UMD-Smith Hosts Workshop on Health IT and Economics Oct. 10-11

COLLEGE PARK, Md. - Experts from academia, industry and government will gather at the Alexandria (Va.) Westin on Friday and Saturday, Oct. 10-11 to present and discuss the latest findings and practices connected to information technology making healthcare more patient-centered, effective and cost-efficient. 

The Center for Health Information and Decision Systems (CHIDS) at the University of Maryland's Robert H. Smith School of Business hosts this fifth annual Workshop on Health IT and Economics (WHITE). The summit (8:30 a.m.-6:15 p.m. Friday and 8:30 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturday) is open to observers. Register in advance at ter.ps/white2014.  Onsite registration is available until capacity is reached. 

The landscape of healthcare is changing dramatically, said WHITE Chair Ritu Agarwal, CHIDS founding director, Robert H. Smith Dean's Chair of Information Systems and Decision, Operations and Information Technologies department chair at the Smith School. “Continuing digitization of medical information, rapid innovations in technology and Affordable Care Act implementation is driving these changes.” 

“New challenges emerge every day regarding the design, management, utilization, and evaluation of health IT to support the mission of improving quality and reducing costs,” Agarwal said. “They represent unprecedented research opportunities that have the potential to influence both policymakers and practitioners.” 

Agarwal will moderate a “Technology-enabled Ubiquitous Care” panel discussion addressing the emerging area of healthcare that involves using environmental and patient sensors, wireless devices and intelligent systems to monitor, motivate and support patients. WHITE 2014 speakers and panelists – more than three dozen researchers from leading institutions nationwide, plus policymakers and business executives – will include: 

• Kelly Cronin, director of the Office of Care Transformation at the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology
• Kevin Patrick, M.D., Director, Center for Wireless and Population Health Systems, Calit2, professor,  Department of Family and Preventive Medicine, University of California, San Diego
• Anand K. Iyer, Ph.D., MBA, chief data scientist at WellDoc
• Taha A. Kass-Hout, M.D., M.S., chief health informatics officer at Food and Drug Administration
• James Rebitzer, Ph.D., Everett W. Lord Distinguished Faculty Scholar/Chair Markets, Public Policy and Law at Boston University’s School of Management
• Gary Capistrant, senior director at American Telemedicine Association

The conference also will include awards presented for Best paper, Best student-authored paper and Young researcher. 

WHITE is supported by gold sponsor Booz Allen Hamilton, plus the Foundation for Advanced Education in the Sciences, CNSI and the U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. 

For more information, go to ter.ps/white2014. 

Media Contacts: 

Kenyon Crowley, WHITE director and CHIDS deputy director
kcrowley@rhsmith.umd.edu
301-405-9593 

Greg Muraski
gmuraski@rhsmith.umd.edu
301-892-0973