USI to hold the first Health Informatics Tri-State Summit January 29

A ground-breaking conference covering various aspects of health informatics will be held for the first time at the University of Southern Indiana from 8 a.m. until 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, January 29, in the University Center. The Health Informatics Tri-State Summit is being planned to address the growing need for information technology (IT) specialists with expertise in medical records, insurance claims, clinical care, and computer programming. 

Dr. Gabriela Mustata Wilson, chair of the conference planning committee, said "demand for health informatics specialists is rapidly growing as a result of the increased use of electronic health records and implementation of the Affordable Care Act." 

"By launching the first Health Informatics Tri-State Summit at USI, we are not filling a need, we are meeting an expectation," she said. "This conference will offer the opportunity to participate in insightful discussions and engaging presentations, where leading experts will share emerging trends in the use of health information technology in direct patient care, security and privacy, health information exchange, data analytics, and data modeling." 

The one-day event will be particularly relevant, to physicians, nurses, pharmacists, technologists, and others whose scope of practice is related to health informatics, and most importantly, students," according to Dr. Mustata Wilson. "Undergraduate students can attend at a reduced rate," she said. "We want our students to be prepared for these jobs, so this conference is an eye-opener." 

A patient rights advocate whose artwork has been part of the national healthcare debate will be the keynote speaker at the Health Informatics Tri-State Summit. Regina Holliday of Washington, D.C., is best known for painting a series of murals depicting the need for clarity and transparency in medical records. This advocacy mission was inspired by her late husband, Frederick Allen Holliday II, and his struggle to access medical records and receive appropriate care during 11 weeks of continuous hospitalization at five facilities. After his death from kidney cancer in 2009, Holliday began 73 Cents, a mural depicting her husband dying in darkness, surrounded by inaccessible technological tools. 

In her Medical Advocacy Blog, Holiday explains how she chose the name for the mural. "This is how much you pay per page for your medical record in the state of Maryland. In Texas it is a dollar. In Germany it is 88 cents. In the United State you also can wait up to 21 days to get the entire record."

Backed by her own patient and caregiving experiences, Holliday travels the globe with her message of patient empowerment and inclusion in healthcare decision making. She has delivered 80 speeches in the last two years, focusing on a range of issues such as patient data access, social media in medicine, end of life care, and the power of the visual image. She has spoken before Kaiser Permanente, Stanford Medicine X, The White House Summit on Blue Button, Leap Frog Group, AHDI, HIMSS, AHIMA, AHRQ, HHS, Microsoft, and Cerner. 

During USI's Health Informatics Tri-State Summit, she will bring to life concepts covered at the conference by painting on a large canvas, all in an effort to present health informatics technology issues through a patient's viewpoint. 

The Health Informatics Tri-State Summit will feature nine other speakers who will cover a variety of topics related to health informatics technology:

• Electronic Patient Engagement
• Promise and Perils of Personal Information
• Current Efforts to Leverage Data Analytics to improve Care and Reduce Expense
• Technology and Telecommunications in Direct to Patient Care
• Global Perspectives on Healthcare Informatics
• How Can we Make Data Speak?
• The State of Health Information Exchange
• Future of Health Informatics - Don't Blink 

The Health Informatics Tri-State Summit has been submitted for review and approval of continuing education (CE) hours for use in fulfilling the continuing education requirements of the Certified Professional in Healthcare Information and Management Systems (CPHIMS). Nurses and health facility administrators will receive up to 6.25 contact hours with submission of documentation of sessions attended and completed program evaluation. 

The registration fee is $99 if registering by January 15, and $115 after that date. 

USI undergraduate students can attend at a reduced rate of $20 if they register before January 15, and $30 after that date. 

For more information about registration fees, visit http://health.usi.edu/cont_ed/conferences.asp#hpr870 or call Outreach and
Engagement at 812/464-1989.