Hello Chapter Members,

The Austin HIMSS board has been busy familiarizing ourselves with new board members and planning events for the remainder of the year.  We had a great turnout of individuals that wanted to volunteer their time.  If you are interested in volunteering on a committee please let me know.  We have a few committee roles available.

Lunch and Learn

Last month’s speaker featured Dr. Julie Graves, MD and she discussed the implementation of the Texas syndromic surveillance system.  She provided a great insight into how Texas is responding to biologic threats.  Our upcoming speaker this month should be equally informative.  Chad Kissinger, Founder of OnRamp will discuss IoT (internet of things) in healthcare and the risks to ePHI (electronic personal health information).  RSVP here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/data-security-risks-in-the-internet-of-everything-tickets-27477755707  We’ve very fortunate to have such great local speakers.   Our monthly events are always the 2^nd Tuesday of every month at the same location.

Happy Hour

The Austin HIMSS Chapter will also host our quarterly networking event Thursday, September 22^nd, 5pm-7pm, at Black Star Co-op Pub & Brewery.  For our members who live or work on the north side of Austin, this has been a convenient and popular venue.  We’ll provide appetizers and one drink ticket.  RSVP here https://www.eventbrite.com/e/austin-himss-networking-happy-hour-tickets-27555187307

Address: Black Star Co-op - 7020 Easy Wind Drive, STE 100, Austin, Texas, 78752

HIT Advocacy in 2016

http://www.himss.org/news/himss-chapter-advocacy

There are 22 HIMSS chapters who are holding advocacy events this year.  Key themes include: telemedicine, patient privacy and consent, automated prescription reporting, health IT jobs, and interoperability.

Our event, due to the Texas legislative schedule will be held on April 26, 2017.  

Contact Kristin Norton at austin.advocacy@himsschapter.org to learn more and to join our growing group of  Advocacy committee members and HIT Day volunteers from across Texas.

Your opinion counts!  We will poll the audience at the September 13th Lunch & Learn.

See the HIMSS national website (himss.org) for more information including:

Industry Leader Presentations
Federal Affairs Updates
Congressional Affairs Updates
State Advocacy Day Spotlights

Spotlight

Athenahealth buys Patient IO - Austin Business Journal
http://www.bizjournals.com/austin/news/2016/08/29/austin-startup-acquired-by-health-tech-giant.html

New Sponsor

Austin HIMSS welcomes Voice Products, Inc. as its new sponsor!  

Voice Products Inc. represents Dolbey’s Best In KLAS Speech for the last 4 years in a row!

Just in the last year Voice Products Inc. has converted over 1,000 physicians using over 15 different EMR’s from other speech platforms to the Dolbey Fusion Speech EMR product.  We are so confident that you will save 1-2 hours a day even if you’re currently using another speech product, we will let you try ours free for 2 weeks in your EMR!  Dolbey’s latest solution, CQM (core Measures Reporting) is a software that can reduce staff with real time reporting,  identifying charts upon admission using skip logic to reduce qualifying questions and by electronically submitting to CMS and JCAHO.

HIMSS

Lastly, I’d like to invite members who are interested in advancing within HIMSS to an informational meeting an hour prior to the September networking event on 9/22.  The purpose of this event is to explain the benefits of becoming a HIMSS Senior or Fellow member.   If you have been active with the chapter for several years you might be eligible for advancement.   Please reach out to me directly if you are interested or have any questions.  More information can be found here. http://www.himss.org/sites/himssorg/files/HIMSSorg/Content/files/senior_app.pdf

All the best,

-Doug Burkott, FHIMSS
President, Austin HIMSS Chapter
austin.president@himsschapter.org