National Health IT Week 2016 kicks off Monday: What to expect
National Health IT Week 2016 kicks off next week in Washington, DC and around the country.
“Given the incredible attention on the presidential, congressional and state elections and the likelihood that Congress will adjourn in September 2016, we are moving forward with a virtual and local focus for National Health IT Week 2016,” said Tom Leary, Vice President of Government Relations at HIMSS.
That natural focus: Health IT’s value proposition.
Leary added that other prominent themes will include precision medicine, telehealth, interoperability, driving innovation, public and population health as well as health IT creating new job opportunities. The role of Women in Health IT and STEM Careers for Health will also be central points of focus.
[Also: HIMSS Social Media Guide to NHIT Week 2016]
The annual event, which runs from Monday, Sept. 26 through Friday, Sept. 30, features a slew of live gatherings inside the nation's capitol as well as virtual events, webinars, a blog carnival and social media happenings.
A regional event in Boston will home in on precision medicine. At the southeastern regional meet-up, taking place in Tampa, Fla., attendees will learn about the successful ways to transform health IT in that geographical area. The mid-western regional event at the American Medical Association’s Chicago headquarters, will address telemedicine and behavioral health. And in Dallas, Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital will hold an advocacy day with analytics, digital and population health as its core tenets.
“2016 is a perfect time to bring the grassroots discussion on health IT to local events and activities,” Leary said. “National Health IT Week will showcase advancements in health IT at the local level.“
Health IT professionals unable to attend a live event can log-in to webinars on a broad swath of topics from direct messaging to event notification to informatics and patient look-up services.
Online goings-on also include the HIMSS #iHeartHIT campaign for which personal stories can be submitted here and previous year’s entries can be read here.
[Also: Events calendar for NHITWeek 2016]
On Friday, Sept. 30 Health Standards, sponsored by Corepoint (the folks behind popular weekly #HITSM chat) will convene on Twitter at 12 pm EST for a tweetchat hosted by HIMSS Social Media Program Manager Michael Gaspar.
And as it does every year, HIMSS will be holding a session to highlight the importance of health IT to legislators. This year, there will be a keen focus on what Leary described as “innovative health technologies as a mechanism for transforming care delivery.”
Helpful advice for planning to purchase a population health platform:
⇒ Experts explain what to look for when choosing a population health platform
⇒ Comparison chart of 8 population health products
⇒ An in-depth look at 8 population health software programs
