2013 HIMSS Conference to Spotlight Meaningful Use and Health Information Exchange

Conference will focus on “the intersection of health IT reform, technology and care quality”

The HIMSS Annual Conference and Exhibition will be in New Orleans this year, March 3-7^th. The conference draws an impressive 36,000+ attendees and includes an exhibit hall the size of several football fields, symposiums, workshops, demonstrations and many educational sessions. This year, former president Bill Clinton is among an impressive lineup of keynote speakers.

If you’re interested in health care IT, meaningful use and health information exchange, consider attending this year’s conference. There will be several sessions and workshops on these topics, including an all-day Meaningful Use Symposium on Sunday and a unique exhibit, the Meaningful Use Experience, which gives attendees an opportunity to test-drive certified electronic health record systems. There will also be an all-day symposium Sunday on health information exchange. Back for another year, the HIMSS Interoperability Showcase is an interactive demonstration of live clinical information systems that allow visitors to act as a patient and follow their health data through multiple points of care.

Due to the size of the conference and limited number of hotel rooms, CORHIO is recommending that prospective attendees visit the HIMSS13 website for current hotel availability and reserve a hotel room as soon as possible. It is common for all hotels to be sold out weeks in advance of the conference.

CORHIO CEO Co-Presenting at Educational Session on Public Health and HIE

CORHIO’s CEO, Dr. Larry Wolk, and Dr. Lisa Miller, Director of the Disease Control and Environmental Epidemiology Division of the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, will join forces to present a session on integrating public health information into HIE. Their session, “Using HIE For Meaningful Use, Stage 2: Public Health Requirements,” will be on March 5, 2013, at 2:15 pm.

The session objectives include:

• Demonstrate how to effectively leverage existing HIE capabilities to facilitate public health reporting
• Prepare hospitals, office-based providers and public health officials for public health reporting requirements in Meaningful Use Stage 2
• Apply key lessons learned and best practices from Colorado's successful implementation of public health reporting
• Analyze administrative impacts and cost efficiencies achieved as a result of public health reporting through HIE
• Propose a public health and HIE engagement process that assists providers and HIEs in integrating with state health departments

For more information on the HIMSS 2013 Conference, please visit http://www.himssconference.org/index.aspx