With a sharp focus on IT’s transformative role in healthcare, the 2012 Government Health IT Conference and Expo is set for June 11 and 12 at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center in Washington D.C.
HIMSS senior director of professional development David Collins explains how the health IT landscape has changed throughout the last 12 months, those topics bound to be hot at the show, and what attendees will learn.
Q: Last year's show tagline was "Visualizing the 21st Century of Healthcare Today," so what is the theme for this year's show?
A: The theme is 'The Year of Critical IT Decisions to Transform Healthcare.' This year’s conference will focus on practical approaches in adapting innovative technology from the private sector to fit the challenges of the public sector, as well as how you can proactively navigate the complexities, restrictions and potential policy shifts that may occur in the federal health IT environment.
Q: Following that, then, how has the federal health IT landscape shifted since last year's show?
A: As with all of health IT, the overall healthcare landscape continues to be very dynamic. The tracks at last year’s conference included a greater discussion on broad-based health IT initiatives. In comparison, we are now a more mature industry, as health IT infrastructure continues to evolve, including engagement in Stage 1 and Stage 2 of meaningful use, the evolving development of the Direct project, Blue Button, the underpinnings of ACA’s influence, and additional progress being made to migrate to ICD-10.
Q: EHR lessons learned, interoperability, privacy and security, and health information exchange were hot topics at last year's show. What government health IT-centric trends will dominate the discussion this year?
A: Health IT lessons learned -- Beacons and health information exchanges -- mobile technology, and patient engagement.
Q: What else should attendees expect to learn about?
A: The impact of the Supreme Court’s decision on ACA from a first time panel of the HIMSS Legal Task Force, the American Bar Association, and the American Health Lawyers Association.
Additionally, we have keynotes including Karen S. Guice, M.D., principal deputy assistant secretary of defense for health affairs. Barclay Butler, Ph.D., director, Interagency Program Office of the DoD and VA will speak about “The Future of Health IT for the Military and Veteran Communities” and describe the clinical perspective that is driving sustainment and future developments of a high-quality and high performance military EHR. Also, Vish Sankaran, senior advisor, CMS will discuss CMS’ enterprise approach to transformation, which focuses on developing and implementing agency-wide initiatives around business process transformation, simplification of administrative functions, and shared technology services. And Doug Fridsma, MD, PhD, director of the Office of Standards & Interoperability (S&I) and acting chief scientist at ONC, will provide an overview of S&I.
