"Washington DC Health Innovation Week" Brings Together Clinicians, Technologists, Patients & Government to Spur Health Care Innovation

WASHINGTON, June 7, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Health innovators, technologists, physicians, nurses, consumers and patients from across the United States are joining with federal agencies June 6 -11, 2011, for a week of health innovation events declared Washington, D.C. Health Innovation Week by Mayor Vincent Gray. Twitter hashtag #dchealth

The week's activities begin Tuesday, June 7, with a Walking Gallery at the Kaiser Permanente Center for Total Health (www.centerfortotalhealth.org). Artists from throughout the nation will display patient stories they have painted on the backs of patients' jackets and doctors' lab coats. Twitter hashtag #TheWalkingGallery http://thewalkinggallery.eventbrite.com/

On Wednesday, June 8, the HealthCamp DC unconference takes place at the Kaiser Permanente Center for Total Health, where physicians, nurses, consumers, technologists, health system and policy leaders, payors and suppliers spontaneously create session topics that strive to redesign and transform patient-focused health care. Twitter hashtag: #hcdc http://healthca.mp/dc/

On Thursday, June 9, The Health Data Initiative Forum, organized by the Institute of Medicine and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services at the National Institutes of Health, will encourage innovators to use health data to develop applications that raise awareness of health and health system performance, and spark community action to improve health. Twitter hashtag: #healthapps www.iom.edu/healthdataforum

On Friday, June 10, is the Healthcare Innovation Summit at the Kaiser Permanente Center for Total Health, organized by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, HHS, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, Kaiser Permanente and Vangent. The first in a series of discussions, leaders of health innovation centers and information technology, academia and recognized thought leaders will address the challenges and opportunities to improving health care through innovation. Twitter hashtag: #futurehealth

The week concludes on Saturday, June 11, when the Health 2.0 Code-a-Thon at the Kaiser Permanente Center for Total Health brings together developers, designers and raw data sets to build new applications and tools for improved health care. After being given an overview of health care issues, tools and data sets, attendees are asked to creatively design new tools for the health care space, using OpenGov data sets as well as private data sets to create their application. At the end of the day, developers present their application to the group, and the best solution is awarded. Twitter hashtag: #health2dev www.health2challenge.org/code-a-thon/

"I am very excited about the events taking place during Health Innovation Week that will increase awareness about the new technological advancements and innovations we can use to transform health care," said Mayor Vincent C. Gray. "The knowledge that health professionals and the public will take away from the special events should help our efforts to improve the quality of health care available to District residents, and I applaud Kaiser Permanente and other community and federal partners for their efforts."

"To transform health care in this country, the nation needs to accelerate knowledge sharing. This week of innovation gatherings at our Center for Total Health will generate thought-provoking, forward-moving conversations that spark partnerships and collaborations to tackle the complex issues of health care," said Jack Cochran, MD, FACS, executive director of The Permanente Federation, Kaiser Permanente.

"The approaches of the 20th century cannot solve the challenges of the 21st," stated Robert Pearl, MD, Executive Director and CEO of The Permanente Medical Group.  "The combination of advanced information systems and coordination across all of the parts of care delivery offer the potential to improve quality, while making American Medicine more affordable. Fulfilling that vision will serve as a framework for the conversations which will be held."

Indu Subaiya, Co-Chairman and CEO of Health 2.0, added: "We're delighted to bring the Health 2.0 Developer Challenge back to Washington, D.C., which has emerged in recent years to become the East Coast epicenter of health innovation. Health 2.0 is thrilled to bring this week of activity to an end with a Code-a-Thon, where actual solutions and applications are rapidly developed that ultimately make information easily accessible to patients, encourage disease prevention and improve the quality of health care."

The Kaiser Permanente Center for Total Health is located at 700 Second Street, NE (between Union Station and H Street, NE), Washington, D.C.  The Twitter hashtag for the Kaiser Permanente Center for Total Health is #kpcth.

About Health 2.0

The Health 2.0 Conference is the leading showcase of cutting-edge technologies in health care, including Online Communities, Search and lightweight Tools for consumers to manage their health and connect to providers online. The Health 2.0 Developer Challenge is a series of prize competitions promoting health technology innovation. Health 2.0 also has its own media channels, Health 2.0 News and Health 2.0 TV; its own market intelligence service, Health 2.0 Advisors; and also sponsors the Health 2.0 Accelerator industry consortium. Health 2.0 was founded by Indu Subaiya & Matthew Holt in 2007 and is now a community of hundreds of organizations and thousands of innovators. For more information, see www.health2con.com.

About HealthCamp

HealthCamp Foundation is a nonprofit organization that promotes HealthCamp un-conference events around the world that promote engagement in Health. HealthCamps attract passionate people from across the health care spectrum and beyond to promote innovation using the web, mobile, social and open source technologies. In the past three years the founders have organized 30 events in 3 countries for over two thousand participants.

About Vangent, Inc.

Vangent, Inc. is a global provider of consulting, systems integration, human capital management, and business process services to the U.S. federal and international governments, higher education institutions, and corporations. Vangent's 7,500 employees support clients including the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, the U.S. Departments of Defense, Education, Health and Human Services, Justice, Labor, and Veterans Affairs; and the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, the U.S. Census Bureau, as well as Fortune 500 companies. Headquartered in Arlington, Virginia, the company has offices throughout the U.S. and in the U.K. and Canada. For more information, visit www.vangent.com.

About Kaiser Permanente

Kaiser Permanente is committed to helping shape the future of health care. We are recognized as one of America's leading health care providers and not-for-profit health plans. Founded in 1945, our mission is to provide high-quality, affordable health care services and to improve the health of our members and the communities we serve. We currently serve 8.8 million members in nine states and the District of Columbia. Care for members and patients is focused on their total health and guided by their personal physicians, specialists and team of caregivers. Our expert and caring medical teams are empowered and supported by industry-leading technology advances and tools for health promotion, disease prevention, state-of-the art care delivery and world-class chronic disease management. Kaiser Permanente is dedicated to care innovations, clinical research, health education and the support of community health. For more information, visit www.kp.org/newscenter.

SOURCE Kaiser Permanente