Embrace design thinking – He said SIIM members have helped build good EMR systems, but as enterprise solutions for PACS and imaging go forward, “there must be empathy for what the end user needs.”

Tame the data beast – Shrestha stressed that without big insights, big data is nothing but a headache and a waste of energy.


Demand focus and simplicity – Have a plan, but get agreement and keep it simple. “You want to set course by the stars, not by the light of another passing ship.”

Fear less – Shrestha said he is fortunate to work for an organization such as UPMC that embraces failure. “Failure is a gift, but if you don’t learn from that failure it’s a second failure,” he stressed.

Aim for behavior change – Technology and innovation are not as important to patient-centered patient care redesign as getting people on board with a shared vision.

“The biggest barrier to improving patient care in imaging is the mentality that this is the way we’ve always done things,” Shrestha told HCB News after the presentation. “We need to listen to patients more with our hearts.”

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