The Georgia Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society announces the 2017 Annual Conference scheduled Tuesday, October 17 at Cobb Galleria Conference Center in Atlanta. This year’s conference, with a theme of “C4 (Connected, Coordinated, Collaborative Health Care) - The Explosive World of Health IT,” will bring over 500 health information technology professionals together to hear compelling education topics geared towards executives in their field of practice. The event provides an environment to learn about all the latest technology and services available in this arena and to network with peers in this ever-changing field.
 
“As the event co-chair, I am both honored and excited to be a part of this event,” said Jeff Buda, CIO of Floyd Medical Center. “We have taken the feedback from our membership to make the 2017 conference the best yet.”
 
A variety of top-notch speakers fill this year’s conference roster. The morning’s keynote speaker will be Nick Adkins. Adkins (@nickisnpdx) is a former suit wearing MBA for the Vanderbilt Health Plans and a serial entrepreneur in Nashville. He was the COO of two Nashville-based healthcare companies. Along the way, he’s been a part of five acquisition adventures. In 2012, he set out on a new journey that took him to Portland, Oregon, where he was a co-founder of a health tech startup. Adkins now serves on the advisory board at Cloudbreak Health, a company which was formed by bringing together two industry leaders, Language Access Network and Carenection.
 
The mid-day keynote speaker will be Stephen Beck, M.D., a physician who has practiced internal medicine in both ambulatory and inpatient settings and most recently served as CMIO at Mercy Health in Ohio. He has over 20 years of experience in planning, implementation, training and follow-up of EHR installations in both civilian and military populations. On a national level, Dr. Beck was one of the first physicians to be certified by HIMSS as a Professional in Health Information and Management Systems, has been actively involved in content review for the HIMSS National Conference, was chairman of the National Professional Practice Task Force for HIMSS, and served on the National Conference Education Committee. Additionally, he has served on the HIMSS decision support workgroup, the Quality, Cost and Safety Committee, and has assisted in the evaluation of HIMSS Stage 7 eligible sites.
 
"We're proud to be shaking things up a bit with our keynote speakers, one being a digital healthcare evangelist who is not your typical ‘talking head’ speaker type and the other being a physician with extensive healthcare information technology experience that has been integrated with HIMSS,” said Dee Cantrell, event co-chair and immediate past chapter president.
 
The annual conference is Georgia HIMSS’ flagship event, delivering relevant, impactful educational content to its members. With nearly 2,000 members, the Georgia chapter is the oldest and one of the largest chapters within HIMSS, which was started in Georgia. Their mission is to lead change in healthcare information technology and to actively engage members, sponsors, partners and legislators in improving health and health care in Georgia through information technology. Over the past year, the group has offered topical and timely education programs, networking events and advocacy initiatives.
 
“Our events create opportunities to network, but also provide that spark that ignites fresh thinking and calls-to-action among the participants,” noted Rob Aaron, chapter president. “I knew that last year’s annual conference was a success when a panelist mentioned that after attending one of the educational sessions, their take-away was to create a MACRA task force.”