Presidents Message

Dear Maryland Chapter of HIMSS Members, Colleagues and Friends,

We held our “Holiday Educational Event” in December at one of our new venues, Historic Savage Mills, where we focused on Cybersecurity. We had a great turn out and our presenters definitely gave us a lot to think about as we face the subject of Cybersecurity in our work place, as well as at home.

The Maryland General Assembly is now in session and off to a running start. They have 90 days ahead of them before they cross the “Finish Line”, but until then, they will be busy working, and we will be available to them as a resource for any Healthcare related legislation that may come across their desks.

A lot of us are gearing up for the upcoming, National HIMSS conference in Orlando, Florida this year. If you are going to be down there, please plan on joining us there at the Mid-Atlantic Chapters of HIMSS Networking Reception on February 20^th from 4:30 – 6:00 PM, but sign up now via our chapter website, since it typically sells out.

You can find more information about our upcoming events in our newsletter below as well as on our Chapter website.

I hope to see you out at one of our upcoming events.

Bob Hooper
President, Maryland Chapter of HIMSS

Advocacy Committee

See you in the spring.

Chris Panagiotopoulos
Advocacy Committee Chair

Communications Committee

The Maryland Chapter of HIMSS is an all-volunteer organization and its strength is derived from the commitment and passion of its volunteers.  Serving on a committee can and should benefit both the organization and the individual volunteer.  It is an opportunity for the individual to provide their skills and expertise to the Chapter to achieve specific goals while also allowing the volunteer to gain additional experience with existing skills as well as developing new skills.  And best of all, it can be fun!

We are always looking for volunteers that have expertise or interest in the areas of web site authoring, graphic design, Constant Contact, photography, videography, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube.  We have would like to do more and more but much depends on contributions of our volunteers.

Something on your mind?  Please drop us a line md.info@himsschapter.org .

Mark Doore
Communications Committee Chair

Community Outreach Committee

Registration for HIT End Users, those working in a hospital or clinical setting is only $50. Maryland HIMSS reserves the right to determine eligibility.

Walter Bergman md.golf@himsschapter.org 240-676-1051
Community Outreach Chair

CXO Outreach Committee

See you in the spring.

Ravi Singh, CXO Chair

Feel free to contact us if you have any questions.

Ravi Singh, rsingh@fidesinfosys.com, 240-314-0152

Karen Wilding, kwilding@umm.edu , (443) 842-1972

Membership Committee

Membership

See you in the spring.

Remember, Non-Members can join the Maryland chapter by attending an event as a non-member and completing an application or by going to www.himss.org.

If you are interested in joining this committee or have a question regarding the chapter membership, please contact the Brian Zernhelt, Membership Committee Chair at bzernhelt@primesoft.net  or 410-740-1910 x104.

Brian Zernhelt
Membership Committee Chair

Program Planning Committee

A Preview of the Upcoming Year of Events

2017 Educational Events to Showcase Maryland Provider Population Health Case Studies

By Kathryn A. Whitmore, Maryland HIMSS Board Member and Program Planning Chair

As the New Year begins, we are trying something new in selecting our educational program content! While our Program Planning team has always worked diligently to identify HealthIT speakers relevant to our membership, we are currently piloting a Call for Speaker Proposals soliciting your provider success stories to share with our membership. Given the unique healthcare landscape in Maryland, we are seeking HealthIT enabled population health case studies from Maryland healthcare organizations including providers, payers, health information exchanges, government agencies, and academic institutions.

Case studies are success stories which highlight a real-world population health challenge for the Maryland healthcare organization, provide an overview of the solution including any enabling HealthIT, share the organization’s outcome and measurable benefits of the solution, and offer lessons learned as educational takeaways for our members. Any relevant and timely aspect of Maryland population health management including topics such as healthier populations, care coordination, chronic care management, patient engagement, data management and analytics, protecting patient data, value based reimbursement, etc. will be considered.

We would like to hear from you, so please submit your case study proposal by emailing a completed template to md.info@himsschapter.org no later than Wednesday, January 25, 2017 by 5pm EST … or Friday, January 27, 2017 by 5pm EST. The required submission template including speaking proposal format and guidelines can be found at: http://md.himsschapter.org/.

To ensure we can offer continuing education credit for attending these presentations, we have adopted guidelines for case study presentations similar to those national HIMSS uses for the annual conference. Speakers will be selected utilizing a team/peer review process based on the published submission guidelines. The team includes Maryland HIMSS peers/program planning team members and Board members who will help us evaluate, score, and select provider case studies which provide the most valuable educational content to our membership.

Thank you for your interest in HealthIT and the Maryland Chapter of HIMSS. Our volunteers are committed to planning events which support our mission of optimizing health engagement and care outcomes through the use of HealthIT. If you would like to volunteer your time, please contact Kathryn Whitmore at KathrynWhitmore@STSConsultingGroup.com.

Kathryn Whitmore (KathrynWhitmore@STSConsultingGroup.com) at 443-742-4643.

Professional Development Committee

See you in the spring.

Karen Marie Wilding, Chair, Professional Development

Maryland HIMSS Chapter MD.ProDev@himsschapter.org

Karen Marie Wilding
Professional Development Committee Chair