How To Meet An IT Exec's Need To Know

By Internet standards, April 4, 2011, seems like a lifetime ago. That was my first day as editor of InformationWeek Healthcare. In those three months, I've listened closely to IT executives' interests and needs and tried to shape our editorial coverage accordingly.

During that time, I've heard readers admit that the dialog between technologists and clinicians is not not what it could be. And that this failure to communicate is contributing to poor buy-in for EHRs, CPOE systems, and the like.

I've also heard many people talk about the transformative power of mobile apps on patient care. In fact, I reviewed some of my favorite health-related mobile apps in a recent column.

I've also heard a few stakeholders talk about cloud computing as if it were the Second Coming, capable of solving just about every problem that in-house servers, clients, applications, and other IT tools have failed to solve.

All of this input has helped us shape the agenda for our upcoming InformationWeek Healthcare IT Leadership Forum, to be held on July 12 at the Grand Hyatt in New York City.

The Forum will address clinicians' IT pain during the View from the Bedside panel discussion, which will feature Charles Lockwood, MD, from Yale University School of Medicine, and Debra Wolf, PhD, RN, from Slippery Rock University's School of Nursing. This session will help IT managers get inside the heads of their main customers.

Our Mobile Apps Smackdown will likely be one of our most entertaining sessions. We received more than 50 entries from healthcare practitioners and vendors and have narrowed the field to five finalists. Each will demo their wares at the event and we'll pick a winner.

Cloud computing will take center stage in a session titled Security And Privacy When Your Patient Data Is In The Cloud. In an interview with John Foley, editor of InformationWeek, Vatsal G. Thakkar, MD, clinical assistant professor of psychiatry at NYU School of Medicine, will outline how he goes beyond the standards required by HIPAA and HITECH regulations to protect sensitive patient information in the cloud.

Among the other sessions we have planned:

-- In What's Next In Intelligent Medicine? Stephanie Reel, CIO and Peter Greene, MD, CMIO, from Johns Hopkins University will discuss how they're mining, analyzing, and making use of the reams of digitized patient data being generated for administrative and clinical decision support.

-- A Fireside Chat With William Spooner, CIO at Sharp Healthcare, will focus on IT as the core of "The Sharp Experience." Rob Preston, VP and editor in chief of InformationWeek, will talk with Bill about the hospital group's award-winning consumer website and mySharp patient portal, its best-in-class electronic health records strategy, and early-generation patient alerts engine, among other subjects.

No health IT Forum would be complete without a discussion of meaningful use. We have two such sessions planned for the event, both moderated by senior writer Marianne Kolbasuk McGee.

-- Choosing The Right Data Exchange Strategy will help IT execs meet the Stage 2 and 3 MU criteria, which are expected to require medical practices and hospitals to share patient data. The session will tap the expertise of Elizabeth O. Johnson RN-BC, BSN, MS, VP, applied clinical informatics, Tenet Healthcare, and Tom Moore, technical manager, New York Clinical Information Exchange (NYCLIX).

-- Get Ready For Meaningful Use Stages 2 and 3 will tackle the question head on: Is your organization ready for the next round of meaningful use rules? Our blue ribbon panel consists of Dr. Neil Calman, CEO, Institute for Family Health and Karen M. Marhefka, MHA, RHIA , associate CIO, UMassMemorial Healthcare.

July 12 is around the corner. Come join us.

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