Message from the President > >

Hello chapter members,

I hope everyone enjoyed yesterday’s presentation by Darrell Woelk, CTO of SocialCare.  As evidenced by the attendance (70 including online participants) and the number of questions, the topic of FHIR was well received. We may need to revisit the topic next year for an update.  Since Darrell used some slides that require prior authorization to publish, we were unable to record and post the presentation on our website as we typically do.  However, here are some references:  Technical description from the HL7 standards body here.   Wikipedia page here.

Today, on November 11th, we honor all of our veterans both living and deceased.  Each year we take this day to reflect on the sacrifices they have given for our freedom.   In the United States we live in an age of an all-volunteer military.  These individuals accepted the challenge of serving our country, and in effect wrote our government a blank check payable up to and including their life.  They do this for the sake of all Americans and the countries we protect around the world.  My brother, an Air Force Lieutenant Colonel, will be deploying to Afghanistan next week to support their military.   This is his seventh deployment and third theatre of battle over the last 22 years.  I wish him a safe deployment and fast return as well as all of the other troops we have stationed around the world in harm’s way. 

During yesterday’s event I had the pleasure of introducing a veteran, former Air Force Captain Cornell Cornelius.  He currently works for Microsoft as a Technical Account Manager.  The Austin HIMSS chapter awarded Cornell with a travel honorarium to attend the HIMSS National Conference in Las Vegas February 29th – March 4th.    Cornell wrote a nice message to the chapter in appreciation for this honorarium:

Austin HIMSS Chapter,

It is with great honor and respect that I accept and thank you for being chosen as the Veteran’s candidate. I have worked with medical systems for over 20 yrs. I have watched the medical systems and infrastructure grow and mature year by year due to the dedication and hard work of the men and women servicing the medical systems community.  I am looking forward to the conference and networking with the HIMSS family. 

Thank you for this great opportunity!

-Cornell Cornelius

Lastly, keep these dates on your calendar:

December 8th – CIO Panel

• John Mason, CIO, Hill Country Memorial
• Mike Minks, CIO, Seton
• Bill Phillips, CMIO, University Health, San Antonio
• Matt Chambers, CIO, Baylor, Scott & White

December 10th social at Athenahealth - Seaholm Power Plant

All the best,

-Doug Burkott, FHIMSS

President, Austin HIMSS Chapter

Upcoming Education & Networking Opportunities > >

512 Health Intelligence and Data Analytics Meetup - November 17th

Come network and enjoy happy hour-priced drinks and snacks at the classy Texas-chic bar in the Driskill Hotel. We're looking forward to meeting health data analysts and enthusiasts of all varieties!  Also we are looking for healthcare data analytics visionaries, pioneers, techies, and enthusiasts to speak at 2016 MeetUp events.  Please reach out if you, or someone you know might be interested in being featured as a guest speaker or taking part in a range of panels concerning healthcare data and analytics.

http://www.meetup.com/The-512-Health-Intelligence-and-Data-Analytics-Meetup/events/226349935/

Austin HIMSS Chapter Lunch and Learn Event - December 8th

December 8, 2015 from 11:30am - 1:30pm

WE LOOK FORWARD TO SEEING YOU THERE!

Lunch and Learn Webcast Information

If you would like to join our meetings LIVE, CLICK HERE or join at the following web address: https://www2.gotomeeting.com/join/918408491

Use VoIP (headset recommended) and please mute your microphone. Or to access by phone dial: 630-869-1020, Access Code: 918-408-491. If Audio PIN is required:  It will be shown after joining the meeting. Meeting ID: 918-408-491. Please do not put this

Austin HIMSS Holiday Social Happy Hour - December 10th

Upcoming Austin HIMSS Chapter Lunch and Learn Events

December

Session: CIO Panel

Presenters:

• John Mason, CIO, Hill Country Memorial
• Mike Minks, CIO, Seton
• Bill Phillips, CMIO, University Health, San Antonio
• Matt Chambers, CIO, Baylor, Scott & White

When: Tuesday, December 8^th 

2016

January

Session: Health Information is the Key Nutrient Lacking for Ecosystem Transformation

