by Dianne Baker, Board Member and Marketing and Communications Chairperson

We are continually looking to bring our Chapter Members important information and meaningful content to improve your industry knowledge and expand the value of your HIMSS membership.

While much of this information has been centered around Regional and National initiatives and events – we also want to share the many activities and accomplishments our very engaged members and Chapter volunteers have contributed in the growth of our industry. 

This quarter, we are launching another new feature – Chapter Members In Action!  As we began to collate this listing, our Chapter President, James Brady emailed "we may have to start a separate Newsletter just to track all the activities!." We are proud of our Members’ many contributions and ask all of our members to please submit and will be soon creating a link to make submission easy. 

Thank you for all the great contributions and the work you are doing for both our Chapter and our Industry!

 The HIMSS SoCal Marketing & Communications Team

• In October, our Chapter President and Area CIO at Kaiser Orange County, James Brady, co-authored a Healthcare IT textbook, “Essentials of Health Information Systems and Technology”, along with Jean A Balgrosky, MPH, another HIMSS SoCal Chapter member.  Also in October, James Brady had one of his articles on security, “Healthcare Data Breaches – You Can Make a Difference!” published in the HIMSS monthly Clinical Informatics Insights.
• In November, Tim Jones, our Chapter’s Vice President for Administration and CEO of Health Nuts Media, had one of his articles, "Health Literacy: Beyond The Written Word", posted on the HIMSS National website.

• In October, Sri Bharadwaj, President-Elect, Southern California Chapter, presented a Podcast on “Privacy and Security Cyber Security” in honor of National Cyber Security Awareness Month (NCSAM).
• In October, James Brady, Chapter President and Area Chief Information Officer, Kaiser Permanente Orange County, was interviewed byIHT2 and participated on a security panel, “Securing ePHI: Striking a Balance Between Usability and Security”. at the IHT2 Summit in Beverly Hills in November. Read the interview here at IHT2 Interview with James Brady.
• In November and December, Kara Marx, VP and Chief Information Officer at Methodist Hospital, presented at our Chapter’s CIO Forum and also provided an excellent presentation on Patient Engagement at the mHealth Forum in Washington, DC.
• On December 3^rd and 4^th, James Brady, Chapter President and Area Information Officer at Kaiser Orange County participated in a panel discussion on Wearable Technology.
• In December, Dr. Vikram Kumar, CMIO at Arrowhead Regional and a member of our Chapter’s Marketing Team, was informed by HIMSS National, that his presentation on “Leveraging the EHR to improve Population Health and Quality”, will be included in the HIMSS15 On-Demand Presentation Session. Watch the chapter Events Calendar for more information coming soon.
• Also in October, Sri Bharadwaj presented at the Fall WEDI conference in Washington DC. HIMSS Interoperability & Standards Task Force: An Approach to Evaluate and Transform HIT Standards - Hans Buitendijk (Siemens Healthcare), Sriram Bharadwaj (Business Strategix Inc) and Melissa Moorehead, (MI Public Health Institute). See the Fall WEDI Conference 2014 website.
• On November 18^th, Sri Bharadwaj joined in a Webinar with Tom Johnson and Susan Tew of Intermountain Healthcare on “How to Maximize Your Patient Engagement With Your Patient Portal”.

Also plan to look for our Chapter leaders at these upcoming events!

• Upcoming in January 2015, Clark Kegley, our Chapter’s Past President and Asst. Vice President, Information Services at Scripps Health, will be participating on two distinguished panels, including “The Journey to an Analytics-Driven Organization” at the IHT2 Conference in San Diego. Jim Brady and Kara Marx will participate in an IHT2 panel on “Empowering the Engaged Patient”.

Back to Winter 2015 Newsletter