VoiceIt: "Poised for growth"

BRUSSELS, BE - (HealthTech Wire / VoiceIt) - The third edition of The World of Health IT Conference & Exhibition (WoHIT) in Copenhagen will become more focused on Europe, says Michael Strübin, executive director of the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) in Europe. At the same time, HIMSS, who is organizing the WoHIT, is branching out to other parts of the world, “to offer global benefits to its stakeholders.”

Published: 09/15/2008

It is two years now that HIMSS decided to expand to Europe. What are your main achievements so far?

When we opened the first office of HIMSS EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) in September 2006, we rapidly launched a website, a newsletter, an eSeminar series and enrolled our first individual members.  Simultaneously, HIMSS partnered with key European stakeholders to produce the World of Health IT Conference & Exhibition which was held in Geneva in October 2006.  The World of Health IT continued to grow with our 2007 conference in Vienna and we are again expecting steady growth with our 2008 Copenhagen and 2009 Barcelona conference.

What were the key lessons you learned in these two years?

In particular, we have learned that to best serve the citizens and eHealth Community of Europe, we need a distinctly European presence. We opened our HIMSS Europe headquarters in Brussels on 16 June and are recruiting European eHealth professionals to drive our programs from our Brussels office.  A major initiative going forward will be to create programs that contribute to the development of the eHealth Community. To do this we must recognize that as a pan-European eHealth market develops, HIMSS Europe must simultaneously tailor its outreach to the unique needs of each region. Above all, our objective at the end of the day will be to accelerate the deployment of eHealth technologies that improve results for patients and reduce growing healthcare costs throughout Europe.

What will you do different in the future?

In addition to implementing a unique presence in Europe, we are forging partnerships with national, regional and local eHealth societies. For example, earlier this year we signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Catalan foundation TicSalut on the joint development of education products and other initiatives. They are considering adapting and translating HIMSS tools into Spanish and Catalan, such as the Health Informatics Training System (HITS), a 20 hour online health-IT training program for general healthcare staff that is perfectly suitable for adaptation to a national context. We are also beginning to roll out an eLearning academy, an online portal for general healthcare-IT training products that will be of specific interest for employers (hospitals and companies) who have to invest in the professional development of their staff. Other new initiatives include the internationalization of CPHIMS, a professional Health IT manager certification, and an intermediate level Health IT training course.

Additionally HIMSS will be offering global benefits to our stakeholders.  We are branching out to other parts of the world.  Last spring HIMSS launched our Singapore-based Asia Pacific association lead by Steven Yeo, the Vice President and Executive  Director for HIMSS Asia Pacific.  Our second Asia Pacific Conference and Exhibition last May in Hong Kong grew nicely and the February 2009 Asia Pacific conference has received a warm welcome in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. In a latest development, we decided to strengthen our activities in the Persian Gulf region and will be organizing a HIMSS conference there in May 2009.

What do all these changes mean for the conference The World of Health IT?

World of Health will become more focused on Europe, and more relevant to the day-to-day work of healthcare-IT professionals. For the 2008 conference, we are working with the Danish organizations Medcom and Connected Digital Health to develop a Nordic program and a related exhibition.

WoHIT 2008 will have a complete educational track with eight sessions highlighting the Danish and Nordic experiences.  On the exhibition floor, delegates can see the seamless integration of the Danish health IT system with practical examples in a hospital, GP and private setting. We also look forward to a host of small and medium companies from the Nordic countries exhibiting their products and services alongside the major European and international companies.  This regional element could become a standard feature of future WoHIT.

How has the response to these adaptations been so far?

The number of pre-registered delegates is significantly above last year’s.  Our target is 2,500 participants and we are very confident to reach it.  We also have the support of major industry players; companies such as AGFA Healthcare, SIEMENS Healthcare, IBM or Intersystems will showcase their eHealth solutions for Europe. Delegates at WoHIT 2008 will therefore not only benefit from the high-profile educational sessions, but also get a chance to see the very best Health IT technologies that Europe has to offer.

Mr. Strübin, thank you for your answers. (HTW)

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