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Keep Focus Off Fads, and on What You Need
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Business New Haven
11/27/2000
By: John Florian
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Should you worry if your software systems don't have the latest bells and whistles ringing and blowing? Well, sometimes the “new thing” is just distracting noise, asserts Dave Gluzberg, director of software engineering at Hamden-based HSS Inc. (www.hss-info.com), which develops software for the health-care industry. Gluzberg shares how he focuses on what's most important for clients.
Dave, what does HSS do?
We're a software company specializing in health care, with applications for health-care coding, compliance and reimbursement management.
And who needs this?
Everyone wants to contain health-care costs. To do that, it's vital to assure that appropriate payments are being made to hospitals, patients and other providers. HSS produces software systems that address these problems.
What's an example?
For instance, our coding software allows doctors and other professionals to find the appropriate codes for their patients' conditions. Next, the software applies classifications for medicine and then follows the patient's case through the reimbursement system and winds up with a dollar amount.
From a technology standpoint, what does this involve?
The most important part is developing standard components that embody HSS' health-care knowledge. We share these components with other software companies, so they can embed them in their own software. But HSS also produces complete health-care management systems based on those same components.
We also want to make sure our components and systems can integrate with a wide range of software systems based on different platforms and operating systems. That's a huge challenge, because over time a hospital will acquire all kinds of systems.
And third, we're working on new delivery systems for the Web.
I understand HSS is growing rapidly now.
Yes, that's correct. Our goal was to double our size this year, and we will come very close to that. Currently we have about 80 employees, people with deep knowledge of health care, who can put together specifications for software systems, and others, like me, who implement those specifications into software.
You're also serving an industry characterized by rapid change.
[Laughs.] The health-care industry changes a lot. Just recently, Medicare introduced a new payment-reimbursement system. That makes our lives even more challenging.
And you're working with time pressures?
Well, regulatory updates and government rules are being issued all the time, and hospitals have to convert their systems and start using those new rules and guidelines by a certain date. That means we have to adjust the software in time for the clients to deploy, test and integrate it.
On the software end, what is changing for you?
Software is so fast-changing that just keeping up with it could be a full-time job. But we're not here just to produce new software every time there is a new thing. Rather, we use technology as a tool to solve our clients' business problems. That means we carefully evaluate all technology trends and supply only what is appropriate.
What's your advice to others, in any industry, for keeping up with technology and serving clients?
[Laughs.] The first thing is to stay on top of information, which unfortunately increases every day. Number two, don't jump on every new technology. Carefully evaluate what's appropriate for your market, your business and specific applications. And only then consider changes. Use only what is relevant to helping your clients solve their business problems. Third, keep a broad perspective to see if the software solution you're developing can also be used to meet future needs.
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