President's Message

Dear Maryland Chapter of HIMSS Members, Colleagues and Friends,

Our Board has had another busy summer making plans for this year.  It seems like every year we think we couldn’t possible add more activities for our membership to enjoy, then we look at our calendar that we created, and realize we have done just that.

We have another event filled year, designed to provide you the best mix of educational, advocacy, and social events.  We want to provide all of our attendees with events that you will not only enjoy attending, but also find the opportunity to network and learn.

We have several events planned for the upcoming Educational Year, including our upcoming Networking Event on October 19^th.  Please come out to join us at that event or any other event that we are holding, we would love to see you there.  For a full list of our upcoming activities, please take a look at our website for dates and details.

For those that want to take a step further with their involvement with our Maryland Chapter, please reach out to us in person or via e-mail (md.info@himsschapter.org), expressing your interest, and we can see which committee may be a fit for you.  We are a volunteer organization and without the help of Board Members and Committee Members who volunteer their precious time, we would not be able to provide such a vast array of educational and networking opportunities for our members.

I hope to see you at one of our upcoming events.

Bob Hooper
President, Maryland Chapter of HIMSS

Advocacy Committee

On October 27 the Advocacy Committee is hosting a luncheon in Annapolis for all of the Legislative Liaisons of the Maryland Hospitals, the Maryland Hospital Association, CRISP, and the HIMSS board officers.   The purpose of the meeting is to educate the liaisons on the goals of HIMSS as it relates to Healthcare Information Technology (HIT) and learn what their legislative priorities are for the coming year.  This is the second year of this activity and our plans are to find areas of mutual interest to work together on to advance HIT in the state.   We expect telemedicine and cyber security to be a major topic of interest in next years' legislative session which begins in January.  

Chris Panagiotopoulos
Advocacy Committee Chair

Communications Committee

First off, I would like to welcome Erika Moon as the newest member of the Communications Committee.  And, also many thanks to our other committee members, Kent Budd, Joyce Dean, and Walter Bergman, not only for their service this past year but for the several years that they have contributed to the Chapter’s communications efforts to serve the membership.

The Maryland Chapter of HIMSS is an all-volunteer organization and its strength is derived from the commitment and passion of its volunteers.  Serving on a committee can and should benefit both the organization and the individual volunteer.  It is an opportunity for the individual to provide their skills and expertise to the Chapter to achieve specific goals while also allowing the volunteer to gain additional experience with existing skills as well as developing new skills.  And best of all, it can be fun!

Did you receive an email about the Annual Chapter Survey?  Did you complete the survey?  You may access the survey at http://survey.constantcontact.com/survey/a07ecdm6iepilkxkg0k/start .  But act quickly so you can be also be entered in the drawing for a gift card.  The survey will be an important input to the Board’s Annual Planning Session in early June which will prioritize the Chapter’s activities for the upcoming program year that runs July 2016 – June 2017.

We are always looking for volunteers that have expertise or interest in the areas of web site authoring, graphic design, Constant Contact, photography, videography, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube.  We have would like to do more and more but much depends on contributions of our volunteers.

Something on your mind?  Please drop us a line md.info@himsschapter.org .

Have a great Summer!

Mark Doore
Communications Committee Chair

Community Outreach Committee

The 2015 - 2016 season witnessed some of our best attended events such as the Fall Networking session, HIT Advocacy evening, CXO Roundtables, Cybersecurity Educational session and our very popular Golf Tournament.

Kicking off our 2016 - 2017 season is the Fall Networking event scheduled for Wednesday evening October 19^th at the Ten Oaks Ballroom in Clarksville.  This has been our best attended event drawing over 200 participants!

There are still come sponsorships available which provide a venue, meet new people, and showcase your company’s products and services to Health IT professionals and leaders from health organizations across Maryland.