Presenter: Dr. Clay Johnston, Dean, UT Medical School in Austin

When: Tuesday, January 12^th 

News and Announcements > > New Austin Chapter President

Mr. Doug Burkott has been named the new President of the Austin HIMSS Chapter. Mr. Burkott works for Ascension Information Services with enterprise architecture responsibilities over the inpatient EMR at Seton.   His experience at Seton has ranged from implementing enterprise identity and access management solutions, barcode medication administration, and currently planning the software implementation of the new teaching hospital in Austin - Dell Seton Medical Center at the University of Texas .  Prior to Ascension, he worked for Microsoft in their Health Solutions Group enterprise which consisted of implementing identity and access management solutions acquired from Sentillion, Inc.  Mr. Burkott began his career working at Cerner Corp in a variety of technical and leadership roles ranging from implementing EMRs at small rural health organizations to international county-wide implementations in Australia.  Burkott holds a Master’s Degree in Health Administration from the University of Missouri – Columbia and an undergraduate degree in Exercise Physiology from Southern Illinois University.  He moved to Austin in 2012 from Kansas City, MO where he served on the Heart of America HIMSS chapter board for eight years, two of them as president.  “It’s a great time to be in healthcare IT right now especially on the hospital/provider side.  Modernizing each of the Seton hospitals as well as planning new technology that will be in place at the new Dell Seton Medical Center at the University of Texas is challenging and exciting.”

We would like to thank Jack Walker for his service as the Austin HIMSS Chapter President. His contribution to the Chapter and dedication to improving healthcare is greatly appreciated.

Advocacy Updates > >

HIMSS aims to shape public policy, support critical legislation and promote private/public sector collaboration (HIMSS 2015). Grass roots participation by HIT professionals occurs annually at the National Legislative Summit held in Washington, D.C.; this year held Wednesday, October 7 and Thursday the 8^th, 2015. Chuck Durant, Austin Chapter Advocacy Chair participated and visited these three Congressional offices as part of the Texas team:

• Representative Sam Johnson (R-TX-3)
• Representative Michael McCaul (R-TX-10)
• Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX)

Three overarching themes were emphasized by the volunteers during the visits:

• Patients and caregivers need real interoperability in Health Information Exchange (HIT)
• Everyone needs safe and secure health data
• Telemedicine needs to be enabled by Medicare legislative and administrative means

Specific details covered in conversation:

• Interoperability and HIT
  • The Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) needs to shift its focus to require functional testing and all technology platforms need to be able to facilitate HIT.
  • A National Patient Data Matching Strategy must be supported by Congress, starting by removing the 1999 Congressional prohibition on development of a unique patient identifier.
  • Capture and usage of syndromic and surveillance data must be uniform amongst all state and federal public agencies to support population health and research goals; close the gap between private and public sector capabilities for receipt and use of data.
• Healthcare needs a single, voluntary HIT data security platform
  • Congress should direct HHS to engage in a collaborative process to identify it.
  • Providers and other stakeholders need a single reporting pipeline that is national in scope and everyone uses to report breaches and other security, confidentiality and privacy problems.
• Existing Medicare law and regulations limit the use of telemedicine
  • Benefit to non-rural patient populations needs to be formally recognized
  • ‘Store and forward’ capabilities of monitoring equipment needs to be formally accepted
  • Congress should amend current law and direct HHS to use its current administrative discretion to expand uses of telemedicine to support new outcome requirements for chronic and other types of care

Additional detail can be obtained at http://www.himss.org/library/health-it-policy

Chuck Durant, MHA, FACHE

chuck_durant@hotmail.com | 512-656-8153

Austin HIMSS Membership > >

Renew today! For as little as $30, you support a year's worth of educational programming  and networking opportunities with our monthly Lunch an Learns, quarterly Happy Hours, and other special events like our annual CIO Forum with a local chapter membership. We also provide scholarships for Health IT education with your membership dollars. These are a few of the benefits of membership. Please join or renew today!

Sponsorship Opportunities > >

The Austin HIMSS Chapter is revamping its sponsorship program to give even more opportunities and visibility to our chapter sponsors. If you are not a sponsor, but are interested, please reach out to Shannon Vogel, our sponsor chair, to receive information or visit our website. Shannon can be reached at austin.sponsorship@himsschapter.org.

Austin HIMSS Chapter Website

For more information about the Austin Chapter of HIMSS and how to join, please visit: http://austin.himsschapter.org. We will continue to expand our online content to bring you the most up-to-date and relevant information. Don't forget to bookmark our site and visit our LinkedIn and Facebook sites! Also, look for communications and information on chapter activities from austin.communications@himsschapter.org.

For questions about Membership contact: austin.membership@himsschapter.org

For questions about Sponsorship opportunities contact: austin.sponsorship@himsschapter.org

We welcome feedback and suggestions!