Pathagility had the opportunity this week to speak to a group of Arkansas business leaders from both the public and private sectors at the Innovate Arkansas Technology Showcase. Innovate Arkansas works with new, technology-based entrepreneurs to turn inventions and high-tech concepts into viable businesses with a goal of creating high-paying Arkansas jobs. Innovation in healthcare technology was the general theme of the event. Pathagility and U.S. HealthRecord, an Arkansas-based health record management solution, were two of the featured healthcare IT orangizations.
Pathagility focused its discussion on the need for efficiencies in healthcare, specifically related to the laboratory space, and the technology innovations needed to achieve efficiency. Laboratory workloads are set to increase dramatically over the next several years, due to the baby boomer generation turning 65. New technology innovations and delivery models (e.g. SaaS) are key to delivering healthcare efficiency.
Heatlhcare innovation is of great interest to state and business leadership in Arkansas due to the positive impact it can have on healthcare costs, healthcare efficiency, quality of service and job creation. Arkansas’ interest in healthcare improvement is a good snapshot of the interest across the U.S. Events like this are examples of how Arkansas is able to take advantage of it’s unique tight knit culture where the individual points of separation are few. This environment makes it possible to pull individuals from different sectors together for industry education and collaboration. This framework of open collaboration between a broad cross section of public and private leaders is an example of the kind of progressive communication and action needed to improve our healthcare system at the local, state and federal level.