This month in FutureCAST, we explore steps for organizations that need help protecting health care information and complying with regulations, as well as the opportunities around strategic information technology (IT) planning and telehealth and remote monitoring technologies.
 
FutureCAST is a new CAST video series asking 24 health care executives where they think health care technology is headed and how CAST can play a role. These interviews were held at the 2017 LeadingAge Annual Meeting & EXPO. Each month, we’ll share two insightful interviews in Tech Time.
 
In this month’s features, IBM’s Susheel Ladwa, co-chair of the America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) IT Advisory Group, sits down with two executives: 

• John DiMaggio, CAST Commissioner and CEO of LeadingAge CAST Supporter BlueOrange Compliance and
• David Baker, Chief Technology Officer of LeadingAge CAST Patron The Asbury Group Integrated Technologies.

John DiMaggio, CAST Commissioner and CEO of LeadingAge CAST Supporter BlueOrange Compliance
 

Watch the video and read the full transcript.
 
Ladwa: What makes BlueOrange Compliance special?
 
DiMaggio: BlueOrange Compliance helps organizations protect health care information and meet health care regulations, including HIPAA and regulations on security, privacy, and reach. We especially help organizations that may not have kept up with those processes. As cyber threats rise, keeping up becomes more and more important.
 
Sometimes organizations don’t know where to start. BlueOrange Compliance has a straightforward process to give those organizations the assessment that regulations require. Then we give them a plan: what they need to do first and after that. We track where they are throughout the process and give regular guidance. We facilitate fixing any technical issues clients face and help keep them on track.
 
BlueOrange Compliance also helps clients prepare a security plan and set policies and procedures around privacy and breach regulations. We help them secure their information through vulnerability scans and penetration testing and conduct mock audits, to see how they would do if an agency audited them.
 
Ladwa: What do you see as the top challenges in securing information technology (IT) systems specific to acute care and long-term and post-acute care (LTPAC)?
 
DiMaggio: It’s usually a lack of resources within organizations. While IT teams are busy running their business, security can be secondary.
 
Health care has been behind other industries in security, and the value of health care information on the black market is high. Technology and cyber threats move fast. We help organizations focus on those and move in the right direction.
 
Ladwa: How has your association with CAST helped you and the industry?
 
DiMaggio: We’ve been with CAST about three years, and being on the CAST Commission has been fantastic. It has helped us keep up with where the industry is heading. The regular meetings are good for networking and have helped us to serve our clients better.
 
DiMaggio also said that while a lot of people think security is an IT problem, it’s a risk management problem that must be integrated into the executive team and down. Watch the video to learn more about DiMaggio’s early career, how he helped found BlueOrange Compliance, and what advice he’d give to young executives wanting to advance in health care.

Make sure you catch DiMaggio during CAST’s Technology Forum, and in the Cybersecurity Zone in BaseCamp, at the PEAK Leadership Summit. The summit will be held March 18-21, 2018, in Washington, DC. In addition, be sure to check out DiMaggio’s interview with LeadingAge in “Don’t Assume You’re Immune to a Cyberattack,” the first article in this cybersecurity series.

David Baker, Chief Technology Officer of LeadingAge CAST Patron The Asbury Group Integrated Technologies
 

 Watch the video and read the full transcript.
 
Ladwa: What’s the most exciting thing that you and your team are working on right now at The Asbury Group Integrated Technologies?
 
Baker: Helping organizations figure out their strategic plan around IT, especially those who don’t know what that means from a people, process, and technology perspective.
 
It’s so much more than access points; it’s all that supporting infrastructure that you have to have in place in order to use new innovations such as artificial intelligence, telehealth, and Internet of Things. It’s exciting to be able to help them navigate those waters and get through that.
 
Ladwa: From your view as a CTO when you look at all the new technologies that are coming down the pipe, what do you see as a few technologies that have really piqued your interest?
 
Baker: Telehealth is a great way to expand and provide specific physician services, where we normally wouldn’t have that service in-house—being able to bring somebody from a surgery perspective, from a psychological perspective in through telemedicine and telehealth, into the community 24/7/365.
 
Another is remote monitoring. With sensors being able to see the changes in patterns, people can pick up on those changes and see where an interaction might be needed.
 
Ladwa: What is your advice to other executives on how do they make decisions, what do they base their decisions on?
 
Baker: I think in times of change like this, they need to get back to the root of everything and solidify their foundation. There’s so much unknown going on, now’s the time to sit back and look at the foundation, do a strategic plan around that. What do you need to have in place to support those new technologies or any changes in governmental regulations going forward? It’s a great opportunity to do that now.
 
Ladwa: You’ve been associated with LeadingAge CAST for some time now. How has CAST helped you in your decisions around technology and investments in IT?
 
Baker: I’m a busy executive who spends a lot of time behind the windshield of a car or in an airplane. So, I don’t get to do a lot of research. I can just take some time and read the selection tools that CAST has put together around EHR, Telehealth, and Remote Patient Monitoring for Long-Term and Post-Acute Care. That would have been months of research that I would have had to do that I would never have had time to do. So, those tools are so valuable to me, and to everybody in our industry. They’ve done a great job with that.

Check out a recent CAST case study that shares how The Asbury Group Integrated Technologies has helped nonprofit life plan community Broadmoor to improve HIPAA compliance and cybersecurity.