Redwood MedNet Hosts HIE Conference

Redwood MedNet, one of the pioneers in open source Health Information Exchanges (HIEs) is hosting their annual conference in Santa Rosa, California July 14 and 15. This is the fifth annual conference hosted by the non-profit organization. Redwood MedNet was established in 2005 by health care providers at hospitals, private practices, community clinics and public health in Mendocino, Lake and Sonoma Counties, California.

Redwood MedNet, one of the pioneers in open source Health Information Exchanges (HIEs) is hosting their annual conference in Santa Rosa, California July 14 and 15. This is the fifth annual conference hosted by the non-profit organization. 

Redwood MedNet was established in 2005 by health care providers at hospitals, private practices, community clinics and public health in Mendocino, Lake and Sonoma Counties, California.

Using Mirth and other open source software packages Redwood MedNet was able to go live with their HIE in 2007 in a fraction of the time and for a small fraction of the cost of other HIE's around the country. The HIE has continued to grow and their services are now available to large and small health care sites throughout Northern California. 

The conference has an impressive line up of speakers and a broad set of topics. The presentations will cover both the theory and practice of standards-based HIE technology deployments.

The conference will specifically address the current status of ARRA investments in health IT in California, the software roadmaps for the CONNECT gateway, the Direct Project, and the PCAST report. The conference is also hosting a broad range of exhibits from leading health information technology vendors who offer solutions to improve patient care delivery in hospital, clinic and physician office settings.

This year's presenters are drawn from seven graduate schools (UCSF, UC San Diego, UC Davis, Washington, Oregon, Indiana and Duke), from the major government agencies responsible for ARRA (ONC, CMS and CHHS), from the main ARRA implementation entities in California (Cal eConnect, California Telehealth Network, HITEC-LA), and from some of California's largest health systems (Kaiser Permanente, Sutter Health and Catholic Healthcare West). 

The small format, with less than 250 total attendees, creates a good environment for open discussions as well as excellent professional networking opportunities.  Sonoma County is a wonderful travel destination for those located farther away than commuting distance.

For open systems proponents, the conference has many presentations of interest, including Dave Riley describing the Aurion roadmap for open source health data gateway tools.

In addition to the conference there will be a pre-conference workshop specifically geared towards addressing privacy and security issues. The pre-conference will be hosted on Thursday afternoon July 14th, the day before the Redwood MedNet HIE Conference.

One can find more information on the conference here and to register go here.