Forget the crowded waiting room with crying babies, years-old magazines and a tiny, tinny radio offering instrumental pop music favorites. Today's consumers want healthcare delivered at a time and place of his or her choosing. And it's up to the clinician to meet those demands.

A panel of four distinguished healthcare providers will tackle this problem in "The World is My Waiting Room," an Executive Breakfast presented by mHealth News and Healthcare IT News at the HIMSS Media mHealth Summit. This discussion, sponsored by Symantec, takes place from 7:30-9 a.m. on Monday, December 9, at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center just outside of Washington D.C.

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With a wide variety of mHealth tools and services at their disposal, healthcare providers now have the ability to reach out to the patient outside the office. The challenge lies in creating an experience that will be rewarding for both doctor and patient, providing easy and effective healthcare and reducing wasted time and money.

The panel will be moderated by Andrew Watson, MD, the medical director of UPMC's Center for Connected Medicine, vice president of its telemedicine program and a practicing colorectal surgeon. Joining him will be Jeffrey Benabio, MD, a dermatologist and physician director of healthcare transformation at Kaiser Permanente in San Diego; Don Kosiak, Jr., MD, executive medical director of the Avera Medical Group's eCARE program in Sioux Falls, S.D.; and Wesley Valdes, DO, medical director of telehealth and virtual medicine for Intermountain Healthcare in Salt Lake City.

All four panelists are uniquely qualified to discuss the latest trends in mHealth to connect the patient and the doctor. From eICU and ED video consults to home-based monitoring programs to the latest in health and wellness apps and devices, they've witnessed first-hand the evolution of the healthcare encounter. And with healthcare reform stressing value over volume, they're poised to define the successful mHealth-enabled doctor – one whose waiting room stretches far beyond the office door.

For more information on this special session, visit here.

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