Dear HISA Member

The last few weeks have been packed with activity.  Internationally HIMSS has provided a wave of product announcements with some interesting developments in the evolving focus on the health consumer (the person at the centre in HIC'08 terms).  But all has not been quiet on the Australia front.  The meeting of the Coalition for Health Informatics (now the Coalition for eHealth) was an outstanding success, with health leaders from across Australia meeting in Sydney on February 19.    HISA has also launched its next survey, supporting a critical eHealth debate that is occurring at the moment in the area of diagnostic imaging.  We also have a number of important conferences coming (HISA NSW Conference, Connectathon/Interoperability Showcase Planning Day & OBHC), oh, and of course, the HISA membership programs has started for this year.

There is lots of reading in this newsletter, I hope you enjoy it.

HIMSS 08 Conference, Orlando Florida

The big news internationally has been the HIMSS conference in Orlando Florida, with 28,400 attendees and 900 vendors it is the largest Health IT show around.  Michael Legg (HISA President) has provided his view of the meeting, looking at the advancing state of Informatics in the US and the rise of the health consumer.

Michaels Postcard From Orlando

While sitting waiting for a plane home, I thought it might be therapeutic to share my thoughts with you on HIMSS-08 although the postcard should really have mouse ears for it to be an authentic item from this Disney built city.

As I sat with some 20,000 others in a very big room, the striking thing for me this HIMSS was the heart-felt respect and appreciation shown to the assembled health informaticians for their long, and acknowledged often volunteer, efforts to improve the way healthcare is provided. This was started by Bill Frist, the recently retired Leader of the Senate (a physician) but followed with support from the Secretary for Health (Michael Leavitt) who administers one quarter of all US Government spending, the Co-ordinator of Health IT (Robert Kolodner - who is accepted as a respected member of the community of health informaticians in his own right) and finished with the new Admiral Grace Hopper Award being presented to Michael Leavitt by the Deputy Secretary for Defence! It seems those in public life understand the separate domain of knowledge that is health informatics here and believe that work in the area is worthy of recognition.

The US is often criticised for its political regime, but there are many things that it has every right to be proud of and the openness and transparency of the process around their AHIC (American Health Information Community) is one of those. I took up the invitation along with around 50 others to join the 28^th meeting of AHIC chaired by Secretary Leavitt and co-chaired by the Co-ordinator Robert Kolodner. The meeting was open to the public and simultaneously webcast. What a wonderful thing it was to hear the thinking behind the process to establish an independent entity ‘AHIC-2' that will encompass the private sector and is being purpose-built to withstand inevitable changes in Administration.

The biggest and strongest conference theme from the land of the superlative brought the famous words of Bob Woodward to mind - ‘Follow the money'. With Google (CEO, Eric Schmidt); Microsoft; Minute Clinics (Michael Howe); and start-up Revolution Health (Steve Case (Founder of AOL)) all seeing opportunity in empowering the healthcare consumer through providing information services, there is a sense that we really are at an inflexion point. Steve Case likens this period to his experience at the start of the internet - very exciting times!

I needed a recharge and this year it was definitely worth spending ML&A's hard earned money to participate.

Michael.

The Major Themes at HIMSS

HIMSS has provided an extensive overview of the conference, along with many of the keynote speeches on their website at http://www.himssconference.org/ .  A good overview of the event has been provided by Jane Sarasohn-Kahn's article in iHealth Beat.  Jane emphasized the 3 major themes within the conference of, openness, Security and Consumer Centric health. 

Microsoft also made a significant contribution to the cause of openness with the announcement that it will provide more open access to its code, allowing a new collective of innovative developers to further extend the application and interconnectedness of  Microsoft products in health.

Security
The increasing deployment of health IT systems is challenging the existing privacy and security infrastructure at all levels of health delivery.   Consequently, there was apparently considerable activity around companies offering digital rights management, privacy protection, release information tools and security tools. 

In Australia we are likely to experience the same trend, with the final ALRC review of privacy law, and the likely increased activity in the development of regulations and governance. This is of course in addition to the continuing deployment of systems that make patient information increasingly available to a ever expanding audience.

