Title

AWS re:Invent 2022 - Unlocking benefits in moving EHR to AWS: A practical approach (HLC305-S)

Summary

• Speakers: Trent Sanders (Director of Healthcare, Kendrell) and Steve Malmy (Worldwide Public Sector Health Team, AWS).
• Key Topics: Moving Electronic Health Records (EHR) to AWS, addressing skill shortages, financial pressures, and business stakeholder expectations.
• Partnership: Kendrell and AWS collaborate to bring technology and services expertise to healthcare clients.
• AWS Announcements: HealthLake Imaging and HealthLake Analytics, with more announcements expected from Adam's keynote.
• Kendrell: A year-old company with 90,000 employees, serving healthcare institutions for over 30 years, managing EHRs like Epic for 12 years.
• Practical Approach: A three-phase migration strategy for EHR to AWS, focusing on training, alternate production, and production environments.
• AWS and Kendrell Center of Excellence: A collaboration to assist organizations with a practical approach to cloud migration through workshops and sprints.
• Training Programs: AWS has developed training programs and best practices for healthcare providers to transition to the cloud.
• Application Assessment: AWS helps healthcare providers assess their application ecosystem for cloud readiness and migration.
• Guest Speaker: Dr. Shafiq Rab (CIO, Tufts Medicine) shared his experience with AWS cloud deployment of Epic EHR and emphasized the importance of a holistic approach to healthcare technology.

Insights

• Skill Shortages: The "great resignation" has led to a focus on skill shortages in healthcare IT, emphasizing the need for training and education in cloud technologies.
• Financial Pressures: Healthcare institutions face financial challenges, making cost-effective solutions like cloud migration more appealing.
• EHR Migration: Moving EHR to AWS is seen as a foundational step for broader healthcare IT transformation, enabling better data insights and value-based care.
• AWS Innovations: AWS's ongoing development of healthcare-specific services like HealthLake Imaging and Analytics demonstrates their commitment to the healthcare industry.
• Practical Migration: The three-phase approach (training, alternate production, production) is designed to ensure a smooth transition to the cloud, with minimal disruption to healthcare operations.
• Center of Excellence: The AWS and Kendrell partnership provides a structured program to guide healthcare providers through the cloud migration process, including building business cases and stakeholder alignment.
• Real-world Example: Dr. Shafiq Rab's experience at Tufts Medicine illustrates the potential benefits and challenges of cloud migration, highlighting the importance of involving all stakeholders and considering the entire healthcare application ecosystem.
• Cloud Benefits: The cloud offers improved security, compliance, scalability, and cost management, which are particularly beneficial for healthcare providers managing sensitive patient data and requiring high availability systems.