Healthcare providers learning to cope in an ever-changing industry will gather at the 2015 Hawai‘i Health Workforce & Information Technology Summit on Saturday, September 19, from 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. The event, at the Sheraton-Waikīkī Hotel, 2255 Kalākaua Avenue, is free and also will include a health careers job fair. The Hawai’i Area Health Education Center (AHEC) of the University of Hawaiʻi John A. Burns School of Medicine (JABSOM) with the Hawaiʻi State Rural Health Association and the Hawai’i Health Information Exchange are sponsoring the summit.
“Among the topics we are tackling this year is expanding resources available to behavioral health and helping all providers meet the behavioral health needs of their patients by using technology (for example, school-based psychiatric telemedicne) as well as assisting providers with finding the correct working environment and even planning for retirement,” said Dr. Kelley Withy, MD, PhD, Director of AHEC.
Dr. Withy and her colleagues also will review the latest health workforce statistics, compiled through a database created by AHEC which surveys actively practicing civilian physicians in Hawai’i. Her work has demonstrated Hawai’i currently is approximately 700 physicians short of what a similar community on the U.S. mainland would have, a shortage which could grow to 1,500 in 10 years.
See the AHEC-Hawai’i Workforce Latest figures.
The 2015 summit also represents a partnership with the Hawaiʻi Health Information Exchange, which has held a health information technology (IT) summit on its own for the past four years.
“In the past, health IT was met with resistance and had mixed reviews by providers, but there has been a dramatic shift as more are beginning to embrace health IT and see how it can be beneficial to their practice,” said Christine Sakuda, executive director of the Hawaiʻi Health Information Exchange, who be giving a presentation on “Reducing Costs and Transforming Care: The status of the Hawai‘i HIE and the Community Health Record.”
The Community Health Record allows physicians to seamlessly and securely access and exchange clinical information on patients to improve patient care and health outcomes, enhance efficiency and reduce costs.
One of the keynote speakers will be Jon Griffin, MD, whose topic will be “Using Health IT to Make Your Life Easier… No Joke.” The lunch speaker will be Kenneth Taylor, JD, and executive director of the Fraser Institute for Health and Risk Analytics, in Princeton, New Jersey, who will speak on “Transforming Healthcare in the U.S.” Click to read or download the Conference Agenda
The summit will also feature a health careers job fair with representatives from health organizations across Hawai’i. Hawai‘i HIE will also announce this year’s Health IT Leader Award recipient.
The Hawai‘i Consortium for Continuing Medical Education, accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) to provide continuing medical education for physicians, designates this activity for a maximum of 8 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit.
How to register
Contact info@hawaiihie.org for more information about the summit, or call (808) 441-1346. Register on-line for the summit at ON LINE REGISTRATION.
About UH-JABSOM’s Hawai’i Area Health Education Center
The MISSION of the Hawaii/Pacific Basin AHEC is to improve the health of the underserved through community-based and community-driven education for all underserved groups in Hawai’i. Important areas of concentration are improving video teleconferencing capabilities, telemedicine and telehealth, and performing health and health workforce needs assessments. AHEC also teaches and recruits K-12 students into health professions (often in multi-professional teams), targeting its outreach to students in the rural and underserved communities of Hawai’i. AHEC also recruits health care professionals to rural and underserved areas and provides continuing medical education.
About HIE
The Hawai‘i HIE is a 501 (c) (3) non-profit organization established in 2006 to enhance care coordination, to improve the health outcomes of Hawai‘i’s patients and reduce the cost of care for both patients and healthcare providers. Hawai‘i’s official Health Information Exchange is changing the way healthcare is delivered in our state. As a leading force for positive change, we are enhancing the health and well being of Hawai‘i’s people. We envision a Hawai‘i in which all residents, regardless of where they may receive their care, can obtain quality, care that is based on their own up-to-date health records.