Mid-Year 2015-16Message from the President

Let us ring in the New Year with joy and more Health IT! 2015 was another excellent year with continued innovation and advancements in healthcare technology.

Let us look for trends in 2016:

For those of us in healthcare it has been hot and will be hot for the next few months, if not years! Change in Healthcare is constant and as CHIME in the fall forum puts it:

“Healthcare is undergoing its biggest transformation in decades. Payment models are shifting away from volume to a focus on value. Providers more engaged in population health management. Consumers are becoming more active in their care choices, and more.

At the center of these mammoth changes is health information technology. To meet the demands of the new healthcare environment, providers must adopt robust health IT systems. They need systems that can generate real-time and actionable information for clinicians and patients to make informed decisions. And, health IT systems are key to improving patient safety and quality of care.

To reflect the growing importance of health IT and the evolving role of Chief Information Officers and other senior health IT executives, the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) unveiled a new vision statement: Exceptional Leaders Transforming Healthcare.  “Senior health IT executives are much more involved in strategic planning and the overall direction of their organizations,” said CHIME Board of Trustees Chair Charles E. Christian, CHCIO, LCHIME. The new vision statement illustrates how critical CIOs are in helping providers meet the Triple Aim — improving patient care, population health and reducing costs.”

We have been part of this transformation in Southern California and continuing to forge ahead as the most award winning Chapter.

We have just completed our Patient Engagement Summit in San Diego, which was held in association with HIMSS Media, a first for Southern California HIMSS. Read all about the event here (http://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/patient-engagement-behavior-dominates-technology).

Our sold-out CIO Forum on December 1st featured some great discussion including first time ever UC Health CIO panel and their foray into collaboration and delivering value to the UC Health systems.

The HIMSS National Public Policy Summit and the visit to Capitol Hill in early September by our members of the Advocacy Committee and yours truly help forge our relations with our key government representatives and HIMSS National Government Relations leaders.

5 HIMSS Congressional Asks

HIMSS will be focusing their 2016 efforts around the following requests:

HIMSS Recommendation to Congress Ask #1:

Support Robust Interoperability and Health Information Exchange

HIMSS Recommendation to Congress #2:

Support Healthcare’s Efforts to Combat Cyber Threats

HIMSS Recommendation to Congress #3:

Expand Access to Telehealth Services for Medicare Beneficiaries

We were received with great hospitality by many staffers at the House of Representatives and offices of Senators Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein.

Our lineup of events is exemplary as usual.  We begin with our Annual Healthcare IT conference in January and our always well attended Networking Reception at the HIMSS2016 National conference in Las Vegas.

I hope you will continue to support our Chapter and benefit from education, networking and play a role in changing healthcare.

As always, I’m pleased to of service to our community. Hoping to see you at our upcoming HIT Conference in January and our Chapters Networking Reception at HIMSS2016! Viva Las Vegas

Sriram Bharadwaj

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