The More Things Change….The More They Stay The Same

Welcome to National Health IT Week!  Healthcare organizations around the country are recognizing the value of health IT, and we hope you will too!  Look for some exciting blogs this week, and if you’re on Twitter, please tweet about your activities with the hashtag #NHITweek.  For more information about NHIT Week and events taking place, please visit www.healthitweek.org. 

Here is a guest blog from Neal Neuberger, Executive Director – Institute for e-Health Policy, President – Health Tech Strategies, LLC.   

After 19 years, and more than 150 Capitol Hill luncheon programs and technology demonstrations, I have to say…it still gives me a thrill to help highlight the latest telehealth, disease monitoring and health IT advances  before Members of Congress, their staff and lead agency officials.

Today, Monday, Sept. 12, we kick-off “NHIT Week” in Washington with the Institute for e-Health Policy’s all-day Capitol Hill Health Information Technology Showcase and panel discussion — this year including more than 30 displays and hundreds of people in the beautiful and historic Kennedy Caucus Room of the Russell Senate Office Building.  Our noon-time panel discussion will focus on the implications of health IT for Patient Safety & Quality.

FYI – the newly named Kennedy Caucus Room is where the Titanic hearings, Lindberg kidnapping hearings, Teapot Dome hearings, McCarthy hearings, Iran-Contra inquiry, and Watergate investigations were all held.  And to think, now the equally infamous “Capital Hill Steering Committee on Telehealth and Healthcare Informatics”!   

We’ll blog today and throughout the week, and watch for some social networking videos from the Showcase throughout the day. 

Share your NHIT Week experiences at the Informatics Technology Showcase with me here on the HIMSS Blog. 

Contact Neal at neal@e-healthpolicy.org