HIMSS14: Open Health Presentations at Annual Health IT Conference

Roger A. MaduroAs we outlined in our earlier article, "HIMSS14 Annual Conference and Exhibit Opening with Open Source," open source software as well as collaboration and interoperability in health information technology (HIT) has reached break out levels and the HIMSS conference in Orlando, Florida. Below are some of the conference presentations related to open health. Note the large number of presentations the award-winning VistA EHR developed by the US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and its derivative RPMS developed by the Indian Health Service (IHS). If we are missing any presentations that we should list, please let us know.

HealthIT in the Indian Health Service – Where Are We Now and Where Should We Go?
Date & Time: Sunday, February 23, 2014, 8:30 AM - 9:30 AM ET
Description: Dr. Hays will provide an update on the Indian Health Service (IHS) Resource and Patient Management System (RPMS), specifically with respect to 2014 Certification for Meaningful Use and the ICD-10 transition. He will then invite open discussion among participants on the current state of Health Information Technology in Indian country, and their vision and hopes for its evolution.
Speaker: Howard Hays, MD, MSPH, FAAFP, Chief Information Officer and Director (acting), Office of Information Technology, Indian Health Service (IHS).
Location: Room 203A

HealthIT in a Tribal Health System: Integrating COTS and RPMS solutions across diverse organizations
Date & Time: Sunday, February 23, 2014, 9:30 AM - 10:30 AM ET
Description: The Alaska Tribal Health System is undergoing rapid change with respect to Information Technology – and is now supporting a blend of RPMS systems, Cerner systems, and other COTS EHRs.  New models are currently being built and tested for sharing EHRs across organizational boundaries, for connecting these disparate EHRs to the statewide Health Information Exchange, and for lowering the burden to meet regulatory (e.g. MU, ICD-10) and reporting requirements. This presentation will include an analysis of the challenges and potential benefits to patient and organizations with these new models.  The legal, technical, and regulatory aspects of these models will be discussed.
Speakers: A. Stewart Ferguson, PhD, Chief Information Officer (CIO), Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium, Anchorage, AK | Cherri Thomas, RN, PMP, Director, Clinical Informatics Projects and Planning, Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium, Anchorage, AK.
Location: Room 203A

Health Management – Developing Comprehensive Primary Care in Tribal Health Systems
Date & Time: Sunday, February 23, 2014, 10:45 AM - 11:45 AM ET
Description: This panel discussion is over the Comprehensive Primary Care Initiative that is an innovative model from CMS that provides additional resources to primary care practices to better coordinate primary care for their Medicare patients. Comprehensive Primary Care (CPC) is designed to improve patient health through an efficient team approach by improving access to care, increasing internal and external care communication, and directly involving patients in their care through education, shared decision-making tools, and empowerment. Ultimately, when the CPC design is followed, Tribal Health Systems should realize a decrease in medical care costs, increase in positive health outcomes, and increase in patient satisfaction as well as health care worker practice satisfaction. CDR Daniel will provide an analysis of some of the challenges and potential benefits to patients and organizations regarding the development and implementation of the Comprehensive Primary Care model into Tribal Health.
Speakers: Sid Daniel, D.Ph., NCPS, CDR United States Public Health Service, Health Administrator Sapulpa Indian Health Center, Muscogee (Creek) Nation Department of Health | Donnie Parish, Chief Information Officer, Health Information Technology, Cherokee Nation Health Services
Location: Room 203A

Infrastructure – Laying the groundwork for Telehealth in Indian Country
Date & Time:  Sunday, February 23, 2014, 11:45 AM - 12:45 PM ET
Description: Ms. Evans will speak to the planning aspect of facilitating high-speed Internet infrastructure necessary to deliver Telehealth technologies from landmark institutions to individual Indian households. She will also address how tribes can leverage current FCC regulation to facilitate cooperation from their local telecommunications providers. Finally, Ms. Evans will provide a strategic overview of how you can help your organization prepare for its own telemedical unit.
Speakers: Anika Evans, Owner/Sole Proprietor Web Spurs, Pima Member of the Gila River Indian Community Sacaton, AZ
Location: Room 203A

