Experts to Speak at CHIDS Conference on Health IT and Analytics

Health IT industry experts will present and discuss the latest findings and practices toward making healthcare more patient-centered, effective and cost-efficient, as part of the Conference on Health IT & Analytics, (CHITA) Friday and Saturday, October 19-20, at the Washington Hilton, 1919 Connecticut Ave NW, Washington, D.C.

The Center for Health Information and Decision Systems (CHIDS) at the University of Maryland's Robert H. Smith School of Business is hosting the event in its ninth year.

Keynote speakers including Avi Goldfarb, coauthor of “Prediction Machines: The Simple Economics of Artificial Intelligence,” and Jose Arrieta, deputy assistant secretary for acquisition of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, will be among more than 100 participating experts representing academia, government and industry. They will explore the potential and challenges associated with transforming healthcare delivery in such fields as medical informatics, computer science, public health, health administration, business and economics.

“Unprecedented opportunities to improve health outcomes and control costs are being created through combining large amounts of digitized medical data with state-of-the-art analytical methods, says CHITA Chair Ritu Agarwal, CHIDS founding director, Robert H. Smith Dean's Chair of Information Systems and senior associate dean at the Smith School. “CHIDS is pioneering work at the intersection of AI, digital applications and healthcare, and is proud to convene CHITA, where experts will debate the landscape and impact of current uses and potential future breakthroughs such as deep learning.”

As chief data scientist in the Creative Destruction Lab at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management, Goldfarb’s research into the economics of technology has been discussed via major media outlets and in White House reports, Congressional testimony and European Commission documents.

Blockchain technology has been a focus area of Arrieta. Prior to joining HHS as a deputy assistant secretary for acquisition, he led a General Services Administration initiative with blockchain that cut contracting time.

Additional, CHITA keynote speakers will be Children’s National Vice President Brian Jacobs, who directs the Children’s IQ Network®, a pediatric health information exchange in Greater Washington, and University of Maryland economics professor and data scientist Ginger Zhe Jin.

A former director of the U.S. Federal Trade Commission Bureau of Economics, Jin’s research focuses on disseminating consumer information related to restaurant food safety, health insurance, prescription drugs, air quality, blood donation and more.

In addition to his role with Children’s National, Jacobs is a professor and attending physician in the Pediatric Critical Care Department at George Washington University’s School of Medicine and Health Sciences.

The conference will run 8:30 a.m.–5:30 p.m. Friday, with an evening reception, and 8:30 a.m.–4 p.m. Saturday. On-site registration opens at 8 a.m. Friday and Saturday. Register in advance at go.umd.edu/chita2018. Discounted early registration closes Sept. 21 and online registration closes Oct. 17.

Saturday will include awards presentations for best paper, best student-authored paper and best junior researcher-authored paper. Ahead of the main gathering, a doctoral student consortium, by invitation, will take place on Thursday.

CHITA is supported by the Robert H. Smith School of Business, University of Michigan School of Public Health, United Solutions and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

For more information write to CHIDS at chids@rhsmith.umd.edu.