ONC at HIMSS

Health IT professionals from around the country will be convening in Atlanta at the beginning of March for the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society’s (HIMSS) Annual Conference. HIMSS will provide a unique opportunity for ONC to speak to, learn from and interact with 27,000 leaders in the health IT field. This year’s theme — change is everywhere, opportunity is here — aptly sets the tone for ONC’s participation and related presentations that will highlight the administration’s efforts to support the adoption of health IT and the promotion of secure, nationwide health information exchange. Here are some of the events we will be participating in at the conference:

• Dr. David Blumenthal, the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, will share his thoughts about ONC’s priorities for 2010 during the Keynote Address (March 3, 8:30 a.m.).
• The U.S. CTO Aneesh Chopra will also be at HIMSS to discuss “The Role of Healthcare IT in Building a 21^st Century Technology Ecosystem” (March 3, 2:15 p.m.)  HHS CTO Todd Park will join him immediately afterward in a dialog with participants on innovation and the future direction of health IT.
• ONC will be hosting a series of Pre-Conference Symposium Events (February 28) including: a Physician Symposium Keynote Address and a State HIE Symposium.
• During the Town Hall Session (March 2, 2:15 p.m.), ONC will host an interactive session, Implementing HITECH, which will bring together key players within ONC leadership to discuss current and upcoming programs to advance the national health IT agenda.
• ONC will host a series of Education Sessions including: The Costs and Benefits of Health IT (March 1, 9:45 a.m.) ,  Health IT Regulatory Review (March 2, 9:45 a.m.), and  Nationwide Health Information Network (NHIN) – 2010 (March 3, 1 p.m.) .
• ONC and the Federal Health Architecture (FHA) will participate in the Federal Health CIO Panel (March 1, 12:15 pm.), the State CIO Panel (March 3, 2:15 p.m.) and the Clinical Decision Support Panel (March 3, 2:15 p.m.).
• At the Interoperability Showcase Theater, ONC and the FHA are hosting 25 presentations by organizations that illustrate how the Nationwide Health Information Network (NHIN) is enabling secure, electronic health information exchange across diverse providers and jurisdictions.

ONC hopes to engage a diverse range of health IT stakeholders in dialogue and discuss the work that needs to be done over the coming year to transform our healthcare system through the use of IT.