OSEHRA Open Source EHR Session at HIMSS14
Date & Time: Sunday, February 23, 2014, 12:45 PM – 5:30 PM
Description: The session, entitled Open Innovation in Electronic Health Records, will feature user-driven innovations as well as a set of strategic briefings from the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) on current open source practices and the future of the Veterans Health Information Systems and Technology Architecture (VistA). Leading implementers and innovators such as Lutheran Medical Center, the North Carolina Department of Health, Oroville Hospital, and the College of St. Scholastica will share their experience and strategies, together with key corporate members. The three winners of the VA’s Medical Appointment Scheduling (MASS) Contest will participate in a panel to discuss how innovations occur in the open source environment. A report from VA on the status of VistA Evolution and open source code intake will highlight unprecedented collaboration among OSEHRA, the Veterans Health Administration (VHA), and the Indian Health Service (IHS). Featured speakers include Christine Rhodes, Director of Open Source Management for VHA, and Dr. Howard Hays, Chief Information Officer at IHS.
Location: Room 203C

Treating Veterans and Building Their Healthcare IT Careers
Date & Time: Monday, February 24, 2014, 10:00 AM - 11:00 AM ET
Description: This presentation discusses the medical and social components of the Rush Veterans Center which provides treatment of traumatic stress-related disorders, TBI and other conditions affecting military veterans. In addition, Rush is providing career training and employment for veterans participating in a 20-month virtual desktop deployment.
Speaker(s): Jaime B. Parent, FHIMSS, PMP, CPHIMS, William Beiersdorf, BS, MPA
Location: Room 205A

Modernizing VistA - Meeting the Evolving Needs
Date & Time: February 24, 2014 | 1:00 PM - 2:00 PM ET
Description: This session will provide the history of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Electronic Health Record (EHR) and an overview of the plans to modernize VistA in order to meet evolving needs from both the clinical and Information Technology (IT) communities.
Speaker(s): Theresa Cullen, MD, MS, Acting Deputy Director of the Department of Defense/Department of Veterans Affairs Interagency Program Office  | Aaron J. Drew, PhD, MA, MS. Senior Enterprise Solutions Architect, Office of Information Technology, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
Location: Room 207C

Adding Value to VistA Legacy System
Date(s) and Time(s): Monday, February 24, 1:00 pm | Tuesday, February 25, 10:00 am | Wednesday, February 26, 10:30 am and 1:00 pm.
Description: This presentation will focus on the benefits and enhancements to VistA applications like:

• vxPatient Picture provides a simple patient picture capture process that will improve the service level to your customers and will provide an extra layer of validation and verification to improve the quality of care.
• vxPatient Search Tool allows clinicians to identify and isolate text data within a patient’s record in real time.
• vxImmunizations allows clinicians to document all immunizations, including actual dosages, CVX codes, the manufacturer of immunizations, etc., from within the vxCPRS Orders Tab.

Speaker(s): Eduardo Brito, Product Line Manager, vxVistA Integration Specialist, DSS, Inc.
Location: Booth 2975

AEGIS and Healtheway Highlight the Success of Their Testing Program and Onboarding Process
Dates & Times:

Healtheway Testing Program
• Mon., 2/24: 1:00 – 1:30 PM (Booth #8545)
• Mon., 2/24: 3:30 – 4:00 PM (Booth #8165)

Healtheway Onboarding & Testing Process
• Tue., 2/25: 2:00 – 2:30 PM (Booth #8545)
• Tue., 2/25: 3:00 – 3:30 PM (Booth #8165)
• Wed., 2/26: 12:00 – 12:30 PM (Booth #8545)
• Wed., 2/26: 1:00 – 1:30 PM (Booth #8165)

