In This Issue:
 President's Corner
Board Nominations
Programs Update
Program Slides on the Web
Sponsorship Update
Advocacy
HIMSS Legislative Principles
Members in the National News
Membership
Finances
Chapter Scholarship Program
President's Corner
Pam Graves, RN, CNP, FHIMSS, President
I would like to take the opportunity to thank all the Minnesota Chapter members who helped to make the recent HIMSS08 a success. Over 400 of our chapter’s members registered for the largest HIMSS conference yet- more than 28,000 people from around the world attended the four day event showcasing lessons learned and networking. Over 300 educational sessions were held and 900 vendors showcased their products, including IHE (Interoperability) showcase.
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| | There were three chapter events occurring at the same time at the location, but Diane Walizer and Katie O’Brien helped set up and direct the members to the refreshments and appetizers.
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Our chapter involvement in the conference began last year when more than seven members volunteered time and expertise in their specialty to filter presentations for the conference and then, once selected, provide feedback to the speakers so that the presentations would be more valuable to the audience. Many of these chapter volunteers seized the opportunity to see these sessions first-hand by volunteering to be a moderator. At the conference, HIMSS offered a mini-course on how to become a reviewer for those who are interested. If you are interested in helping to make HIMSS09 a success by serving as a session reviewer, contact one of the board members.
| | Board member and sponsor chair, Dan Fitzgibbons, takes out time to share stories with a member and one of the event sponsors.
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The Chapter reception was a great success if the crowd at the event was any indication. Over 70 Minnesota members attended from 49 organizations! Thank you for taking time out of your busy conference schedule to attend the reception.
If you have a story from the conference that you would be willing to share, please submit it to secretary@himss-mn.org and the story will be included in the next newsletter.
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| | Susan Heichert shares stories with chapter members.
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Board Nominations
Dan Davenport, President-Elect
Nominations are now open for board positions for the upcoming fiscal year, July 1, 2008 to June 30, 2009. If you are interested in learning more about the specific duties and requirements of these roles, please visit our Nomination Information page on the chapter website.
Programs Update
March 26, 5pm: by Pete Palmer, Programs Chair
Members are encouraged to register for the complimentary March program. Non-members may register for a nominal fee. Dr. David Martin will speak on "Computers, Medicine, and the Non-Perfectibility of Man" and discuss some of the issues that the baby-boomers might face. This program will be offered via video-conferencing in Duluth, Rochester, and the Twin Cities.
MN HIMSS Physician Forum: by Andrew Mellin, MD, Physician Liaison to HIMSS-MN
The Minnesota HIMSS Chapter is sponsoring a quarterly dinner meeting of physicians to discuss issues related to Healthcare IT. Past topics have included achieving quality with an EHR and the unanticipated consequences of CPOE. The meeting has served as an excellent forum to share ideas and experiences and to network with colleagues in the community.
The next meeting is scheduled for May. If you or anyone from your organization is interested in attending, please email andrew.mellin@mckesson.com or susan.heichert@allina.com for more
information.
Program Slides on the Web
Please visit the members only section of our website for access to presentations from our recent Advocacy Event. To access the slides, point your browser to http://www.himss-mn.org/membersonly/membersonly1.html The slides from previous presentations are also stored on this page.
As a reminder, your login information for this section is as follows:
Username = first initial plus last name
Password = HIMSS member number
Please note that this login is different than your login for the National HIMSS website.
Sponsorship Update
John Eichten & Dan Fitzgibbons, Sponsorship Co-chairs
The Minnesota HIMSS Chapter wishes to thank our 2007-2008 sponsors. Our sponsors not only allow us the capability of providing educational sessions with nationally acclaimed presenters but also to provide scholarships each year for candidates in the industry. Without corporate support, an organization such as ours could not exist. Thank you for your support!
Sponsors have the opportunity to provide additional support for upcoming events and programs. Please feel free to reach out to Dan Fitzgibbons or John Eichten at sponsorship@himss-mn.org.
For more information, please visit our sponsorship information page at
http://www.himss-mn.org/sponsorship_program.pdf
Advocacy
Pam Graves, RN, CNP, FHIMSS, President
Three members of the Minnesota chapter had the privilege of attending the National conference Advocacy breakfast with the HIMSS Board of Directors, the Advocacy & Public Policy Steering Committee, the HIMSS Government Relations Roundtable, and the Chapter Advocacy Liaison Roundtable.
One speaker was Rhonda Meadows, the Commissioner for Health for Georgia. Her passion for HIE legislation and HIE exchange was invigorating, despite the early hour. She is a proponent of flexible dollars for healthcare and strongly supports our efforts in the area of certification and standards. She also believes that incentives are the way to make significant change.
At the breakfast, all members were encouraged to attend the National Health IT Week in Washington, DC during the week of June 9-13. June 10-11 is HIMSS Advocacy Day, during which members receive training on how to get the health IT message to their congressmen and senators.
Links to these events can be found on the HIMSS website at http://www.himss.org/advocacy/.
