Recap of 2011-2013 and Happy New Year 2014

It has been a very long while since I posted.  I keep being reminded that others want to know what I am up to these days.  I never gave an update for the second half of 2011, 2012 or 2013 for that matter....so fast forwarding through a timeline in bullet points, here goes:

• July 2011 - July 2012 - Contracted Chief Technology Officer (CTO for the Health Information Partnership for Tennessee (HIP TN)
• 2011 to Present - Contracted Technical Subject Matter Expert to the East TN Health Information Network (etHIN)
• 2011 to Present - Continue to serve as HIE Liaison to HIMSS National and Board Member of TN HIMSS Chapter
• 2011 to Present - Planning Committee Co-chair for Quality, Research and Public Health (QRPH) domain for IHE International
• 2011 to Present - IHE International Board Member
• 2011 to Present - IHE International Testing and Tools Committee
• 2012 & 2013 - TN HIMSS Summit of the Southeast Planning Committee
• 2013 to Present - IHE International Certification Workgroup
• 2013 - Testified on behalf of IHE QRPH Domain to the National Committee on Vital and Health Statistics Subcommittee on Standards Hearing on Public Health Data Standards
• 2013 & 2014 - East TN Regional Conference Planning Chair 
• 2013 - Present - Testing Program Manager for Healtheway eHealth Exchange (formerly referred to as the Nationwide Health Information Network Exchange)

The above bullets highlight why I have been silent for far too long. I have been busy, but in a good way.  As I start 2014, I feel blessed and privileged to be working with stakeholders in East Tennessee to help deploy connected health care across our region.  I continue to work with etHIN staff to on board stakeholders, help with the selection of new technology solutions and provide general subject matter expertise to the staff as we navigate these ever changing requirements for Meaningful Use and Interoperability standards and requirements in general. 

Today/January 14, 2014, I get to conduct the East Tennessee Regional HIMSS Conference in Knoxville, TN at the Crowne Plaza Hotel (401 W Summit Hill Dr, Knoxville, TN 37902). This event brought 180-200 people together in 2013 when we held a connected demonstration showing how data would flow from system to system for a patients journey.  I will be posting some links and updates on the outcome from the 2013 conference separately and at a later date.  More to come on this year's event as well.  Stay tuned...

Later this month/January 27 - 31, 2014, I will be traveling to Chicago, IL to volunteer my time as an IHE USA Connectathon Monitor.  This means I will be validating vendor testing results.  I always look forward to this event.  I get to catch up with many old friends and usually make new friends among the 500+ in attendance.  The attendees are primarily development resources from various health care solution vendors who come together to test their products for conformance to the IHE profiles.  The past few years, the event has grown to include other parallel events.  If you want to learn more about the 2014 Connectathon event go here.

2014 is also my fourth year as IHE QRPH Planning Committee Co-chair for the IHE International domain sponsored by HIMSS and RSNA. The domain has grown to have a separate planning and technical committee and even has four co-chairs now.  With the help of the entire committee, we continue to grow our domain to have a large number of attendees at all our meetings. I am looking forward to my travel to Vienna, Austria to support the Planning and Technical Committee meeting February 10 - 14, 2014. On February 14, 2014, we will hold a joint Planning Committee meeting with representatives from HL7 and ISO to see how we an collaborate more on Public Health standards for Vital Records.  

February 23 - 26, 2014, I will travel to Orlando, FL to attend the Health care Information Management and Systems Society (HIMSS) Annual conference where I get to visit with 40,000+ peers from the health care industry.  I always love to visit with all my friends from years past. 

I promise to do better and post more often in 2014.  I will be reporting back on these future events with pictures and details.  Please let me know if there are specific topics you want me to blog about in 2014. I hope to see many of you at the various events listed above and hope that you are having a fabulous New Year so far.  Take care, Didi Davis (HIT Gypsy)