Blumenthal, governor put health IT center stage in Boston;
Off stage state HIE, Medicaid and other officials network
Guided by the deft hand of Massacussetts Secretary of Health and Human Services JudyAnn Bigby through a series
Blumenthal: Live, Projected, Streaming
of scheduling shifts, the Boston-based national conference on Health IT with 600 participants from 30 states on April 29-30, 2010, included inspirational keynotes from National Coordinator for Health IT David Blumenthal and Surgeon General Regina Benjamin, as well as an enthusiastic welcome from host Governor Deval Patrick who moderated a panel as well.
Off stage state HIE and Medicaid directors and leaders took the opportunity to network and compare notes, as well as take advantage of the smaller workshops where session leaders focused on encouraging discussion and bringing up issues that needed to be addressed in the accelerating Health IT federal-state initiative.
Bernie Monegain reported for Healthcare IT on April 30, 2010, “The government will announce ‘soon – it should be very, very soon’ which 15 communities of the 130 that applied will be awarded Beacon Community grants, National Coordinator for Health IT David Blumenthal, MD, said.” In addition to supporting improved electronic health record implementation and information exchange in communities that have already demonstrated great strengths in those capabilities, these Beacon communities will share lessons learned and best practices in achieving measurable outcomes in health care quality, safety, efficiency, and population health with communities across the country, according to the Office of the National Coordinator site.
CMIO.net story by Jeff Byers on April 29, 2010 was headlined “CMIO Blumenthal gets personal, calls for teamwork among health IT pros.” Seeing younger colleagues using electronic health records, Blumenthal noted, per Byers reporting, “I was not going to be the only one in my physician group of ten not using it.” Blumenthal’s message is increasingly appealing to physicians’ sense of professionalism and focus on delivering the best patient care.
Byers futher reported April 29, 2010 in CMIO.net on a discussion of the role of consumers and patients in Health IT by a ”Panel: How do HIEs, EMRs affect patient-physician experience?,” and provides the viewpoint of each of the panelists.
ComputerWorld’s article by Lucas Mearian on April 30, 2010 reported “Health IT funding to create 50,000 jobs; Sixty regional IT help centers will help health care facilities implement electronic medical records.”
In addition to regional collaboration meetings among state officials grouped according to CMS regions, Workshops included “Achieving Sustainable Success,” Making a Difference–Health IT and Clinical Quality Improvement,” “State Initiatives in Healthcare Reform,” “Successful HIEs–How They Did It and How Ii Helps,” “Jobs, Jobs, Jobs–Health IT and State Economic Development Policy,” Creating Effective Public/Private Partnerships,” “EHR Early Adopters–How They Did It and How It Helps,” and “Health IT, HIE, and Public Health.”
One key panel, providing a sweeping overview of Health IT policies and standards, was moderated by Internet publisher pioneer Tim O’Reilly of O”Reilly Communications.
State HIE Directors are reportedly meeting with the ONC next week, and this conference acted as a bit of a warmup, with relatively new officials getting to connect, and others catch up.
See previous post on conference on e-Healthcare Marketing.
NOTE: As Jackie Slivko pointed out on LinkedIn on May 3, 2010, “Local and regional healthcare leaders as well as key vendors were also present and had an unprecedented opportunity to connect, learn from each other and network. Kudos to Mass Health Data Consortium http://www.mahealthdata.org/ , and the eHealth Initiative at the Mass Technology Collaborative http://www.maehi.org/ , both of whom continue to provide related forums and seminars. For live video and more from the conference, see http://mahit.us/ .”