Description: One of the initiatives we will highlight this year is our partnership with Healtheway and their Testing Program and Onboarding Process. AEGIS employs our Developers Integration Lab (DIL) to support the onboarding and testing/certification for the Federal Health Information Exchange or eHealth Exchange (SSA, VA, DoD, CDC, and IHS) – which was previously managed by ONC, now being managed by Healtheway in a public-private partnership. The DIL is an Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) and Testing as a Service (TaaS), open source testing solution for information sharing, exchange gateway, interoperability, and compatibility testing. This is considered a “disruptive technology” driving the innovation train toward measuring meaningful use, electronic health-records certification, standards, and interoperability. The DIL is an Agile testing platform that supports early and frequent testing via an Agile Test Driven Development (TDD) methodology. The Healtheway Testing Program helps get highly interoperable products to market quickly and cost-effectively by providing a robust environment for ongoing 24/7/365 testing.
Locations: Booths 8545 or 8165

Introducing the Blue Button Connector
Date and Time: Monday, February 24, 2014 | 1:15 PM - 1:45 PM
Description: So you want to get your health data online through Blue Button. Where to start? Does your doctor, health plan, or pharmacy offer it? And what can you do with it? ONC’s Blue Button Connector website is now live! It’s a great tool for consumers, data holders, and app developers.
Speaker(s): Lygeia Ricciardi, Director of the Office of Consumer eHealth
Office of the National Coordinator (ONC).
Location: Booth 2383

vxVistA: The Benefits of a Proven EHR
Date(s) and Time(s): Monday, February 24th @ 1:30 pm & 4:30 pm | Tuesday, February 25th @ 11:00 am & 5:00 pm | Wednesday, February 26th @ 11:00 am & 1:30 pm.
Description: Turnkey and robust, vxVistA's open source core with proprietary extensions, is ARRA Meaningful use certified and stands ready to meet a wide range of patient care and management tasks. Learn how this fully patient-centric, longitudinal EHR suite is helping hospitals and health systems nationwide improve patient safety and efficiency.
Speaker(s): Hugh Creedon, Ph. D., Director of vxVistA Operations, DSS, Inc., and Kevin Guiles, Strategic Account Manager, vxVistA, DSS, Inc.
Location: Booth 2975

VA Virtual Lifetime Electronic Record Health
Date & Time: Monday, February 24, 2014, 2:00 PM - 2:30 PM
Description: The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) will host a session describing its Virtual Lifetime Electronic Record (VLER) Health—a multifaceted business and technology initiative that includes a portfolio of health information sharing capabilities. The portfolio is designed to share Veterans’ health information electronically, securely and privately between VA, other federal agencies (e.g., Department of Defense), and private health care partners, through the eHealth Exchange.
Speaker(s): Elaine Hunolt, FACHE, PMP, CPHIMS

Clinical Decision Support:  The Key to Predictive Modeling and Healthcare Modernization
Dates & Times: Monday, February 24, 2:00 pm | Tuesday, February 25, 1:00 pm | Wednesday, February 26, 11:30 am and 2:00 pm.
Description: This presentation will explore how empowering providers with clinical decision support at the point of care can both improve a physician’s workflow and help ensure that only the most appropriate and evidence-based services and studies are performed. Clinical Decision Support tools will be the next step to modernize healthcare by providing a comprehensive knowledge base of medical information to clinicians, at the click of a button while also providing predictive modeling and reporting. Specific examples of how decision support as well as how analytics will play an increasing role in developing more precise tools in the future will be highlighted.
Speaker(s): Katherine Gray, Ph. D., President of SageHMS, a DSS, Inc. company.
Location: Booth 2975

HL7 International and AEGIS.net, Inc. Partner to Launch HL7 Conformance Testing Program
Dates & Times:

     HL7 Conformance Testing Program
     Mon., 2/24: 2:10–2:40 PM (HL7 Booth #1265)
     Mon., 2/24: 4:00–4:30 PM (AEGIS Booth #8545)
     Tue., 2/25: 10:30–11:00 AM (AEGIS Booth #8545)
     Tue., 2/25 12:20–1:30 PM (HL7 Booth #1265)
     Wed., 2/26: 10:30–11:00 AM (AEGIS Booth #8545)
     Wed., 2/26: 11:00–11:30 AM (HL7 Booth #1265)

