Boston Hospital CIO Reflects After Bombing

Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center was in the thick of events following this month's Boston Marathon bombing. BIDMC clinicians treated people injured in the bombing, and they treated the bombing suspects after police shootouts in the days following.

All that activity has BIDMC CIO John Halamka thinking -- and blogging to share his thoughts on what the hospital might need to do differently.

Read his blog post "Reflection on the Tragedy in Boston." What Halamka's doing shows what it really means to be a "social CIO." He's taking a risk by putting ideas out for reaction before they've been filtered through planning committees, and raising problems that aren't yet solved. He's sharing ideas right away, even as the city mourns and recovers, rather than in a month or two when doing so would be safer but also less relevant.

[ For another take on the Boston bombings, read When Tragedy Strikes, It's Not Social Business As Usual. ]

Halamka (whose team earned BIDMC the no. 1 ranking in the 2012 InformationWeek 500) raises five lessons learned -- mostly tough problems yet to be solved. I'll only briefly note them here (read the blog).