New GaHIN Board Chair Outlines Goals

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New GaHIN Board Chair, Dr. Dominic Mack,

Has Big Plans for the Organization


	Dr. Dominic Mack

In 2018, the GaHIN Board of Directors elected Dominic H. Mack, MD, MBA, as its new Chairman. Dr. Mack has a long and distinguished record of support for broadening access to health technology and has served on GaHIN's Board since its inception.

In addition to serving as a Professor in the Department of Family Medicine at Morehouse School of Medicine, Dr. Mack is the director of the National Center for Primary Care and Executive Medical Director of Georgia Health Information Technology Extension Center (GA-HITEC) and Georgia Health Connect (GaHC).

"It is indeed an honor to lead Georgia's state-designated HIE," Dr. Mack said. "GaHIN serves an important function by facilitating the exchange of information throughout the care continuum. But I deeply believe there are more opportunities - and successes - ahead of us. I have seen firsthand the need for parity in Georgia, and I believe GaHIN has an important role to play in continuing to spread technology's benefits to every corner of the state."

As Chair of GaHIN's Board, Dr. Mack has identified four key focus areas where he believes GaHIN can make a difference in the health and well-being of Georgia residents:

Continue to deliver value to GaHIN members while seeking to add more healthcare systems to the Network, strengthen connections and deploy additional services.
Expand target populations to enable health information exchange among providers in areas that are often underserved and overlooked, including those in rural areas, public health, long-term care and behavioral health.
Explain and support the direct benefits to clinicians and their patients of moving beyond simple data sharing to data analytics for patient care and population health management.
Explore ways to empower patients with access to their personal health records.

ADT Alerts Webinar Scheduled for March 27

The first joint GaHIN and Department of Community Health webinar will take place at 11 AM on March 27 and focus on ADT alerts. This is the first of six free monthly webinars, which will include:

How ADT Alerts and Redirects Are Impacting Care - 3/27/19
Accessing GaHIN Through GAMMIS - 4/24/19
Electronic Access to Lab Results Launched in Georgia - 5/22/19
How Interoperability Helps Practices Improve Patient Care and Operations - 6/26/19
The Role of Medication Fill Data in Measuring Adherence and Preventing Abuse - 7/24/19
How Interoperability Helps Hospitals Improve Patient Care and Care Coordination Across the Continuum of Care - 8/28/19

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First-Timers at HIMSS Conference Talk About Experience

By Shirelle King, GaHIN

Attending the HIMSS Conference for the first time can be compared to Charlie winning the golden ticket to the Willie Wonka Chocolate Factory. It's exciting, it's overwhelming and, most importantly, it's life changing.

It is a week filled with endless information, beautiful connections and powerful self-discovery. This year's theme was "Champions of Health Unite," with attendees reminded that not all heroes wear capes. There was a call to action to remember purpose, to reignite passion, to take pride in the privilege to serve, and to always keep people (i.e. patients) at the center of decision-making.

There were hundreds of general education sessions divided among 23 topics including population health, cybersecurity and clinical and business intelligence; a plethora of networking opportunities; and engaging keynote speakers from different industries. It was very easy for attendees to start with an early morning and end the day with satisfaction and sore feet. First lesson learned: wear comfortable shoes!

As a new attendee myself, I learned a great deal about the health IT industry and about business in general. My most memorable moments were attending the Millennials Networking Reception and the Electronic Long-Term Services Supports (eLTSS) Standards general session. One of the speakers who presented was Bonnie Young of the Georgia Department of Community Health (DCH) - Health Information Technology - a close governmental partner of GaHIN.

Young gave an exceptional presentation, especially considering the fact that she, too, was a first-time attendee of HIMSS. She said that it was so exciting to see all of the pieces and parts of health IT in one place. "It was good to be in an environment where we were talking about the same things, moving in the same direction."

Another first-timer from DCH was Mark Meadows who admitted to being overwhelmed by the number of attendees (~43,000!). He mentioned how educational the interoperability sessions were, how informative the Health Level 7 workshops were and how valuable it was to walk the exhibit hall.

Although, there were several different takeaways from the conference, one thing was consistent for us all: we registered as attendees of the HIMSS19 Conference, but we left as Champions of Health! Until next year, fellow heroes!