From the Desk of Dimitri Fane
I gave a talk recently ( click here to watch) where I shared my thoughts on how the speed of innovation in digital health over the past year reminds me of the evolutionary theory of punctuated equilibrium. Punctuated equilibrium holds that, rather than being a slow and steady process, evolution proceeds in bursts, or punctuation events, between long periods of stasis. These punctuation events, we believe, have often been connected to new environmental pressures that jumpstart natural selection. Similarly, the new pressures brought on by COVID-19 have brought about what feels like a punctuation event. The environment in which we all operate has changed radically, and it is organisations, not organisms, that need to adapt in order to survive.
Despite all the havoc and sadness that the pandemic brought, I feel very privileged to have spent the last year watching this punctuation unfold around the world. And like InterSystems, all of our TrakCare clients have adapted to these new pressures and in many cases have thrived. Events continually remind us that the pandemic is far from over and the pain it has caused unfortunately continues, but the innovation and adoption we’re seeing gives me a strong sense of optimism for the future.
Along the same lines, TrakCare’s pace of change has accelerated. In the last issue of OnTrak, we announced a new naming convention for TrakCare releases in line with our continuous release process. And I’m pleased to say we’ve now released TrakCare T2021.1, which marks the beginning of this process. You can read more about it in Issue 7 of OnTrak, but, in short, this means if you are running TrakCare T2019 or T2020, you are on the current platform and your next patch will increment your version number to T2021.1. And you will receive all the new functionality we have completed each time you patch. We do still expect clients to upgrade the IRIS data platform every couple of years, but once you are on the latest platform, if you stay relatively current there are no more major application upgrades. You’ll take on new functionality incrementally and faster, allowing us to evolve with you and to support you better through this period of punctuation and beyond.
In this issue, you’ll find a great summary of new functionality in the past year from our Chief Medical Information Officer, Dr. Hazem El Oraby, and an insightful piece on managed services and cloud hosting from Eugene Rudman, our Director of Managed Services. We also have some great news to share on customer projects. As always, we’d love to hear from you with any questions or feedback and if you have any ideas for topics you’d like to see covered in future newsletters, please do reach out either to me directly or to your local TrakCare team.