Description: Health Level Seven® (HL7®) International and AEGIS.net (AEGIS) are launching a new Conformance Testing Program for HL7 standards. The HL7 Conformance Testing Program provides a platform for ongoing, iterative testing that helps healthcare IT developers get highly interoperable products to market quickly and cost-effectively. The testing program will make interoperability more cost-effective for vendors as well as implementers by reducing interface development time and costs. The Conformance Testing Program leverages the technology and architecture of the AEGIS Developers Integration Lab (DIL). The DIL is an Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) and Testing as a Service (TaaS) open source testing solution for health information exchange gateway, interoperability, and compatibility testing. The DIL helps automate and execute test cases created by HL7, providing an easy-to-use system for ongoing, iterative, 24/7/365 conformance and interoperability tests against published HL7 specifications. The program is currently in a pilot phase, during which supported standards are limited to Version 2 Immunization Registries. Participation will be free of charge until the HL7 Working Group Meeting in September 2014. HL7 and AEGIS are hosting an in-depth roundtable briefing with Q&A on the Conformance Testing Program for media and conference attendees at the HL7 Booth (#1265 in Hall A) at the HIMSS14 Conference in Orlando, FL on Tuesday, Feb. 25, 2014 from 12:20 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. Speakers will include HL7 and AEGIS leadership, as well as program participants.

Modernizing VistA
Date(s) and Time(s): Monday, February 24th @ 2:30 pm | Tuesday, February 25th @ 4:30 pm
Description: There are many approaches to modernizing VistA both in the VA and in other health care settings. This presentation will examine the benefits of adequately leveraging VistA enhancements released through agencies such as VHA and OSEHRA as well as open source add-on modules across VistA platforms. This presentation will also explore why a “micro-level” strategy—modernizing VistA through a hybrid of open source and proprietary solutions, from the ground up, one specialty at a time—can help organizations successfully achieve federally mandated healthcare goals while also improving patient safety.
Speaker(s): Karen Clark, PMP,  Chief Architect, Government Products, DSS, Inc.
Location: Booth 2975

Why VistA Keeps Reinventing Sexy
Date(s) and Time(s): Monday, February 24th @ 3:00 pm & 5:00 pm | Tuesday, February 25th @ 12:00 pm & 4:00 pm | Wednesday, February 26th @ 10:00 am & 2:30 pm
Description: In the current environment, open source technology like that offered by Veterans Health Information Systems and Technology Architecture (VistA) looks increasingly attractive—even sexy—to a growing number of healthcare organizations. Discover how VistA has helped organizations satisfy the needs of patients and payers, as well as their own bottom lines, through appealing offerings and benefits, including:

• Robust, proven technology
• Transparency
• Flexibility
• Lower costs

Speaker(s): Ralph Katieb, Solutions Architect, Emerging Technologies, DSS, Inc., and Ted Dankle, Solutions Architect, Emerging Technologies, DSS, Inc.
Location: Booth 2975

Power of Open Source Innovations
Dates & Times: Monday, February 24th @ 3:30 pm | Tuesday, February 25th @ 2:00 pm | Wednesday, February 26th @ 12:00 pm & 3:00 pm.
Description: How would like to own your own software for electronic health record? Advantages of open source software are many. To the end users, it can offer real-time innovation without waiting for a software release from a monolithic vendor. For the clinics and hospitals, it offers multiple options for implementation for maximum performance at the lowest possible cost. Options can vary from turn-key solutions to do it yourself.  The open source software product OSEHRA offers is the result of VA’s multi-billion dollar development, testing and modernization efforts as well as innovations from arising from the global community. OSEHRA, a not-for-profit corporation established by VA, facilitates the community-based software development, testing, certification, product, and innovation management. This presentation highlights activities of OSEHRA offering powerful platform supporting continuous innovations of its leading corporate member, DSS Inc. Choosing an open source EHR is like owning your own software that the community maintains.
Speaker(s): Seong K. Mun, Ph. D., President, and CEO, OSEHRA
Location: Booth 2975

