Fall 2016 Newsletter

Message from the President

Hello HIMSS Chapter Members,

Welcome to the first edition of the Northern California HIMSS Chapter Newsletter for the 2016-2017 fiscal year. We have a newly assembled Board of Directors and volunteers that have been hard at work this summer planning and organizing phenomenal educational programs and networking events for our members. We have taken valuable feedback from our membership survey to cater our programs to meet the needs of this very large and diverse chapter, and have tailored our offerings accordingly.  

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Advocacy Committee Update

By Shanti C. Wilson and Ian Slade

With over 50 chapters across the United States, HIMSS helps connect members with local, state and national decision-makers on key Health IT (HIT) issues. For the Golden State of California, Northern and Southern chapters have come together, representing over 5,000 members, to create a unified voice to better address state-wide issues.

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Summer Social: Leading the Integrated Life

By Sherri Douville

Co-Chaired by Jason Johnson and Michelle Heimann, HIMSS NorCal hosted its Summer Social on July 21 at Rosenblum Winery in Oakland. When people think about Health IT, they might imagine a SysAdmin in a server room or a programmer working alone, staring into the computer screen. Health IT and the NorCal Chapter in particular boasts a broad, multidisciplinary membership, which includes health system executives, physicians, nurses, informaticists, consultants, vendors, IT professionals and others in the Health IT ecosystem who all bring different skills and backgrounds to the party.

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Asset Management: Data - The New Liquid Gold

A Data Governance Meetup Summary

By Sherri Douville

If you ask most health executives, they will tell you that they want their people to have access to timely and useful data for both clinical and customer experience purposes. HIMSS NorCal set out to identify what challenges have to be overcome to deliver on the promise of liquid gold, that data access. It turns out that for data to be meaningful, there has to be continual governance built around it. In this post, we aim to provide a useful talking point for you and your stakeholders to frame and set goals for your data management strategy. 

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Meetup Program

By Mariana Hu

The MeetUp Program is a very innovative and engaging way to promote education and networking in the HIT field. I joined as a new Director two months ago, and I am eager to continue growing this program that has already proven to be a huge success. I am pleased to share the upcoming events and good news.

Upcoming MeetUp Events
We are already confirmed for a MeetUp in Sacramento on October 13. This will be a great panel discussion on Driving Patient Engagement with Healthcare IT. RSVP now!

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Improvements to HIMSS Membership Analytics

By Andy Hilliard, CPHIMS

Did you ever wonder where NorCAL HIMSS members live, or which organizations they work for? The NorCAL HIMSS Board spends time each month reviewing membership demographics and trends in order to understand our membership and to tailor events and communications so that they are accessible and useful to as many members as possible.

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HFMA x HIMSS Presents: Introducing Five Pillars of Population Health Management Approach

By Naoko Okumoto

Mark your calendars for an exciting and educational webinar on Population Management jointly sponsored by your NorCal HIMSS Chapter and the Healthcare Financial Management Association.

Date: Tuesday, September 27 from 12-1PM
Speaker: Nandini Rangaswamy, MBA, Co-Founder, Executive Vice President, Chief Strategy Officer, Chairman of the Board.

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The NorCal HIMSS Education Committee Rocks!

By Margit Chapman

Chaired by Dr. Nik Tehrani, the Education Committee (EC) is very actively planning the 2016 education programs to fulfill the committee’s mission: To foster professional growth through education and collegiality among our members and allied healthcare professionals in the Northern California Region. This will be accomplished by offering events that prepare the members for professional certifications and advance their knowledge and skills in the management of healthcare information technology.

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Calling All Innovators

By Jim Bloedau, President Elect and Stevie Bahu, President

The annual HIMSS Leadership Exchange was held in Chicago recently. This meeting is open to all 55 chapters of HIMSS to learn and share best practices for moving to the next level of serving the membership. Stevie Bahu, our Chapter President, and I attended this highly respected event.  

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