2nd Quarterly Member Meeting

Our 2nd Quarterly Member Meeting was the first the Center has ever held outside of Washington, D.C. We departed from our usual format in order to hold our meeting in New York City in concert with the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) Summit, an event sponsored in part by CHT, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), the Department of Defense, and the Department of Veterans Affairs.

The HIMSS Summit brought together an influential group of health leaders to discuss the future of health and healthcare in America. We were excited to join so many public and private sector decision-makers to discuss the effort to transform health in America through the application of intelligent and interoperable health information technology.

CHT Founder Newt Gingrich presented the opening keynote address at the summit. Other speakers at the event included HHS Secretary Michael Leavitt, National HIT Coordinator David Brailer, AHRQ Director Carolyn M. Clancy, J. Patrick Kelly (Vice President of Pfizer, Inc.) and David Sundwall (Executive Director of the Utah Department of Health). Following his keynote address, Speaker Gingrich accepted the 2005 HIMSS Advocacy Award for "demonstrating extraordinary leadership in advocating for the inclusion of healthcare information management and technology to improve healthcare quality."

CHT Founder Newt Gingrich accepts the 2005 HIMSS Advocacy Award from Pamela Wirth (HIMSS Chair, Board of Directors)

CHT Member Meeting Highlights
Our Member Meeting was condensed so that visitors could attend the HIMSS events. After Speaker Gingrich delivered his HIMSS keynote, CHT Members proceeded to the Marriot's SOHO Complex for our 2nd Quarterly Member Meeting. Center for Health Transformation CEO and President Nancy Desmond welcomed Members to the meeting and presented a synopsis of recent CHT projects, events, and achievements. Project Directors Robert Egge and David Merritt also presented updates on their projects, 'Accelerating Health Innovation' and 'Health Information Technology' respectively. Speaker Gingrich closed the program with a speech to members.

This quarter was defined by unprecedented media coverage for CHT, indicative of our accelerating reach and impact in the sphere of health and healthcare. For his contributions to saving lives and saving money in America, Speaker Gingrich received numerous awards this quarter: The 2005 HIMSS Advocacy Award for Bipartisan Leadership, the 2005 National Minority Health Month Foundation's Award for contributions to the elimination of diabetes in the minority community, and WEDI's Louis Sullivan Award, which honors individuals' leadership vision and achievements in advancing healthcare quality and efficiency. In addition, Speaker Gingrich and Nancy Desmond were named to the "Georgia's Most Influential" list in James magazine, and Project Director David Merritt was selected as a keynote speaker for the Kryptiq Connectivity Summit and the GA Statewide E-Health Summit. As Nancy and Speaker Gingrich both noted in their comments at the meeting, none of this would have been possible without the support and leadership provided by our members, who we consider joint recipients of each and every award and honor bestowed upon the Center. (For more on CHT's reach and impact this quarter, please visit the website, www.healthtransformation.net).