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In This Issue:  President's Message Fall Conference Recap Spring 2006 Conference Chapter Officers for 2005-2006 CALR Update RHIO Federation Sponsor Spotlight COBITHIMSS Virginia Chapter January 2006 Dear Friends – Happy New Year and Best Wishes for a happy, healthy and productive 2006! I’ll offer you a deal: I’ll spare you from a clichéd New Year’s column in which I write the typical things such as . . . “this year is full of opportunity and challenges” . . . “you must rise to the challenges and accomplish remarkable things for our profession” . . . and “this year is more important than other years past or future.” Now, since I’ve spared you from that sort of New Year’s column, can I ask you a small favor? Will you carve out a few extra hours this year to participate in upcoming Virginia HIMSS chapter activities? Will you make an effort to attend and to help us revitalize this chapter? Will you remember that in addition to the great educational opportunities that our chapter offers you, it gives you a chance to give to others by speaking, sharing your ideas, and affirming the value of networking? During our Fall Conference, attendees thanked us for the high value of the conference, and were pleased to meet and network with other healthcare IT professionals from across the state. They were especially pleased to see several CIO’s and senior-level professionals in attendance, and hoped to see even more in future events. The HIMSS mission is to Lead Information and Management Systems field through knowledge sharing, advocacy, collaboration, and community affiliations. Translation: you can help out just by showing up and sharing what you know! How easy is that? Please read Bill Johnson’s column on our upcoming Spring Conference – I’ll see you there! Fall Conference Recap We want to thank everyone who attended the first annual Fall Conference, held from October 5th – 7th in Williamsburg, for making it a huge success! With more than 110 attendees, the Conference succeeded in increasing attendance—one of our goals in switching the conference format from quarterly meetings to an annual conference. The golf tournament held at Kingsmill Woodland Golf Course was a big hit with our golfing buddies, especially since it was included at no extra charge with the registration fee, thanks to the generosity of our sponsors. Our two keynote speakers, Dr. William Yasnoff and Dave Garets, provided the perfect stimulus to get attendees motivated for the wide range of topics included in the conference. The presentations are too numerous to review in this newsletter, but you are invited to visit the Virginia HIMSS Website at http://www.vahimss.org/ if you want more information. The Website has a link to the Conference agenda, where downloads of each presentation’s handouts are available. We want to thank all those who worked so hard to make the Conference a reality, especially those on the VA HIMSS Board of Directors and our sponsors. After the success of our first annual Fall conference, we anticipate an even bigger and better conference next year! The 2006 Fall Conference will be held on October 11th – 13th in conjunction with HIMSS PACT (Physicians Adopting Computer Technology) conference on Oct 14th. We anticipate providing training opportunities for those desiring to pursue the CPHIMS and PMP certifications. Again, a golf tournament will be held. Anticipated location for the Conference and Golf Tournament will be in Williamsburg. See you there! Spring 2006 Conference Be sure to mark your calendars for the upcoming Virginia HIMSS Spring 2006 Conference. The Conference will be a half day affair held on Friday, April 28th in Charlottesville, Virginia. The VA HIMSS Board is beginning to plan for the event and welcomes any input you may have. Please contact Mariann Yeager at myeager@truarx.com by February 11th if you wish to suggest topics. Chapter Officers for 2005-2006 Many thanks to Greg Staudenmaier, Major, USAFR, Ret., who served as program co-chair in 2005. Greg recently retired from the Air Force. He was an enormous help for our Fall 2005 conference. Best wishes Greg! Past Presidents • Cathy Stam, Consultant – IBM, Business Consulting Services • Ken Turner, Director of Performance Improvement, Bon Secours Health System • David Collins, Manager, Ambulatory Care Initiatives, HIMSS President • Laishy Williams-Carlson, VP/CIO, Bon Secours Hampton Roads President-Elect • Scott Bateman, Director of Project Management, Bon Secours Hampton Roads Treasurer • Tina Salaris, Engagement Manager, McKesson Provider Technologies Program Co-Chairs • Marianne Yeager, Vice President, Healthcare, TruArx, Inc. • Vacant Secretary • Vacant Webmaster • Vacant Communications Chair • Bill Johnson, President Healthcare Information Technology Advisors, LLC Sponsorship Co-Chairs • Colin Konschak, Vice President IBM, Business Consulting Services • Vacant MAHI Chair • Ruth Tucci-Kaufhold, Systems Analyst, Unisys Corporation CMS/WEDI SNIP Chair • Stephen Farmer, HIPAA Compliance, Wellpoint If you’d like to serve in one of the vacant positions, please let us know! CALR Update Most HIMSS chapters have a member who acts as the Chapter Advocacy Liaison. In addition to acting as liaison between the chapters and National HIMSS on Federal and state legislative issues, Chapter Advocacy Liaisons participate in monthly conference calls (Chapter Advocacy Liaison Roundtables) at which these issues are discussed with National HIMSS staff. The objective is to keep state chapters up to date on status of legislative issues and to encourage participation by the chapters in the advocacy process. VA HIMSS’ Advocacy Liaison is Bill Johnson. At the most recent CALRs, updates included information on status of the appropriations bills relating to the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONCHIT), Stark reform, and HIMSS advocacy newsletter (Pulse on Public Policy). If you are interested in receiving Pulse on Public Policy, send Bill an email at bill@hitadvisors.com, and he will see that you get on the distribution list. In addition, HIMSS has an Advocacy Center (http://www.himss.org/advocacy/index.asp) on its Website. Members are encouraged to visit this site regularly to keep informed on legislative issues and HIMSS positions regarding these issues. State chapters and their members are encouraged to participate in the legislative process by keeping their elected representatives apprised of their positions on healthcare IT issues. Chapters are also encouraged to sponsor site visits by elected representatives and/or their staffs to local healthcare facilities and to Chapter events. If you have any ideas on Federal or state legislative issues or Chapter Advocacy, let Bill know at the above email address. RHIO Federation Last fall HIMSS launched the RHIO Federation. The focus of this group is intended to support the national development of RHIO's by providing a place where people can connect to others in the country doing this same work. This allows us to begin to create a knowledge base that comes from experience. HIMSS desire is to support the industry in developing a National Health Information Network (NHIN); giving people the opportunity for education, gaining access to tools, outreach and advocacy support. Supporting the health information technology industry is the keystone of the HIMSS mission. Each HIMSS Chapter was asked to participate in this group by creating a new position within each chapter titled the "RHIO Federation Chapter Liaison." The Liaison's mission is to get involved locally with the HIE/RHIO efforts in their Chapter area. This will help HIMSS to provide the best support possible to the industry by initiating collaboration, knowledge transfer, and most importantly, creating a collective voice for developing key messages to local, state and federal politicians. I have asked to serve our chapter in this capacity for this year. I have begun to contact some of the major players in our region regarding their RHIO efforts as well as attend the RHIO Task Force calls. I will continue to update the group on the work being done in Virginia and surrounding areas. David Clark is the Director for Integration & Interoperability and will be in charge of the RHIO Federation on a national level. He can be reached at (703) 837-9816 or at dclark@himss.org. If you are interested in knowing more about this please feel free to contact David or myself. Sponsor Spotlight As the Virginia HIMSS Sponsorship Co-Chair, I’d like to wish all a Happy New Year and ask for your support of our growing organization. Through the generous support of our sponsors, we are able to provide a variety of educational sessions relevant to our membership. This support allows our chapter to grow and ensures Virginia HIMSS members receive programming and support relevant to their organization. My role within the organization is to work with our sponsors to ensure the sponsoring organization and the Chapter itself benefits from a mutually productive relationship. The Virginia HIMSS chapter meets regularly throughout the year to learn from expert speakers, share knowledge and network. We publish this newsletter and maintain a web site to keep members posted on industry and Virginia HIMSS events. We hold educational sessions designed to help our members in their respective workplaces. We are one of the best resources for keeping abreast of local issues. Our members represent the leading healthcare providers in Virginia. Sponsoring Virginia HIMSS chapter events shows your dedication to current and prospective clients alike. As a Virginia HIMSS Chapter sponsor, you have the opportunity to be involved on a local level. You have the opportunity to participate in chapter events, receive chapter news & promotions and network with current and prospective clients in your own backyard. There are a variety of options available for supporting the Virginia HIMSS Chapter. These include sponsorship and exhibiting opportunities at two annual meetings scheduled for April and October 2006, advertising opportunities on the www.vahimss.org website and golf tournament sponsorships just to name a few. Contact me directly at colin.konschak@us.ibm.com or 757-641-0481 to talk further about sponsorship opportunities, how you can support the Virginia HIMSS chapter and benefits you can expect to receive as a chapter sponsor. Together, we will establish the Virginia HIMSS chapter as one of the most successful chapters in the country. VA HIMSS wants to thank its sponsors, including: • I-Access • Vocera • Hill-Rom • EMC • AE Systems • Siemens • Cisco There interest in and support for our activities is very much appreciated! COBIT How do you having more demands for your IT department’s services than you can meet to your customers’ satisfaction? How do you know that your IT department is operating in an efficient manner? These are a couple of the issues that COBIT or Control Objectives for Information and related Technology attempts to address. COBIT is part of a movement to improve IT governance or how we operate IT departments. One of COBIT’s main sponsors is ISACA or the Information Systems Audit and Control Association; this organization oversees IT auditing standards. COBIT can be described as a comprehensive series of “best practices” for the operation of IT organizations. IT has four major “domains” that include Planning and Organization, Acquisition and Implementation, Delivery and Support, and Monitoring. If you think about it, these four domains cover everything we do in operating an IT shop. The four COBIT domains provide 318 detailed Activities that should occur for proper operation of an IT organization. An example of an Activity is “Project Approval”. For all Activities, there are Critical Success Factors and Key Performance Indicators that assist IT management in providing high quality service. In total, COBIT provides IT management with a framework by which customer needs can be addressed using industry “best practices” and metrics; by which IT budgetary needs can be matched with service demands; and by which hospital management can be educated as to the proper roles and expectations of the IT organization. If you are interested in learning more about COBIT, email Bill Johnson at bill@hitadvisors.com |