Health IT and Analytics Experts to Present and Discuss Latest Research, Advances

University of Maryland-Hosted Workshop set for Nov. 3-4 in D.C.

COLLEGE PARK, Md., Oct. 3, 2017 -- Experts from the likes of Nvidia, Booz Allen Hamilton and Index Analytics will join clinical leaders from the University of Maryland Medical System, Johns Hopkins Medicine, and researchers from over 40 colleges and universities including Carnegie Mellon University, Harvard University, University of Michigan, Vanderbilt University, University of North Carolina and Georgia Tech for the Conference on Health IT & Analytics, (CHITA) Friday and Saturday, Nov. 3-4, 2017, at the Westin Georgetown, 2350 M St NW, Washington, D.C.

The conference is hosted in its eighth year by the Center for Health Information and Decision Systems (CHIDS) at the University of Maryland's Robert H. Smith School of Business. Each year, the forum facilitates interaction and collaboration involving over 100 experts representing academia, government and industry. Their fields cover medical informatics, public health, health administration, business and economics. During CHITA, they will present and discuss the latest findings and practices connected to information technology and analytics making healthcare more patient-centered, effective and cost-efficient.

“CHIDS is pioneering work at the intersection of AI, information systems, mHealth and healthcare, and is proud to convene this event, where experts will debate the landscape and impact of current uses and potential future breakthroughs such as deep learning,” 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. “When we combine the increasingly large amounts of digitized medical data with state-of-the-art analytical methods, we have unprecedented opportunities to improve health outcomes and reduce costs."

Conference topics include machine learning in healthcare, applied analytics in the field, mHealth, telehealth, data security and management, health information exchange, technology adoption and impact, genetics informatics, and social media in healthcare.

The keynote speakers are Martin "Marty" Makary, professor and chief of the Johns Hopkins Islet Transplant Center and a New York Times best-selling author, and Warren D. D'Souza, vice president for enterprise data and analytics, and chief of medical physics, for the University of Maryland Medical System.

Featured panelists, discussing AI in healthcare and applications of innovative analytics in healthcare settings, will be:

• Cupid Chan, chief technology officer for Index Analytics
• Rema Padman, professor of management science and healthcare Informatics at Carnegie Mellon University’s H. John Heinz III College
• Hoo Chang Shin, Ph.D., solutions architect at Nvidia
• Anna T. Fernandez, senior associate and healthcare technology and informatics strategist at Booz Allen Hamilton
• Hong Yu, professor, Department of Quantitative Health Sciences, University of Massachusetts Medical School; research health scientist for Edith Nourse Rogers Memorial Veterans Hospital; and core investigator for the VA Center for Healthcare Organization and Implementation Research
• Charles Gabrial, analytics and data science manager at the Defense Health Agency

The conference will run 8:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m. Friday, with an evening reception, and 8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Saturday. On-site registration opens at 8 a.m. Friday and Saturday. Register in advance at www.rhsmith.umd.edu/chids/chita. Discounted early registration closes October 15and online registration closes November 2.

Saturday will include a book signing by Makary (“Unaccountable: What Hospitals Won't Tell You and How Transparency Can Revolutionize Health Care”) and awards will be presented 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 hosted in collaboration with the University of Michigan School of Public Health. Sponsorship opportunities are available. Inquire at chids@rhsmith.umd.edu.

About CHIDS
The Center for Health Information and Decision Systems (CHIDS) is an academic research center based in the Department of Decision, Operations & Information Technology (DO&IT) at the Robert H. Smith School of Business that collaborates closely with industry, government, and other key health system stakeholders. CHIDS' research seeks to understand how digital technologies can be more effectively deployed to address outcomes such as patient safety, healthcare quality, efficiency in healthcare delivery, and a reduction in health disparities. CHIDS offers the benefit of renowned scholars in healthcare analytics, technology innovation, adoption, implementation, and design. The pool of talent, knowledge and expertise in DO&IT is acknowledged by several publications as a top-5 performer in research production worldwide; the Information Systems group is ranked in the top-10 worldwide by BusinessWeek and U.S. News and World Report. CHIDS pioneers in the study of digitally enabled health system transformation and is widely known for its thought leadership and research collaborations.