My colleagues had warned me and sure enough, the moment I got off the airplane in Rotorua, New Zealand, I immediately picked up the rotten egg aroma of sulfur that permeated the air around me.
My colleagues had warned me and sure enough, the moment I got off the airplane in Rotorua, New Zealand, I immediately picked up the rotten egg aroma of sulfur that permeated the air around me.
Rotorua is a hot bed for geothermal activity. The city sits adjacent to a giant volcano that exploded thousands of years ago leaving behind what is now a large lake with a well-vegetated cinder cone sitting in the middle. All around the area of
I arrived in Rotorua after spending several days visiting Microsoft customers and partners in Auckland and Wellington. In Wellington, we stopped by Capital and Coast District Hospital where I saw some excellent work being done with our business intelligence stack of SharePoint, SQL Server, and Excel integrated with a configurable BI appliance from HP. Hospital staff are able to see near real-time analytics on every patient from admission to discharge. At a glance, administrators and clinical staff can determine how well they are doing managing hospital operations, resources and clinical quality.
The visit to Rotorua was prompted by Microsoft’s sponsorship and participation in HINZ 2013. This was the 12th annual health informatics conference and health innovation marketplace event organized by Health Informatics New Zealand. HINZ is a national, not-for-profit organization whose focus is to facilitate improvements in business processes and patient care in the health sector through the application of appropriate information technologies.
Last evening, I had the distinct honor of providing a keynote for the HINZ conference gala dinner event. With a theme of “Tomorrow Starts Here” attendees were encouraged to dress in futuristic garb. There was even a contest for best costume. It was won by a very tall man who came dressed as Princess Leah. Yes, these Kiwi’s know how to throw a good party.
Based on the can-do enthusiasm I saw among HINZ delegates I have no doubt that, given the support they need, they will deliver on the promise of ICT to improve health and healthcare quality, access and cost. It is just a matter of time.