Washington Debrief: Preview of National Health IT Week

Sept. 16-20 marks the 8th Annual National Health IT Week (http://www.healthitweek.org/).  During NHIT Week, hundreds of health IT stakeholders fly to Washington, DC to advocate for better health IT-related policies.  Stakeholders that cannot come to DC for are encouraged to host an event locally at the state our regional level.  Each year the event focuses on three “asks,” which are: Consistent Nationwide Patient Data Matching Strategy, Alignment of Healthcare Quality Reporting Requirements Across Federal Programs, and Consistent Adoption of Health IT Exchange Standards and Implementation Guidelines. 

CHIME will be awarding the 5^th Annual State Public Policy Award for CIO Leadership to Geoff Brown at the NHIT Week Awards Reception on Wednesday, Sept. 18.  Brown is SVP and CIO at Inova, based in Falls Church, Va.  He has organized CIO panels for many years at the VA State HIT Day to give the CIO perspective to state officials and he has served as the Virginia State HIT Coordinator for StateNet since its inception in 2009.  He has also served on state advisory committees under Governor Robert McDonnell (2010-present) and then-Governor Timothy Kaine (2009-2010).

To participate in this year’s Tech Showcase, themed “Interoperability,” CHIME completed a case study of Sharp Healthcare (San Diego, Ca) by interviewing Bill Spooner, SVP and CIO, and his IT staff.  Their main focuses include patient identity and data integrity.  To exchange patient information within a hospital and with other providers, hospitals and providers must first identify the correct patient record.  And in terms of data integrity, without standard medical terminologies or data standards, chart information will not flow easily into other systems.

Edited by Gabriel Perna