Changing global health is challenging health professionals everywhere to rethink how they work. The ESRI Health GIS Conference provides opportunities for health and human services professionals to network and collaborate with colleagues from across the globe and see the latest innovations in using geographic information system technology to improve approaches to human health. The 2009 conference, being held September 21-23 in Nashville, Tennessee, will focus on the theme Improving Our Health with GIS and will feature a variety of innovative speakers.
Keynote speaker David C. Goodman, M.D., M.S., is a professor of pediatrics and community and family medicine, as well as associate director, at the Center for Health Policy Research, and coprincipal investigator for the Dartmouth Atlas of Health Care at the Dartmouth Institute of Health Policy and Clinical Practice in New Hampshire. Attendees will learn how "geography is destiny" as Goodman discusses what the premier research center has uncovered in evaluating health care. He will describe how geographic variation studies reveal serious deficiencies in health care costs and delivery.
Attendees will also hear views on health care today from a hospital CIO of 20 years. Featured speaker Charles E. Christian, Fellow, College Healthcare Information Management Executives, Fellow, Healthcare Information Management System Society, director of information systems and CIO at Indiana’s Good Samaritan Hospital, will relate his experience in applying health care information technology in a community hospital. Christian has also experienced the health care world through his participation in national health care advocacy organizations. He will delve into topics in the news and on blogs regarding the latest stimulus bill’s potential health care impact and where health care reform might be going.
Featured speaker Chris McInnish is the children’s affairs liaison to the Alabama Criminal Justice Information Center. McInnish will describe how an integrated approach to GIS across health and human services is possible. Attendees will find out about McInnish’s experiences in building statewide support of the Alabama Resource Management System, a Web-based information
system containing demographic and statistical data accessible by state agencies and nonprofit organizations. He will show how it helped his organization make better decisions to support area children and families.
The Awards Luncheon speaker, Dr. Jane Linder, is the principal of NWN Corporation in Massachusetts. Linder will talk about the surprising nature of wildly successful initiatives and what leaders have to do differently to "grow good little ideas" into incredible outcomes. Her research draws on examples from public and private sectors, small organizations and large. In her work with human service organizations, Linder has helped clients both improve service to citizens and reduce costs.
For more information please visit www.esri.com.