Technology Burner Technology Burner

When I first started this blog, I hoped to contribute something useful to the ongoing conversation in healthcare technology circles, specifically as to how information systems that automate proven processes can help people to live happier, healthier lives.

Sometimes this has been easy, and sometimes it has been difficult; more and more it's been difficult, partly for personal reasons, but mostly because the opportunity to stay on the edge of technological innovation at the organization I work for wasn't there.

I believe in managed care, and I believe in the mission of my employer, and as luck would have it, I was given the opportunity to take a much more direct role in fulfilling that mission this past May when I took on the position of Market Research Manager for our product development group.

I applied for the position because I had come to realize that even if I had had the opportunity to work with the latest, greatest technology; what I really want is to learn the business of healthcare.

For better or for worse, healthcare is a business first and foremost in United States, even for non-profits like the one I am employed by. My new position is allowing me to do just as I had hoped, and I have spent a lot of the past month or so trying to decide if I should close down this blog and start a new one, or just stop blogging altogether for the time being. This second option has been especially attractive lately as I am about to begin my MBA coursework next month at Wayne State University, and I expect to have even less free time than I do now.

When the August issue of Health Management Technology arrived in my office, I recognized the man on the cover, John Halamka, M.D., immediately. Dr. Halamka is my career hero (not to be confused with my boyhood hero), and reading his interview in the magazine's Q&A section made me realize that this isn't the time in my life for me to shutter this blog.

I let a lot of time go by without posting because I wanted everything I wrote to be about process management or IT or both; all too often I went off on a completely unrelated tangent that addressed neither. It was very frustrating, but the problem wasn't whether or not my posts were 100% topical to the name of this blog. The problem was that I had lost sight of the real reason I started this blog in the first place:

I am very dedicated to our mission of providing affordable, quality healthcare to our subscribers. I believe that information systems - when used effectively - can help people live happier, healthier lives.

So, The Healthcare Information Systems Blog isn't going away, and it's not getting a new name or a new URL. However, it, like myself, is getting a renewed sense of direction and purpose.