VistA Integration Technologies
Dates(s) & Time(s): Monday, February 24th @ 4:00 pm | Tuesday, February 25th @ 3:00 pm
Description: DSS is considered the “premier” VistA integrator.  Our integration toolkits and methodologies are crucial to modernization efforts and are used by our own products as well as numerous partner companies to deliver best-of-breed mission-critical solutions for clinical, financial and administrative users. Join us to discover how partnering with DSS on your next VistA-based integration project can turn your project into a success!
Speaker(s): Karen Clark, PMP,  Chief Architect, Government Products, DSS, Inc.
Location: Booth 2975

Standards & Interoperability Framework Overview
Date & Time: February 25, 2014, 11:30 AM - 12:00 PM
Description: In this talk, John Feikema, the coordinator of ONC's Standards & Interoperability (S&I) Framework, will give an overview of ONC's strategy for health IT standards development and harmonization.  Mr. Feikema will highlight the S&I Frameworks numerous community-led initiatives aimed at creating nationwide conditions of interoperability.
Speaker(s): John Feikema
Location: Federal Health Pavilion | Hall A | Booth 528

Federal Health Architecture (FHA) Overview
Date & Time: February 25, 2014, 12:15 PM - 12:45 PM
Description: As the largest user of health information and health information technology, the federal government is a critical component of the health IT ecosystem in the United States. Dr. Thompson will provide an overview of the Federal Health Architecture, an e-gov initiative designed to coordinate federal efforts surrounding standards development, health information exchange and interoperability.
Speaker(s): Lauren Thompson, program director for the Federal Health Architecture (FHA) program in the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC).
Location: Federal Health Pavilion | Hall A | Booth 528

HL7 International Launches Conformance Testing Program at HIMSS14
Date and Time: Tuesday, February 25, 2014 - 12:20-1:30 p.m.
Health Level Seven International will officially launch a new Conformance Testing Program for HL7 standards. It will feature a roundtable briefing about the program that features HL7 leadership and program partners. The HL7 Conformance Testing Program leverages the AEGIS Developers Integration Lab (DIL) to provide a platform for ongoing, iterative, 24/7/365 testing against published HL7 specifications. The testing program will make interoperability significantly more efficient for vendors and implementers by reducing interface development time and costs, helping highly interoperable products get to market more quickly and cost-effectively.
Speakers: Charles Jaffe, John Quinn, Mario Hyland, Mariann Yeager.
Location: HL7 booth (#1265 in Hall A)

Open Data Initiatives: Two Sides of the Pond
Date & Time: February 25, 2014 | 2:30 PM - 3:30 PM ET
This roundtable presents UK and US Open data initiatives. Experiences, lessons learnt, issues and benefits from the UK will be shared and compared against the US with the international audience. Following discussion recommendations will be produced to enable others around the Pond to maximize the opportunities these initiatives present.
Speaker(s): Janette Bennett, MBCS, MSc, CITP, BSc (hons) PgCM, RN, Clinical Director, Global Market Development, BT Global Health Practice.
Location: Room 303A

CCHIT Summit: The Decade of Health IT
Date & Time: Wednesday, February 26, 8:00 AM – 11:30 AM ET
Description: As the “Decade of Health IT” comes to a close, it’s time to take stock and look to the future. Join a powerhouse group of past National Coordinators and the newly appointed National Coordinator to:

• Review the status of health IT
• Examine what has worked and where more work is needed
• Create a dialogue on transformative healthcare delivery goals for health IT
• Define the guiding fundamentals for decision makers for the next decade