Legislative Principles
Andy Galbus, FHIMSS, Secretary
Each year, HIMSS creates legislative principles for all stakeholders to consider for inclusion as provisions in any legislation proposed by the U.S. Congress or State Legislatures to transform healthcare. For 2008, HIMSS has drafted principles addressing eight separate categories of principles.
1. Funding and Incentives
2. Healthcare Delivery Transformation
3. Standards
4. Privacy and Security
5. Legal
6. Structural
7. Consumer Empowerment
8. Population Health Monitoring
HIMSS believes that the United States has a broad healthcare IT adoption gap. This gap is evidenced in every report published on this topic by reliable sources, and the gap is ever-widening. To address the gap, we believe that:
o Funding of Health IT needs to tie directly to adoption incentives, and
o Legislation needs to be enacted to promote healthcare IT initiatives by endorsing the integration of Information Technology into the delivery of patient care and the support of health and wellness.
By linking these principles, HIMSS believes our nation can successfully transform healthcare.
Being part of HIMSS you can help support healthcare being improved especially by getting involved in advocacy and asking for support for the initiatives supporting these principles. Once these principles have been finalized you will be able to see the complete set with their final assertions and conclusions of how to improve healthcare. The 2007 principles can be found at http://www.himss.org/content/files/Legislative_Principles.pdf
Members in the National News
Susan Heichert, BSN, MA, FHIMSS, RN, Past President
Allina Hospitals and Clinics was honored with the 2007 HIMSS Davies Organizational Award for their implementation of the Epic Electronic Medical Record in 8 hospitals and 65 clinics. Each year, HIMSS selects finalists for four types of awards: Organizational, Public Health, Ambulatory, and a new award this year for Community Health. Although the application process can seem intimidating, it can help your organization focus on what you’ve achieved, as well as provide a great way to share your lessons learned on a broad scale. Each finalists’ application is posted on the HIMSS website at http://www.himss.org/ASP/daviesAward.asp
Winners of the award receive a complementary registration and travel to the HIMSS National Conference, along with tickets to the awards banquet. The organization also has a one hour time slot to present at the National Conference. I was privileged to represent Allina and Minnesota at the conference this year. We connected with many other organizations struggling with some of the same issues we face, not only with automation, but with workflow. (Can anyone say Medication Reconciliation?). I would strongly encourage anyone who feels they have something to share with the greater HIMSS community to consider applying for the Davies Award. Share those hard earned lessons learned and make someone else’s journey easier!
e-Health:
Active participants in the 2007-2009 Minnesota e-Health Initiative Advisory Committee who are members of HIMSS include Paul Kleeberg, MD and Ray Gensinger, Jr, MD, Alan Abramson, PhD, and Bobbie McAdam. HIMSS members representing Health Plans include Walt Menning and Joanne Sunquist. Bonnie Westra, PhD, RN is a HIMSS member representing the Minnesota Department of Health. According to the website, the “Minnesota e-Health Initiative is a public-private collaborative whose Vision is to accelerate the adoption and use of health information technology in order to improve health care quality, increase patient safety, reduce health care costs and improve public health.”. The state has mandated that ‘health data standards’ be established by next year. This will require your help. For more information, go the website at http://www.health.state.mn.us/ehealth/
Membership
Mark Rubin, Director At-Large
Chapter Finances
Steven Due, Treasurer
The chapter is currently on track to meet the budget for fiscal year 2007 – 2008. This year the Board of Directors approved an increase in the budget for programs such as the annual, full day "Health Information Technology Institute" held in May. Educational offerings such as the May event are the main focus of HIMSS-MN, with over 90% of our annual income dedicated to these programs.
Chapter Scholarship Program
Ken Stensvold, Scholarship Chair
Do you or someone you know need money for college? The Minnesota Chapter offers a $1,000 scholarship to a deserving Minnesota resident or a student attending a Minnesota academic institution pursuing studies related to the healthcare information or management systems field. Students can be either full or part-time in an accredited undergraduate, Masters or PhD program. Although the specific degree program is not a critical factor, programs such as industrial engineering, operations research, healthcare informatics, computer science and information systems, mathematics, and quantitative programs in business administration and hospital administration could have an advantage.
The scholarship is awarded for academic excellence and the potential for future leadership in the healthcare information and management systems industry. Review criteria include as a core foundation: scholastic achievement and demonstration of leadership potential, including communication skills and participation in HIMSS activities.
Completed applications must be postmarked no later than April 1, 2008. Winners will be notified by May 1, 2008. You can access a copy of the application by visiting our scholarship page.
For more information, e-mail Ken Stensvold at stensvold.kenneth@mayo.edu
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Be sure to check out our upcoming events at www.himss-mn.org and register online today!
March 26, 2008
Computer, Medicine, and the Non-Perfectibility of Man, presented by Dr. David Martin
May 21, 2008
HIMSS-MN 7th Annual Health Information Technology Institute
Thank you to all of our sponsors!
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