We all want to change the world

Recently I attended the annual eHealth conf in Vancouver, the event brings together Health IT professional from across Canada and this year's theme was "re-invent". Through out the show I experienced the deja vu feel one gets after being in an industry of over 15 years and seeing the same folks, giving the same speeches and making the same pronouncements being made over and over again. The need for interoperability, removing silos, cooperation and innovation. Its not all old hat, there are the inevitable wide-eyed, bushy tailed young turks ready to take on the challenges for this industry. Their naivete, there exuberance all that energy is great to see, and they so remind me of when I was like them!

Have I become jaded? I hope not, wiser maybe more introspective, definitely. Through out my interactions at the conference I did my level best to pass on any knowledge and experience in the hope that this next wave of Health IT entrepreneurs make it, and help to improve the current health IT situation, which unsurprising looks a lot like it did 15 years ago. Some players have changed, some companies have come and gone. The large EMR vendors are larger and still have a strangle hold on the larger health institutions. New even larger EMR vendors are coming into Canada promising to change everything and make it all work seamlessly with their system. The same promises that the other EMR vendors have been making for decades. Government agencies are still bloated with bureaucratic denizens making their career on "investing" in electronic health records. Mainly they seem to maintain a status quo and spend most of their money advertising to the Canadian public on what a great job their agency is doing to create an integrated health system. My greatest hope is for the small developers and eager new recruits and companies. My wish is that they learn from the mistakes made in the past, avoid the pitfalls that the previous entrepreneurs have clearing marked and heed warnings of those who have experienced and failed to change the world. The eHealth conf had it all, exciting speakers, gala events, posters, hackathons and even after parties. if you missed check it out on Twitter. I'm not curtain about may next attendance at his event personally I feel like I've lived through this once already, doing again every year may just be too much for me. Tweets by eHealthConf