Virginia - State Advocacy Day -

Statewide Health IT Grants Announced at
Virginia HIMSS 2nd Annual Advocacy Day

RICHMOND, VA (January 24, 2008) – The Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) Virginia Chapter 2nd Annual Advocacy Day was the site for the announcement of Governor Timothy Kaine’s award of two health information technology grants to projects designed to expand the use of electronic health records: Centra Health in Lynchburg and the Northern Virginia Regional Health Information Organization (NOVARHIO) in Fairfax County. Secretary of Technology Aneesh Chopra and Deputy Secretary of Health and Human Resources Gail Jaspen recognized the grant recipients during VA HIMSS 2nd Annual Advocacy Day on January 21 in Richmond.

“We were honored to have Secretary Chopra and Deputy Secretary Jaspen joined us to make such a remarkable announcement,’ said Colin Konschak, President of the VA HIMSS Chapter. “The healthcare information technology industry is growing in the state and we were honored to have the announcement made during one of the chapter’s most important events of the year.”

Each program was awarded $150,000 through a grant program initiated by Gov. Kaine last year with funding provided by the General Assembly. Both projects have found matching funds that combined with the state's award of $300,000 create a total investment of more than $550,000.

More than 60 professionals from the healthcare IT industry participated in Advocacy Day in an effort to educate and inform state legislators on the importance of continued funding and support for the industry. “We are fortunate to live in a state that values healthcare IT and its ability to save lives and save money,” said Reuben Southall, Chapter Advocate and Program Co-Chair. “We look forward to working with our state legislators throughout the year to ensure these and other programs receive continued support across the state.”

Centra Health has proposed a project focused on allowing physicians in the Lynchburg area to use the American College of Cardiologist's Program for Improving Continuous Cardiac Care through an expansion of their electronic medical records. This project improves the ability of physicians to deliver high quality healthcare to cardiology patients in the Lynchburg region by providing physicians access to the most current, nationally recognized best practices for cardiac care.

NOVARHIO, in partnership with INOVA Health System and Erickson Senior Living, will be the first to create a mechanism to ensure electronic access to patient medication histories in the emergency room. NOVARHIO also will simultaneously launch a program to educate citizens in northern Virginia about the need for a personal health record.
These grants complete the award of Health IT Grants started last year with three $250,000 awards to CareSpark in Southwest Virginia, the Community Care Network of Virginia in Southside, and MedVirginia in Central Virginia. These programs have already used their state funding to help draw down over $6 million in federal funding.

HIMSS is the healthcare industry's membership organization exclusively focused on providing global leadership for the optimal use of healthcare information technology (IT) and management systems for the betterment of healthcare. Founded in 1961 with offices in Chicago, Washington D.C., Brussels, and other locations across the United States and Europe, HIMSS represents more than 20,000 individual members and over 300 corporate members that collectively represent organizations employing millions of people. HIMSS frames and leads healthcare public policy and industry practices through its advocacy, educational and professional development initiatives designed to promote information and management systems’ contributions to ensuring quality patient care.

VIEW 2008 VA HIMSS ADVOCACY DAY AGENDA

For more information contact:

Reuben Southall, CPHIMS
Manager, Clinical Information System
Information Systems Department
VCU Medical Center
804-828-6422
E-Mail: rsouthall@mcvh-vcu.edu

Blair Hedgepeth
Manager, Congressional Affairs
HIMSS
703-562-8810
E-Mail: bhedgepeth@himss.org