by Eric Thrailkill, TN HIMSS President/Vice President and Chief Information Officer of AMSURG
The Tennessee Chapter of HIMSS has adopted three key strategies from the National HIMSS organization for 2018-2019 fiscal year:
- Enhancing the member experience
- Contributing to the thought leadership of the community
- Building on health and healthcare innovation
With these three key strategies in mind, the Programs, Sponsorship, Membership, and Marketing Committees set out to plan and host two events in March with two prestigious organizations – the AMA (headquartered in Chicago, IL and home to over 250,000 physician members) and the ABHI (headquartered in London, England and home to over 250 UK health technology organizations).
The AMA event, hosted by AMSURG on March 13th, was attended at capacity of 110 engaged stakeholders participating in the theme of “Driving the Future of Digital Health”. The AMA team delivered succinct program elements introducing the capabilities of the AMA, discussing the physician innovation network, the digital health implementation playbook and CPT code innovation.
Dr. Jesse Ehrenfeld of Vanderbilt University Medical Center, kicked off the discussion with an overview of the AMA. Dr. Ehrenfeld is the Chair-Elect of the AMA and takes the Chair of the Board of Trustee responsibility in June of 2019.
On March 27th, AMSURG and TN HIMSS hosted a delegation from ABHI (also visited the Center for Medical Interoperability, NTC, Vanderbilt University Medical Center and HCA Healthcare). A good discussion ensued around the development of innovation and health technology ecosystems, designed to collaborate on key technologies and communicate opportunities across wide geographic locations. Perfect weather, a hot chicken lunch, Premier League soccer discussion provided the background for engaging discussions of introducing innovative solutions developed in the UK to an audience of health and healthcare leadership. We’re hopeful the ABHI takes a deeper look to Nashville to promote, co-create and implement solutions designed in the UK – however, applicable to address needs in the U.S.
Special thanks to Tiffany Madigan, Executive Director and Jennifer LeMieux, Tod Fetherling and Penny Grogan for the AMA event success. TN HIMSS BOD members in attendance at the ABHI event, contributing to our community leadership, included Antoine Agassi, Susan Newbold, Ray Guzman, Tom Mitchell and Caleb Graves.