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“You can’t use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have.” — Maya Angelou

In 30 years, I’ve attended more than my fair share of technology trade shows aimed at IT leaders and software buyers. The industries have varied and the innovations have been plentiful. At this point, though, much of it runs together.

The HIMSS Conference, however, is one show that stands out. It’s different because healthcare technology is a mindset, a mission. Even a special calling. HIMSS is a platform for creativity, a place to showcase innovation that has no limits on the impact it can have on patient care and the quality of human life.

Here’s an example: imagine a lifetime being trapped in your own body, having things to say and being unable to rapidly communicate them. When I lived in Dallas, my neighbor, a woman with cerebral palsy, had just that problem.

For the entire 18 years that I knew her, we had a rich relationship that consisted of yes/no questions, head nods, hand taps to words taped to the arms of her wheelchair, and trust. We talked about all kinds of things, and shared many poignant moments, but the interaction was always somewhat stilted. She was hampered by her speech limitations and her inability to even gesture to reinforce a point. I wished so vehemently that she could speak that I often dreamed she’d found her voice.

A HIMSS19 presentation reminded me of her.

As part of a program from the Georgia Institute of Technology’s robotics team, robots “befriend” children with cerebral palsy. In this particular education session at HIMSS19, Dr. Ayanna Howard explained that with robots as “friends,” the children received personalized motion therapy — routine direction and encouragement. It’s the kind of therapy that typically would be too expensive for some patients to afford.

Dr. Howard, founder and director of a $3 million traineeship initiative in healthcare robotics, is just one example of the kind of creative technologists who attend HIMSS. Every engineer, she says on her website, “has a responsibility to make the world a better place. We are gifted with an amazing power to take people’s wishes and make them a reality.”

She is helping the next generation of robotics engineers find creative ways to use robotics in patient care and other areas. Maybe one day, their efforts will help cerebral palsy patients with speech therapy!

Creativity Was Abundant at HIMSS19

Dr. Howard wasn’t the only one with great news to share. I’m always amazed at the creativity our own engineers, product managers, and customers continually show in applying Citrix technology to the healthcare sector. They had innovation to share at HIMSS19, too.

This year at our exhibit, we provided immersive experiences featuring Citrix technology that enables doctors and clinicians to deliver value-based patient care from any device, over any network, from anywhere.

We helped visitors view security in a new way, encouraging them to design it around people to detect anomalies in user behavior (potential insider threats), as well as threats from external parties.

We also showcased a rich list of Citrix technology for healthcare including wayfinding solutions, next-generation MFA – voice and beacons, Citrix Casting, and Citrix Watermarking. Citrix Endpoint Management, Citrix Networking, and Citrix Analytics were in our demo areas, as well. Our SMEs and a rich roster of customer and partner speakers described innovations in streamlining clinical workflows, overseeing Cloud migration and management, and improving employee engagement.

In one presentation, we even showcased technology as it relates to teeth.

That’s right, teeth.

Mike Schreibman, Managing Director at Hudson River CIO Advisors, spoke about incorporating Citrix and NVIDIA technologies into the plan for Touro College of Dental Medicine, the first new dental school to open in the New York area in about 50 years. He described how creativity and ingenuity enabled his team and the Touro leadership to design a world-class digital dental environment for teaching, learning, and patient care.

“Dr. Edward Farkas, the visionary leader at Touro College of Dental Medicine, is a dentist by profession. When we partnered with him, we agreed that creativity would be crucial in building a ‘digital-first’ dental school. Ultimately, our partnership resulted in the largest digital dental school and clinic in the world!”

Schreibman stressed the dental school’s support of student mobility and its focus on using technology to provide aspiring dentists and staff with 3D views of teeth that were never possible before. Patients get faster resolution of issues that previously required multiple visits and more precisely-crafted solutions than ever before.

“The creativity definitely paid off. NVIDIA GPU-enabled servers run Citrix HDX 3D Pro technology to more than 500 thin clients at the school. Students and staff have high-end graphic workstation capabilities in a secure, HIPAA-compliant environment. The result is high availability and minimal desk side support.”

You can see the creativity in practice in this video.

A Showcase for Citrix Ready Partners

Speaking of creativity, HIMSS19 was the perfect place for us to showcase a healthy roster of Citrix Ready Partners that have optimized their solutions not only for Citrix, but also for the rigors of healthcare environments:

Check out the Citrix Ready Marketplace for a great overview of the full list of partner companies under the Citrix Ready umbrella.

Citrix also participated in the Cybersecurity Command Center, a specialty zone in the exhibition area in which visitors learned about the latest cybersecurity technologies and heard about strategies for mitigating cyber threats. Citrix healthcare and security experts Christian Boucher and Victor Rodriguez presented “Securely Delivering the Healthcare Workspace” at the Cybersecurity Theatre on February 13.

I’ll close by coming full circle. As a Citrix employee specializing in healthcare, what I saw at HIMSS amazed me. It energized me. It left me knowing that Maya Angelou was right about creativity. There are hundreds of companies at HIMSS and millions of industry challenges to address. Each year creativity renews itself and expands to cover more ground. I can hardly wait to see what 2020 brings!

Discover why a people-centric security strategy is the best approach for protecting sensitive information and facilitating compliance in our on-demand webinar. And learn more about Citrix Solutions for Healthcare, Citrix Workspace and Citrix Networking.