KLAS Global Summit 2024: Top takeaways from day one

In July 2024, I had the pleasure of attending the KLAS Global Summit in Italy. The renowned conference brings together healthcare leaders from across Europe, North America, Asia/Oceania, and the Middle East to share their stories, offer guidance, and create invaluable connections.

I was fortunate to be invited by KLAS to provide a live, informal write-up of the event. In this blog post, I will take you through the highlights and insights of the KLAS 2024 journey. My hope is these shared insights will resonate with you, offering valuable takeaways as you return to the demands of your everyday professional life.

The state of digital healthcare today

Digital healthcare needs to lean on itself. Those of us who have been involved for decades have been saying for such a long time that we have what it takes to make a difference—we just need to break down existing barriers. The importance of sharing past experiences and collaboratively planning for the future cannot be overstated, and this is precisely what the KLAS Global Summit facilitates.

At the start of the Summit, we were introduced to the KLAS advisory board, represented by over ten countries. The board went on to introduce the key themes for the day ahead.

Collaboration in healthcare

Adam Gale, CEO of KLAS Research, took to the stage to emphasise the need for simplification in healthcare to avoid adding complexity to digital transformations. Providers to healthcare need to ensure they don't add further complexity to an already complicated digital transformation and bring best practice to everything they do to ensure knowledge transfer remains constant.

Next, we heard from Rosanna Intelisano, director of management control from Gaetano Martino University Hospital. The hospital, covering almost every type of clinical speciality with 524 beds, 600 doctors, and more than 800 nurses, was facing the same common problems seen in so many large acute hospitals—and the challenge was how to create better digital engagement.

Intelisano shared their journey towards digital engagement, highlighting the importance of selecting a single supplier for interoperability and mandatory training for clinical staff. Intelisano and the team began to recognise the power of having a full digitised record to promote learning and analysis to better influence patient care within the teaching hospital.

Today, they’re seeing integration between health improvements and better healthcare creating economic change in the local area.

Global healthcare IT trends

Sidney Tate, insights director international and imaging for KLAS Research, presented a global overview of healthcare IT trends, noting a shift from pandemic-driven tactical spending to strategic investments aimed at long-term success. Key focus areas included efficiency, security, patient empowerment, and optimisation of existing investments. Despite advancements, electronic health record (EHR) digitisation remains a top priority, followed by cybersecurity and artificial intelligence (AI) applications.

The journey to cloud adoption is still an area many approach with trepidation, understanding they must have a plan and start somewhere but still worrying about what success looks like.

Navigating AI in healthcare

A tabletop discussion on healthcare AI highlighted the need for balanced governance to avoid stifling innovation. Panellists tried to capture the concept of AI as a triage tool with human (clinician and patient) oversight so decisions are not made in an autonomous way. There was a rallying call that AI governance should be lodged within the current corporate governance and every effort should be taken to not create new governance for it to be successful.

Several voices in the room also advocated for better definitions of AI in healthcare—the family of AI tools is not insignificant and probably needs differing levels of governance depending on the tool and its implementation.

The need for regulatory ‘containers’ across the world also became apparent. A fascinating comparison was made to drug regulation as a route to build on, emphasising AI's role in augmenting rather than replacing clinical decision-making.

It became clear that every country is taking a different approach to the use of AI in healthcare, with Australia and Italy dictating zero tolerance for the use of AI. No one has a clear strategy—everyone is awaiting on the government’s direction and the associated governance.

Future technologies

A panel on future technologies, moderated by KLAS’ Rebecca Hammond, featured insights from global healthcare leaders including Helen Balsdon from NHS England; Jacques Rossler, chief information officer of Hôpital Universitaire de Bruxelles; Marco Forrachia-Azienda with Universidad De Lleida .; and Dr. Mubuaraka Ibrahim with Emirates Health Services.

The biggest priorities today are still about the digitisation of the front line to create a joined-up system, integration of EHRs, and addressing disparities across regions.

Belgium has seen its biggest improvement in the maturity of its EHR with the introduction of Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR), Systemized Nomenclature of Medicine Clinical Terms (SNOMED CT), and further regulations. Interestingly, these regulations were seen as an advancement in an EHR, and not as a fundamental prerequisite.

Italy has a focus on bringing the whole system to the same standard in two years, with ambitions to talk about the delivery that has been created at the next KLAS event in 2025.

Meanwhile, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has seen 67,200 AI startups trying to move forward with AI and the market prediction is billions of dollars. The UAE has ambitions to be more than eight times the global estimates, and they are testing and training AI in operational efficiency to remove the burden of back-office operations significantly.

Telehealth and sustainability

Jacques Rossler discussed how we will see the use of telehealth evolve following its introduction and use during the pandemic. He stressed continuing to roll this out in further specialties where initially it was thought it would not work and optimise the current usage. Unfortunately, the biggest challenge in Belgium is funding is no longer there or has considerably decreased since the pandemic, so the evolution has significantly slowed.