Consumer Centric
As was so skillfully articulated by Sir Muir Gray at the Medinfo conference last year, the rise of the informed patient in the delivery of healthcare is the probably one of the most important changes that is transforming healthcare.  This has been reflected in the in the rise in solutions targeting consumers.  This year the real heavyweights have ventured into this market with offerings from both Microsoft (Health Vault) and Google (Google Health) being demonstrated.

New HISA Survey and Discussion

DOHA's  Diagnostic Imaging Report

The Digital Imaging branch of the Department of Health and Ageing (DOHA) has released an important discussion document on the use of digital diagnostic images.

In this document DOHA highlight the issues facing referring clinicians, used to traditional film images, when they are faced with the new technology of images on CD.  They raise some serious questions on how to handle this.

These questions go to the core of how to manage the introduction of beneficial but disruptive technologies.  How much do you drive the conversion of infrastructure, how do you leverage the benefits from new technologies and how to identify and deal with the key concerns.

Click here to download the discussion document. 

The paper asks a series of questions.  HISA has established an online survey which has expanded on these questions and provides an opportunity for those wishing to engage in a discussion on this topic to help build the HISA feedback to DOHA.

Click here to enter the HISA survey on portable digital imaging.

Connectathon Information Seminar

As was mentioned in the last newsletter the HIC'08 conference will host the 2008 HISA Interoperability Showcase.  This is the gathering of the health IT companies that have progressed through the Australian IHE Connectathon process, and demonstrated the interoperability of their systems across the profiles being demonstrated at the Showcase.

Key meetings in preparation for both the Showcase and the Connectathon process are occurring this week.   On Thursday March 13^th at the NICTA facilities in Sydney, there will be the preliminary information sessions and technical workshops for the Connectathon and Showcase (NICTA have kindly sponsored this meeting).  The day starts at 10:00 am and will be split into two parts.  The morning is a general information session on the processes we are planning to use and how companies can be involved.  The afternoon will focus on developing the Connectathon technical discussions.

If you or your company are interested in participating in this years Connectathon or Showcase you are strongly encouraged to attend this meeting.  There is no attendance fee, but you need to register.  You can register online by clicking here.

You can find more information on the meeting and the Connectathon/ Showcase processes by going to Australian IHE website at http://www.ihe.org.au/.  You can also call Pauline Taylor at 03-9388-0555 to find out more.

HISA NSW Conference

Think Globally, Act Locally

The HISA NSW Branch Conference is on this Friday at the Crown Plaza Hotel Coogee Beach Sydney.  There is still time to register and experience what is going to be a great program.  The keynotes for the day include:

Further presentations during program will also include the following topics

You can download a copy of the provisional program by clicking here.

There is still time to register and attend.  The registration process is simple, just click here to go to our online registration systems

Organisational Behaviour in Healthcare (OBHC)

Another important conference that is coming up at the end of March is the 6^th international Conference on Organisational Behaviour in Health (OBHC 2008, March 26 - 28 Citigate Central Hotel, Sydney).  Hosted by the Society for the Study of Organising in Health Care (SHOC) and the University of NSW the conference looks at how health care organisations and the people within them behave.  This is at the core of how health organisations respond challenge, innovate and grow.  The OBHC conference brings together an international contingent of researchers to present research, methodological or theoretical developments in the areas of culture and climate as they relate to organisational behaviour in health care.  This conference's theme is "Climate and Culture: Cracking the code".

It will be the ideal opportunity in 2008 to interact with international colleagues in this exciting field. The conference is targeted at clinicians and managers in health organisations; members of government agencies and NGOs; corporate and professional associations.  You can find out more by going to the website at http://www.obhc2008.org/ or you can register online by clicking here.  You can also email Joan Edgecumbe, the conference manager by clicking here.

HISA Membership Due

All HISA members should have received their membership notice by now.  Membership becomes due on March 31^st and we hope that members will be able to attend to this early.  We have had a strong year in 2007, but your continuing membership of HISA is important for the future development of our organisation and we look forward to your ongoing support in 2008. 

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