Walter Bergman walter.bergman@jhmi.edu 301-896-3533
Community Outreach and Golf Tournament Chair

CXO Outreach Committee

Cybersecurity Symposium

 Growing concerns around cybersecurity is at the forefront of health care.  Cybersecurity threats and vulnerability monitoring is an evolving area for healthcare organizations.  Developing new approaches for preparedness and responses to cyberattacks is essential to safeguarding patient information and health information technology systems.  On September 7^th, 2016 the Maryland HIMSS CXO committee joined forces with the Maryland Health Care Commission(MHCC), the Health Services Cost Review Commission(HSCRC), and the Maryland Hospital Association( MHA) to host a first ever - Hospital Cybersecurity Symposium.  The event was well-attended with over 150 individuals, representing many healthcare organizations across the state.  The theme was” Building Resiliency through Preparedness and Response”, for which the speakers echoed throughout the presentations.  Speakers included Mr. Daniel Gray – Supervisory Special Agent Manager from the Baltimore Cyber Task Force at the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Ms. Lisa Gallagher, Managing Director at PricewaterhouseCoopers.  Maryland HIMSS is proud to sponsor events that convene various stakeholders for critical issues in our industry.  We look forward to future opportunities to not only open the dialogue but continue to support our members.

 Best,

Ravi Singh, CXO Chair

Feel free to contact us if you have any questions.

Ravi Singh, rsingh@fidesinfosys.com, 240-314-0152

Karen Wilding, kwilding@umm.edu , (443) 842-1972

Membership Committee

Membership

Welcome to a new season of Maryland HiMSS.  Our committees have been working all summer to provide our membership with great educational sessions as well as an increase with the number of our social networking events.  This year we will also continue to grow our membership by visiting the Affiliates / Corporate Members and informing employees of their eligibility to be members of the Maryland Chapter of HiMSS.    

Remember, Non-Members can join the Maryland chapter by attending an event as a non-member and completing an application or by going to www.himss.org.

If you are interested in joining this committee or have a question regarding the chapter membership, please contact the Brian Zernhelt, Membership Committee Chair at bzernhelt@primesoft.net  or 410-740-1910 x104.

Brian Zernhelt
Membership Committee Chair

Program Planning Committee

A Preview of the Upcoming Year of Events

By Kathryn A. Whitmore, Maryland HIMSS Board Member and Program Planning Chair

It’s that time of year again! As fall approaches, we are kicking off another year of Maryland HIMSS educational programs and social events. For the first time, we are publishing a save the date events calendar for the entire year of upcoming events which can be found at: http://md.himsschapter.org/. Based on member feedback from our annual survey, we are planning to focus on topics important to you including cybersecurity, population health, analytics, and the ongoing transformation of Maryland health care. We have added some exciting new locations for our events including Historic Savage Mills and the Jailbreak Brewery in Laurel.  We have made changes to program formats such as adding evening educational events and including more nationally recognized experts in our presentations and panel discussions.

Another change we will be making this year is piloting a Call for Abstracts to solicit healthcare provider case studies to present during our educational programs.  To ensure we can offer continuing education credit for attending these presentations, we will adopt guidelines for case study presentations much like national HIMSS uses for the annual conference. You can expect to see more details in the forthcoming call for abstracts which will be emailed to all Maryland HIMSS members. We expect the call for abstracts pilot to help us select one or more provider case study presentations to augment each of our upcoming educational programs.

We thank you for your continued interest in Health IT and the Maryland Chapter of HIMSS. As always, our volunteers are committed to offering a wide array of events in support of our mission to lead endeavors which optimize health engagements and care outcomes through the use of health IT. We strive to add value for health care professionals by providing our members with the opportunity to participate in leadership-building and information-sharing activities as well as engage with subject matter experts to keep abreast of both Maryland specific and national health care and health IT priorities.

If you would like to volunteer your time to help our Program Planning team, please contact us:

Kathryn Whitmore (KathrynWhitmore@STSConsultingGroup.com) at 443-742-4643.

Professional Development Committee

Maryland HIMSS – HEALTH IT SCHOLARSHIP PROGRAM

The Maryland HIMSS Chapter is pleased to announce the opening of our annual call for applications for scholarships.

Every year, Maryland HIMSS awards two deserving students actively enrolled in a health care information technology/computer science related degree program.  We are honored to support individuals advancing their education while also providing them with additional opportunities for professional development.

In addition to the $2,500.00 award, recipients will also receive

• Honorary Maryland HIMSS Chapter Membership for one year
• Admittance into all Chapter Education Programs at no cost
• Appointment to a chapter committee of choice

Please review the scholarship specifics on our website; application packages are due Friday, July 1, 2016.

If you have any questions, please reach out to:

Karen Marie Wilding, Chair, Professional Development

Maryland HIMSS Chapter MD.ProDev@himsschapter.org

Karen Marie Wilding
Professional Development Committee Chair