InfoLinks at the HIMSS Conference in Chicago

At the 2009 HIMSS conference in Chicago, InfoLinks brought 13 of the 70 CoP partners together in two face-to-face workgroup meetings on April 7th and 8th with four break-out sessions. These workgroup sessions were facilitated by Bill Brand, Jim Mootrey, and Srila Sen of the Public Health Informatics Institute, and Susan Rudd and Mamie Jennings-Mabery of NCPHI's Communities of Practice program.

Through these highly productive and successful meetings involving focused group discussions and 4 break-out sessions,the InfoLinks Work Group clarified the target audience and developed detailed guidelines with content framework for an e-Health Strategic Plan which will used to produce a Health Information Exchange (HIE) knowledge product. This plan will show the timely importance and roadmap for public health readiness assessment in order to engage and successfully participate in HIEs. The Work Group also addressed and shared various methods of knowledge product dissemination, including Web 2.0 technology. They adjourned with plans to finalize the product through the Community's monthly meetings.

This InfoLinks CoP Working Group demonstrates the importance of investing in Health Information Technology (HIT) to transform the delivery of care and improve public health.