Health Information Technology - join the train!

"Dear fellow students & faculty,

With major changes in healthcare underway--in particular, the arrival of the era of implementing Health Information Technology (HIT)/Electronic Health Records (EHR) as a tool to make our healthcare coordination and delivery more effective--there is a new frontier for all of us to learn, and much for us to discuss as well.  As I came across an exciting opportunity (email below) on Thursday to hear from and discuss these issues with our country's National Coordinator for HIT, I thought it would be of interest to many here as well so I am passing the invitation along to the larger Downstate medical community. 

 

For those interested, there are also many readily available resources--compiled on DownstateCafe.blogspot.com--which are great introductions to the topic of HIT/EHR.  Among them are

• Link to the website for the Department of Health's Office for the National Coordinator for HIT - great background on HIT, events, blogs, etc.: healthit.hhs.gov/
• Links to videos & materials from the Institute for Family Health, which has been a pioneer in meaningful & effective use of HIT in New York City for the past decade - the link includes a video of the Introductory remarks to this year's "HIT Workshop," given by Dr. Neil Calman: http://institute2000.org/HIT/information%20technology.html
• Forums at DownstateCafe.blogspot.com where anyone can share in discussion/thoughts/ideas/experiences regarding our own electronic health records (at Kings County, and *hopefully* sometime soon at Downstate UHB as well...)

If anyone has any other good resources to share, please email me, or post them under "Comments" at DownstateCafe.blogspot.com.

Best Regards,
Abe"