The CCHIT Summit will be moderated by Christopher Weaver, covering the business of health care for The Wall Street Journal.
Featured Speakers: Karen B. DeSalvo, MD, MPH, Msc National Coordinator for Health Information Technology | Dr. David Brailer, Managing Partner and CEO, Health Evolution Partners | Dr. Robert Kolodner, Vice President and Chief Medical Officer, ViTel Net | Dr. Farzad Mostashari, Visiting Fellow, Brookings Institute.
Location: Room 414

Breaking the Logjam: Achieving Device Interoperability and Data
Date & Time: February 26, 2014 | 10:00 AM - 11:00 AM ET
Description: Medical devices and IT networks are converging to promote interoperability and integration of data to assure safe and secure delivery of care. This presentation will describe emerging standards for device interoperability and data integration and identify opportunities and challenges to meet federal regulations that emphasize meaningful use of clinical systems.
Speaker(s): Allen Hobbs, PhD, Dr. Elliot B. Sloane, PhD, CCE, FHIMSS
Location: Room 205A

Where are We Headed? ONC's Interoperability Strategy and Standards Development Roadmap
Date & Time: February 26, 2014, 11:30 AM - 12:30 PM ET
Description: Interoperability has undoubtedly become the most needed capability of EHRs as well as a key focus of legislators and policymakers. In this session, you'll hear from ONC's Chief Science Officer about ONC's strategy for helping the country achieve interoperability among disparate systems. Experts from the health IT standards community will also be on hand to discuss the roadmap for standards development and provide updates on the Standards & Interoperability Framework. In addition, ONC clinical quality measure (CQM) experts will provide an overview ONC's Health eDecisions initiative and its deliverables, including functional requirements, interoperability standards, and pilot implementations of the standards by commercial clinical decision support and EHR vendors.
Speaker(s): Doug Fridsma, MD, PhD, Chief Science Officer and Director of the Office of Science and Technology in the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology |   Lauren Thompson, program director for the Federal Health Architecture (FHA) program in the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC).
Location: Room 320

Interoperability at VA
Date & Time:  February 26, 2014, 1:00 PM - 2:00 PM ET
Description: This session will provide an overview of interoperability at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) along with various data sharing initiatives between the Department of Defense (DoD) and private sector partners. This session will also discuss interoperability within the growing mobile health field.
Speaker(s): Theresa Cullen, MD, MS, Acting Deputy Director of the Department of Defense/Department of Veterans Affairs Interagency Program Office | Paul Tibbits, MD, Deputy CIO for Architecture, Strategy, and Design, Department of Veterans Affairs, Office of Information and Technology.
Location: Room 208C

What Healthcare Can Learn from Amazon
Date & Time: February 26, 2014 | 1:00 PM - 2:00 PM ET
Description: In an age of pluggable hardware, this presentation will show how winning companies understand how to best integrate the supply chain and deliver the most value. Amazon delivers an unrivaled service experience to consumers and we should be able to deliver the same in healthcare.
Speaker(s): Ed Park
Location: Room 205A

EHR Interoperability at VA
Date & Time: February 26, 2014 | 1:45 PM - 2:15 PM
Description: The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) will host a session detailing how it has become a national leader in efforts to achieve interoperable Electronic Health Records (EHR). VA is working on this effort with other federal partners, including the Department of Defense and Indian Health Service, as well as private sector health care systems and providers. This important partnership work is resulting in coordinated care, improved health outcomes, and the potential for significant cost savings.
Speaker(s): Elaine Hunolt, FACHE, PMP, CPHIMS, Director, VA VLER Health
US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)
Location: Federal Health Pavilion | Hall A | Booth 528

Innovation in the Heartland - Deploying an Interoperable Community Patient Portal
Date & Time: February 27, 2014 | 10:30 AM - 11:30 AM ET
Description: Margaret Mary Health, an Indiana CAH, sponsored an audacious project to deploy an interoperable, community-wide patient portal. This session will explain how data from multiple providers is accessed by patients via an area HIE, and describe how this team overcame seemingly insurmountable challenges along the way.
Speaker(s): Trisha Prickel, Donna Nobbe
Location: Room 205A