The panel discussion highlighted the substantial increase in telehealth usage, with a 38-fold rise post-pandemic, involving 38 million Americans in 96 million visits since April 2022. The conversation emphasised that telehealth should encompass broader digital engagement between patients and healthcare systems, not just clinical consultations. Sharing patient information has created a new digital front door for healthcare, enhancing accessibility and engagement.

Utilising data and new technologies for preventative healthcare, especially within the NHS, was seen as vital. Empowering patients with long-term conditions to use their data was also identified as a key strategy for improving healthcare system efficiency and sustainability.

Success stories and lessons learned

Success stories from Johns Hopkins Aramco Healthcare and Sírio-Libanês highlighted the impact of effective governance, leadership, and continuous improvement in EHR systems. Key elements for success included collaborative development, agile methodologies, and personalised training programmes.

We also heard from Aviv Gladman, the chief clinical information officer of Mackenzie Health. At Mackenzie, they are moving from the paper clinical journeys of 2017 to today’s digital healthcare system and have been able to go from Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) stage zero to seven in the first year.

An EHR makes the journey to continuous improvement possible. It is not an IT tool, but a clinical tool that makes clinical outcomes better.

Command centres and operational efficiency

Another panel discussion highlighted the use of command centres to drive

operational efficiencies and improve patient outcomes. The centres should focus on data-driven decision-making, optimisation, and integration with virtual care. Effective change management and top-down support are crucial for their success.

Bree Bush from GE highlighted that command centres can be used for many things including imaging, virtual care, and Accident and Emergency but the ambition should be to have a command centre in your pocket. The command centre should always focus on optimisation and alert people to the outcome of decisions made.

Here's what we can expect next for command centres:

Correct policies being formed.
More of a focus on how it helps with population health.
Supply and demand management.
Virtual care components.
To bring that level of information to the patient complex care coordination.

Security in modern healthcare

A friend attended the security breakout session whilst I was at the control centre session. The security session was with Cynerio and covered insights from Canada, the U.S., Germany, Belgium, and Portugal.

Diving into a debate about the most significant security issues in a modern healthcare system was a big theme for the panel. Across Europe, the view of cloud security is changing. The drive to the cloud has been a catalyst for opening the conversation about security and remaining compliant with General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is still a discussion point today.

As we have been saying for so long, the cloud is a necessity because partners for the cloud can invest so much more in security than a healthcare system can. We must remain cautious, however, as a cloud migration is not the answer to all security, even with certified partners. Whilst cloud does help, we need to still own the protection, the review of the protection, and remediation when it is necessary.

The German journey to the cloud in healthcare is still immature—something I witnessed during my time at Dell, with very strict regulations introduced by the government. The key driver to cloud acceptance was to move from ‘walled gardens’ to enabling access to clinical teams from their homes during the pandemic. The levels of protection through governance and consideration in Germany are interesting, keeping the chief information security officer), data protection officer, an chief information officer roles separate and in different lines of business.

The ever-expanding digital front door is never going to get smaller now. With this in mind we must now prioritise protecting our data wherever it is and not try to shut the front door. The level of legislation relating to what must be done is very different across the world and we need to be mindful of how difficult it is to manage governance when things are so different from place to place. One size does not fit all.

Healthcare data is now the most valuable data in the market. The discussion on pay to recovery is far less black and white than even 12 months ago, so organisations should be prepared and make sure the team is ready.

What will be normal in five years?

As we look ahead to the future of healthcare, significant advancements and shifts in how care is delivered and experienced are on the horizon. Over the next five years, we can expect transformative changes that will redefine normalcy in the sector. These changes will be driven by digital integration, AI, patient empowerment, and a holistic approach to care that transcends traditional hospital settings.

Digitally supported patient journeys: The patient journey will be digitally supported and accepted as unique every time. We will stop trying to shoe-horn patient experiences into guard-railed routes.
Integration beyond hospital walls: Full digital relationships with private and community care will ensure comprehensive patient records, leading to better-informed and more effective patient care.
AI everywhere: AI will become ubiquitous, and the attitude of every part of the healthcare system will change. Patients will demand transparency in healthcare costs, allowing them to make informed choices about their care.
Consumerisation of healthcare systems: Healthcare will be increasingly consumer-driven, with apps leveraging smartphone technology to continuously collect health data, making self-quantification a standard practice.
Data-driven care: Advanced data analytics will enable truly personalised care, tailoring treatments and interventions to individual patient needs.
Ambient and preventative medicine: Incorporating ambient technologies both in hospitals and homes will facilitate preventative medicine and predict care needs, enhancing overall health outcomes.
Using large language models (LLMs) to improve efficiency: LLMs will be used to drive down waiting lists, keep patients out of the hospitals, and ensure physicians have the capacity to treat the sickest patients.

In summary

The KLAS Global Summit provided valuable insights into the future of global healthcare, emphasising the need for collaboration, strategic investments, and responsible use of technology. The shared experiences and lessons learned from various regions offer a roadmap for healthcare leaders to navigate the complexities of digital transformation and improve patient care in the long term.

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