovation, security, or growth. 5. Security and Risk Management: Understanding the importance of security, they ensure robust cybersecurity measures are in place while enabling the business to innovate safely. 6. People Leadership and Team Support: CIOs are people-first leaders, focusing on developing strong, diverse teams. They empower their teams, support career growth, and promote a culture of continuous learning. 7. Always Learning: A modern CIO is always learning, staying ahead of new technologies like AI, ML, and Cloud while bringing a future-forward perspective to the leadership table. They don’t just talk about tech, they understand it, but they talk about it through the lens of business impact. #CIO #Leadership

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More on Remote Patient Monitoring “In terms of cost-related outcomes, there was a clear downward trend in the risks of hospital admission/readmission, length of stay, number of outpatient visits and non-hospitalisation costs.” https://lnkd.in/d32P6BBR.

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Alerts Are Not the Unit of Truth. State Is. Healthcare optimizes alarms. Enterprise systems optimize state. An alert is a side effect, not a signal. A threshold breach is not deterioration. A value is not a trajectory. Without longitudinal context: Signals cannot be trusted Alerts cannot be prioritized Escalation becomes guesswork Modern observability correlates metrics across time, normalizes behavior per instance, and alerts only when the system meaningfully deviates. Healthcare still alerts when a number crosses a line. That gap explains why: 80–90 percent of alarms are non-actionable Clinicians distrust monitors True deterioration hides in noise The failure is architectural, not clinical.

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