Get Ready for HIMSS 2013

The HIMSS Annual Conference & Exhibition for 2013 is right around the corner so I will begin writing some posts to cover the event. This year looks to be another incredible conference! With keynote presentations from Eric Topol and President Bill Clinton there is no shortage of excitement. There are numerous educational opportunities and of course the HIMSS Social Media Center will be brimming with activity. The new Meaningful Use Experience is something you won't want to miss, and you must stop by the Interoperability Showcase. Data liquidity is what we need and interoperability is a top priority if we truly want to transform our healthcare system. And for anyone interested in the Direct Project there is also a little known session that you need to be aware of:

Title: Beyond Certification: Making Meaningful Use Stage 2 Exchange Requirements Work in the Real World
Date: Tuesday, March 5, 2013
Time: 3:30 p.m. – 5:30 p.m. CT
Location: HIMSS13 Annual Conference, Room 293

The agenda for this session will include:

• Understanding and leveraging MU Stage 2 optional transports – a roundtable discussion with EHR vendors and health information service providers (HISPs)
• Creating scalable trust for Direct – an overview and discussion of the conceptual and technical approach to enabling cross-vendor/cross-HISP exchange for patients and providers using Direct

One of the very exciting things for me this year is the Healthcare Transformation Project (HTP). HTP The is an invitation only initiative created exclusively for senior healthcare provider executives. This is an initiative intended to promote thought leadership and provide opportunities for an open exchange of ideas and networking for the entire leadership team, not just IT executives. There will be robust discussion between the health IT and the non-IT professionals about how best to use IT to transform healthcare. Through roundtable discussions, educations sessions, and networking events we will develop actionable plans that will result in real results in our local communities.

HIMSS has become a member of the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) and HTP is the HIMSS commitment to action as part of CGI. In fact, HTP is implementing CGI's "Commitment to Action" model, and senior healthcare executives will have the opportunity to commit to taking actionable, measurable steps in their organizations that will make a real difference. This will transcend the HIMSS conference itself and be an ongoing initiative. We will document our commitments by specifying actionable, measurable steps they will take to make a transformative difference. Then from the semi-annual Virtual Conference & Exhibition to periodic conversational webinars, blogs and podcasts, we will have opportunities to gather knowledge and share stories with others in the HTP community throughout the year.

At HTP participants will make these commitments that will translate goals into meaningful and measurable results in their own organization or community. HTP will serve as a forum for healthcare leaders to create and share their commitments to action, with the promise of transforming their organization and community. As you can imagine, I am pretty thrilled about participating in this and will be writing more on the topic as some of the projects bear fruit.