Fall Collaborative Communications Summit to Emphasize Health IT Impact on Hospitals and In Home Care

Health Information Technology is the "it" factor in healthcare right now, both in hospital-wide enterprises and in long-term in home care. Thomas Check, the Chief Information Officer for Visiting Nurse Service of New York, and John Wade, the Vice President and former Chief Information Officer for Saint Luke's Health System of Kansas City, will discuss some of these timely issues during their presentations at the CCS.

New York, NY (PRWEB) September 20, 2007 -- The Fall Collaborative Communications Summit: Transforming Healthcare through Health Information Technology (www.collaborativecommunicationssummit.com) will take place November 5-6, 2007 at The Peninsula Beverly Hills.

Health Information Technology is the "it" factor in healthcare right now, both in hospital-wide enterprises and in long-term in home care. Thomas Check, the Chief Information Officer for Visiting Nurse Service of New York, and John Wade, the Vice President and former Chief Information Officer for Saint Luke's Health System of Kansas City, will discuss some of these timely issues during their presentations at the CCS.

It is unquestioned how HIT has impacted the healthcare landscape in terms of implementation in all hospital enterprises - small to large. Wade, also the National Chairman for HIMSS, will present a case study entitled: Health IT in Practice: St. Luke's Health System on Tuesday, Nov. 6th.

Saint Luke's received the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award in Nov. 2003, and over the past 15 years has received numerous Missouri Quality Awards. In 2000, Saint Luke's won the National Innovators Award for Technology, and, since 1999, has been recognized as one of America's "100 Most Wired" hospitals. Wade's presentation will provide valuable insight and background information on the award-winning Saint Luke's organization and how it has used various technology implementations to improve patient care.

"This is an outstanding show. I'm really pleased to have been invited to participate at this particular venue," Wade said, "The HIT implementations that Saint Luke's has undergone are certainly in line with various technology implementations that are, and will be, taking place around the country. It makes perfect sense for the CCS to be a place where Saint Luke's can share its successes, from an educational perspective."

Check's presentation, Information Technology to Empower Long-Term Care in the Home, on Monday, Nov. 5th, will highlight how Information Technology in homecare promotes improved clinical results at lower cost by facilitating disease management, enabling clinicians to apply evidence-based practice at the point of care, improving collaboration among the patient's healthcare providers, and engaging and empowering patients to maintain their own health and manage their own healthcare.

Forecasters predict continual growth in the number of consumers needing supportive healthcare at home, in order to maintain a satisfactory quality of life while managing multiple chronic healthcare conditions. Specific technologies that have surfaced include information systems to compile and maintain the patient's clinical data from multiple sources including in-home telemonitoring, guide nurses and therapists; collaboration with physicians in hospital and practice office settings; being able to coordinate the patient's treatment plan among multiple providers; give the patient and family members access to their current clinical results and medical guidelines; and enable patients to construct and maintain their own electronic Personal Health Records. The focus is on the value of standards in data exchange among providers, and the central importance of patients' control over access to their medical information.

Some of the in-depth case studies, presentations and perspectives will include Alcatel-Lucent Healthcare, Cleveland Clinic, CareData Solutions Corporation, GE Healthcare, Indian Health Service - Department of Health & Human Services, Markle Foundation, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Florida, Catholic Health Initiatives, Cisco Systems, Harvard Medical School, San Antonio Medical Management Group Inc., JaxCare, CalRHIO, Carespark, Gila Regional Medical Center, Integrated Physician Network Avista (iPN Avista), Inland Northwest Health Services, Visiting Nurse Service of New York, Avanti Patient Flow Services, Kaiser Permanente, American Hospital Association, UC Davis Medical Center, St. Luke's Health System, University Hospitals and Health System, L.A. Care Health Plan, Florida Hospice of the Sun Coast, UCLA Medical Center, John C. Lincoln Health Network, HealthCare Partners, Fortune Magazine, athenahealth, Wolters Kluwer Health, Allscripts, Eclipsys and many more.

Sponsors of the Fall 2007 CCS include Alcatel-Lucent, Allscripts, athenahealth, Avanti Patient Flow Services (TeleTracking Technologies), Business Innovation, CareData Solutions Corporation, GE Healthcare, Microsoft, NextGen Healthcare, Vcall, Welch Allyn and Wolters Kluwer Health.

Media and Association Partners of the Fall 2007 CCS include Healthcare Informatics, Federal Telemedicine News, HIStalk, Imaging Economics, Medical Imaging, Modern Healthcare, Corporate Research Group, FierceHealthcare, FierceHealthIT, ARMA International (Association of Records Managers and Administrators), Technology Executives Club, American Hospital Association Solutions, ADVANCE for Health Information Executives and HIStalk.

About CCS:

The Collaborative Communications Summit: Transforming Health Care through Health Information Technology (www.collaborativecommunicationssummit.com) is designed to help top-level executives, legislators, physicians, regulators and technologists come to grips with the swirling forces of technology change, policy development and changing business models, giving you unparalleled insight into the forces that shape tomorrow's healthcare information technology markets.

Contact: Chad Reott +1.330.294.0094

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