West Health Institute and Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC) to Host HCI-DC 2014: Igniting an Interoperable Health Care System

Patients, providers, vendors, hospital executives and federal agencies to address technical and business challenges of communicating data between different systems

SAN DIEGO and WASHINGTON, Feb. 3, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Gary and Mary West Health Institute and the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) will host HCI-DC 2014: Igniting an Interoperable Health Care System, a conference designed to catalyze action and identify the greatest opportunities for advancing medical interoperability to transform our nation's healthcare system. Best-selling author Malcolm Gladwell, known for provocative ideas and new ways of thinking, will deliver the keynote address.

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Medical interoperability—the ability for health information to be seamlessly shared among medical devices and enterprise health systems—could be a source of more than $30 billion a year in savings and improve patient care and safety, yet continues to be a challenge in the United States. A full agenda of the event can be found here: www.hcidc.org/about-the-event/agenda. Media unable to attend the event can register for a live webcast: http://hcidc.org/live-webcast-mobile-app/

Thursday, February 6, 2014
8:30 a.m. – 5:30 p.m.

Omni Shoreham Hotel
2500 Calvert Street, NW
Washington, D.C., 20008

Featured Panels:
9:00 – 10:00 a.m.
Perspectives from the Point of Care: Hear from caregivers and patients about challenges they've faced due to a lack of interoperable devices, systems and software.

10:20 a.m. – 11:20 a.m.
The Business Imperative for Interoperability: Leading hospital CEOs discuss the role of medical interoperability in improving patient care and lowering costs, and plans for an interoperable healthcare system.

11:20 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
Fireside Chat: ONC/FDA Efforts Toward Interoperability: Understand perspectives from key government agencies on recent developments, lessons learned and issues to address in transforming healthcare delivery.

1:45 p.m. – 2:45 p.m.
Keynote: Malcolm Gladwell, author

2:45 p.m. – 3:45 p.m.
What We Can Learn from Other Industries: From national security, to the movie business and global finance, industry leaders share lessons learned and ideas for innovation that can be applied to the healthcare system.

4:00 – 4:45 p.m.
The Innovation Paradigm for Vendors: Hear from leading developers on the age-old debate of market forces versus mandated forces and what the innovation paradigm means to them.

4:45 – 5:30 p.m.
The Big (Data) Picture for Health Care Delivery: Interoperability may bring an overwhelming amount of data to physicians, patients, hospitals and the healthcare system as a whole. Are we ready to handle it?

Speakers include:
Malcolm Gladwell, author
Nick Valeriani, chief executive, West Health
Joseph Smith, MD, PhD, FACC, chief medical and science officer, West Health Institute
Doug Fridsma, MD, PhD, chief science officer and director, Office of Science & Technology, ONC
Karen DeSalvo, MD, MPH, MSc, national coordinator for health information technology, ONC
Jodi Daniel, JD, MPH, director, Office of Policy and Planning, ONC
Jacob Reider, MD, chief medical officer, ONC
Dave Cassel, senior interoperability engineer, Epic Systems
Alistair Erskine, MD, chief clinical informatics officer, Geisinger Health System
Michael Johns, MD, chairman, Center for Medical Interoperability
Stephen Jones, FACHE, chief executive officer, Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital
Dave McCallie, Jr., MD, senior vice president, Cerner Corporation
Anna McCollister-Slipp, co-founder, Galileo Analytics
Gregory Moore, MD, PhD, chief emerging technology and informatics officer, Geisinger Health System
Jeffrey Shuren, MD, JD, director, Center for Devices and Radiological Health, FDA
Glenn Tobin, PhD, chief executive officer, Crimson, The Advisory Board Company

For questions or to inquire about interviews with speakers, please contact the media relations personnel listed below.

HCI-DC Background:
Now in its fourth year, the 2014 West Health HCI-DC series is hosted by the Gary and Mary West Health Institute and the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC), bringing together the public and private sectors to address new and smarter technologies, policies and practices to create high quality, more accessible and lower cost healthcare. An overview of past events can be found here: www.hcidc.org/about-hci-dc-series.

ABOUT THE WEST HEALTH INSTITUTE
The Gary and Mary West Health Institute is an independent, non-profit medical research organization whose mission is to lower healthcare costs by researching innovative patient-centered solutions that deliver the right care at the right place at the right time. This is accomplished by conducting innovative medical research, educating key stakeholders and advocating on behalf of patients. Solely funded by philanthropists Gary and Mary West, the Institute is part of West Health, which includes four organizations with a shared goal to reduce the cost of healthcare: the Gary and Mary West Health Institute; the Gary and Mary West Health Policy Center, a non-profit Washington, D.C.-based policy center; the Gary and Mary West Health Investment Fund, which invests in mission-aligned companies; and the West Health Incubator, which provides investment and expertise to mission-aligned businesses. For more information, find us at www.westhealth.org and follow us @westhealth.

ABOUT ONC
The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) is at the forefront of the administration's health IT efforts and is a resource to the entire health system to support the adoption of health information technology and the promotion of nationwide health information exchange to improve health care. ONC is organizationally located within the Office of the Secretary for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

ONC is the principal federal entity charged with coordination of nationwide efforts to implement and use the most advanced health information technology and the electronic exchange of health information. The position of National Coordinator was created in 2004, through an Executive Order, and legislatively mandated in the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH Act) of 2009.

SOURCE Gary and Mary West Health Institute; Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology