Back in June, I covered the Wisconsin Technology Network’s Digital Healthcare Conference in Madison. That conference featured a panel with Vi Shaffer, research vice president and industry services director for healthcare providers at Gartner, Judy Murphy, vice president of information services at Aurora Health Care in Milwaukee, and Epic Systems CEO Judy Faulkner, based in nearby Verona, Wis.

The panel discussed the question, “Is meaningful use a floor or a ceiling?” as I reported for WTN News. The conference also featured several sessions on how business intelligence and health information exchange can support Accountable Care Organizations.

A month later, I saw Shaffer again at AMDIS Physician-Computer Connection meeting in Ojai, Calif. There, she presented preliminary data from Gartner’s annual survey of CMIOs. After the conference ended, I got a chance to sit down with Shaffer for this podcast. Since the fog and clouds finally lifted on the final day, we decided to record this outdoors at the beautiful Ojai Valley Inn, which is why you will hear some birds and other (human) creatures in the background. We don’t care, it was too nice to sit indoors.

We mostly discussed how HIE can support ACOs, but we also touched on meaningful use and health reform in this lively interview. Enjoy.

Podcast details: Interview with Vi Shaffer, research vice president and industry services director for healthcare providers at Gartner. Recorded July 15, 2011, in Ojai, Calif. MP3, mono, 64 kbps, 7.9 MB. Running time 17:14.

1:35 ACO as a business model and a fundamental change in the needs of patients (chronic disease)

3:00 Interoperability for care coordination 3:50 Will ACO model be better than disease management as it exists today?

4:50 Nature of proposed rules

7:30 Importance of innovation because “meeting the metrics is average.”

9:05 Is meaningful use a floor or a ceiling? Is an ACO a floor or a ceiling?

10:46 Ambulatory services growing faster than hospital services

12:38 “Oligopolies” in healthcare building interoperability and continuums of care

14:40 How far can you go with interoperability in this changing healthcare climate?

15:19 Targeted panel management rather than population health