Industry Spotlight: HITSE...A new style of collaboration in Healthcare IT?

By: Donna Carroll, Editor

Last month, I was approached by the Healthcare IT Solutions Exchange (HITSE) wanting to place a banner ad on The MEDITECH Community Bulletin website in order to publicize their upcoming New England 2010 Conference.  Since I was not yet familiar with the organization, I started to ask a few questions to determine whether our newsletter was an appropriate venue for them.  After a few minutes of Q&A with the HITSE founders, I was intrigued by some of their plans and continued to ask questions about the organization and conference.

Research as well as anecdotal evidence have shown that the number one reason professionals attend conferences is to learn about new solutions to their challenges.  That’s also one of the main reasons I invest the time and effort to publish our newsletter each month.  I believe that professionals who care about their work are always happy to share solutions which will resolve problems, improve processes, and/or save money.  Apparently, that’s exactly what the organizers of the Healthcare IT Solutions Exchange (HITSE) New England 2010 Conference believe, too.

The conference format will include 2 distinct tracks each day on a variety of industry topics.  Sessions will be delivered by vendor-neutral presenters from independent organizations, and industry experts.  There will also be opportunities for hospital speakers and CIOs for panel discussions.

On Tuesday, October 26th, there will be two separate tracks: “CPOE” and “MEDITECH 6.0”.  On Wednesday, October 27th, the two tracks will be: “Meaningful Use” and “Revenue Cycle Improvement.”  Attendees may pick and choose which sessions they wish to attend from either track.

According to the event organizers, the conference has been designed specifically to allow attendees to make their own choices about the specific tracks and sessions they wish to attend.  There will be no rigid schedule which every attendee must follow, thus enabling attendees to decide how to get the most value from the conference.  I, for one, am curious to see how this new style of collaboration will be received by its attendees.  I plan to attend at least one day of the conference, and will let you know my thoughts in a future issue of The MEDITECH Community Bulletin.

***

For more information about HITSE, visit them online at www.hitse.org.