Assessing the Value of Digital Health: Leveraging the Himss Value Steps Framework

HIMSS set out to develop a dynamic framework by which to easily catalogue the varied beneficial evidences of digital health. From this effort, HIMSS introduced to the market the HIMSS Value STEPS™ framework.

This book will leverage the HIMSS Value STEPS™ model to identify and define the expressions of value the use of health IT systems can yield per the following domains: Satisfaction, Treatment/Clinical, Electronic Secure Data, Patient Engagement and Population Health, and Savings. Using this framework, HIMSS has developed a collection of over 2,000 cases reflecting the value that hospitals, health systems and other providers have experienced following implementation of their electronic health record and/or other IT-related applications. The more than 17,000 value statements that have been extracted from the 2,000+ case articles have been classified within 85 Standard Value Standard (SVS) within the five STEPS domains. The book will describe the STEPS model to demonstrate the impact of health IT in healthcare organizations, and the quality of care and overall financial and operational performance improvements that have been achieved.

Margaret F. Schulte (retired) is immediate past President & CEO of the Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Management Education (CAHME). Prior to this role, she served on the faculty of the Northwestern University Masters of Science in Medical Informatics program, as Editor of Frontiers in Health Services Management, a publication of the American College of Healthcare Executives, and as Vice President of Education for the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS). Previous positions were in healthcare association program management, academia, and health administration.

Dr. Schulte holds a Doctorate in Business Administration from Nova Southeastern University, Ft. Lauderdale, FL and a Masters in Business Administration from Xavier University, Cincinnati, Ohio. She is a Lifetime Fellow in the American College of Healthcare Executives and holds the designation Certified Professional in Health Information and Management Systems.

Kendall Cortelyou-Ward is an Associate Professor in the Department of Health Management and Informatics at the University of Central Florida where she serves as the Program Director for the Professional Science Masters in Health Care Informatics. Dr. Cortelyou-Ward’s research interests include health care informatics, patient engagement, healthcare workforce, and health literacy.

Lorren Pettit, MS, MBA, as Vice President, of HIS and Research with HIMSS North America, he has oversight of the following key HIMSS efforts; thought leadership research; HIMSS Value Score assessments; outreach to the Long Term / Post-Acute Care and Behavioral Health IT communities; provider use of Connected Health technologies, and expansion of HIMSS’ presence in Canada.

Lorren has been a health care researcher and strategist for more than twenty-five years, with experience in health care operations and corporate planning. He completed his undergraduate work at the University of Winnipeg before completing a Master’s of Science in Gerontology from Baylor University, and a Masters of Business Administration from the University of Dallas. He currently serves on the faculty of Indiana University teaching Medical Sociology and Gerontology and currently resides in the Nashville TN area.