by Bella Zaghi, Board Member and Chairperson, Academic Alliance Community

USC Healthcare Conference

Please join us in welcoming nearly two dozen new student members to the HIMSS SoCal Chapter!

Volunteers from the HIMSS SoCal Academic Alliance Community hosted a booth at the USC Marshall Healthcare Conference at the University of Southern California (USC) on March 6, 2015, to educate attendees about the SoCal HIMSS chapter and to recruit participation. The event focused on "Transforming Care: Driving Innovation in the Healthcare Industry," and included keynotes from Dan Castillo, CEO of LAC and USC Medical Center, Kedrick D. Adkins, Jr., CFO of Mayo Clinic, and Mary Lehmann, VP of Finance and Treasurer of Amgen.

Nancy Chu, SoCal HIMSS volunteer and USC student said the highlight of the event for her was hearing Dan Castillo provide a CEO perspective on healthcare reform and the role of IT. She also said students enjoyed the Q&A session with industry panelists as it provided insight into the healthcare IT profession and related challenges and opportunities.

A Thank you Letter from CSULA Outreach Presentation!

Thao Tran, our HIMSS SoCal AAC Outreach Chair gave a presentation at CSULA on 1/27/2015. The professor and students sent a letter of thanks for her presentation. Please join us in thanking Thao for the great job and her community contribution.

Dear Thao,

Again thank you for an outstanding presentation to my healthcare accounting class for Masters of Healthcare Management students on 1/27/15 at CSULA. Your well organized presentation was well received. As a result of your talk, at least 7 students completed applications for membership in HIMSS.  We hope to see you at the HIMSS Conference on 3/2/15 at the California Endowment.

The students and I learned a lot from your talk. I asked them to summarize what they learned, and here is what one student wrote:

HIMSS Presentation by a representative of the Healthcare Information Management Systems Society, Thao Tran (HIMSS Los Angeles Chapter).

Three things that I learned:

1) I learned that participation in HIMSS provided members with a number of positive options.  It would seem from the name that it was only open to people with an IT background or for those interested in IT.  However, I learned that membership is not limited to IT and that other professions would benefit from the programs offered. 

2) I was interested to learn that their annual convention provided a great deal of quality forums, lectures, and opportunities for collaboration.  Thao made it seem as if the lectures would be of interest to anyone in healthcare.  I was also impressed to learn that two former presidents were the keynote speakers at their conventions.  This bit of news is pretty significant and reflects the quality of their programs.

3) I learned from Thao that not only is HIMSS a good membership for healthcare professionals, but that they provide very generous scholarships to students.  This certainly sparked my interest.  I liked that she was encouraging us to apply and mentioned that there are untapped funds just waiting for students to access.  I just might apply.

Your presentation was much appreciated, Thao.

Barrington (Barry) Hunt, MPA
Faculty, Graduate Healthcare Management Program
Management Dept., College of Business and Economics
California State University, Los Angeles
5151 State University Drive, ST 717
Los Angeles, CA  90032-8126

E-mail:  bhunt@exchange.calstatela.edu

Back to Spring 2015 Newsletter