New York State HIMSS Chapter won the 2018 U.S. National Health IT Week Advocacy Challenge!

The NYS HIMSS Chapter's Advocacy Committee Chair, Susan Rueckwald, was notified on 8/31/18 by the HIMSS State Government Affairs (SGA) Team that the Chapter won a cash award as part of the 2018 U.S. National Health IT Week Advocacy Challenge! The NYS Chapter was competing against other State HIMSS Chapters for the award and honor. The cash award will go towards supporting our Chapter initiatives to advance HIMSS' points of engagement of Supporting Healthcare Transformation and Making Communities Healthier. Also, the award will support state team meetings leading to the development of recommendations for a statewide health IT plan/roadmap.

The NYS HIMSS Chapter 2018 National Health IT Week State Team meetings will focus on State HIE Plans and State Emergency Preparedness & Health Information Technology Plan. More specifically, our meeting will spur discussion to explore bridges between both topics. The NY HIMSS Chapter will use the NYS Health IT Week (http://nys.himsschapter.org/event/nys-health-it-week-0) as a platform for the meeting. Expected meeting outputs are strategies and plans for State emergency response and disaster preparedness and healthcare transformation/budgets, ensuring that HIT continues to operate seamlessly across the State, utilizing the existing SHIN-NY infrastructure, in the event of an emergency or disaster.

National Health IT Week information: https://www.healthitweek.org/