Recognizing policymakers and policy-related contributions advancing health information technology, the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society honored four recipients with the Society’s annual Leadership Awards. HIMSS announced the honorees during its Policy Summit, Sept. 22-23 in Washington, DC.
Those receiving the 2009 Awards are:
- HIMSS State Legislator of the Year Award -- Senator Richard Moore from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts
- HIMSS State Leadership of the Year Award -- Anthony D. Rodgers, Director of the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System
- HIMSS State of the Year Award -- Commonwealth of Virginia
- HIMSS Federal Leadership Award -- U.S. Senator Michael Enzi of Wyoming
The 2009 HIMSS Advocacy Awards mark the eighth year that HIMSS has honored outstanding leaders at the federal, state and local levels. These individuals have taken the lead in establishing new initiatives, programs, and projects that foster the use of health IT in both government and private industry.
“It’s impressive to see the many accomplishments of these health IT leaders who are establishing new initiatives, programs and projects that foster the use of health IT in both government and private industry,” said Tom Keefe, senior director of state affairs for HIMSS. “We congratulate these outstanding award recipients for their time and dedication to improving the delivery of healthcare with information technology.”
HIMSS State Legislator of the Year Award: A popular speaker at HIMSS events, Senator Richard Moore of Massachusetts has been at the forefront of efforts to promote electronic health records, electronic prescribing, and computerized physician order entry systems both in his own state and across the nation.
On the national level, Senator Moore serves as Vice President of the National Conference of State Legislatures, and is poised to lead this important association of the nation’s more than 7,000 state legislators and legislative staff in the next two years. Senator Moore holds other leadership positions within NCSL. He co-chairs Health Information Champions (HITCh), a health information technology project sponsored by the National Conference of State Legislatures. He also serves as one of only four state legislators on the steering committee of the State Alliance for eHealth, a project of the National Governor’s Association’s Centers of Excellence.
HIMSS State Official of the Year: As Director of the Arizona Medicaid Program, known as the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System, Anthony D. Rodgers is a national leader for Medicaid in health IT related to EHR-systems and transformation. He is leading the National State Medicaid Directors Association’s efforts to work with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services on the implementation of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. One of the Architects of the Arizona Health Information Technology roadmap, Mr. Rodgers is responsible for Arizona’s Medicaid Transformation Grant to create a public-private "hub" for e-health information exchange.
HIMSS State of the Year Award: The 2009 award went to the Commonwealth of Virginia, in recognition of the Old Dominion State’s many achievements in advancing health IT. Created in 2006, the Governor’s Health Information Technology Council has helped establish an interoperability framework, encourage public-private partnerships to increase adoption of electronic medical records, and encourage vendors and entrepreneurs to build to national certification standards for health IT.
HIMSS Federal Leadership Award: The Ranking Member of the U.S. Senate Health Education Labor and Pensions Committee, U.S. Senator Michael Enzi of Wyoming was a co-sponsor of the Wired for Healthcare Quality act in the 110th Congress. Senator Enzi has advanced health IT principles and health IT issues; he has been an important supporter of the health IT provisions in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
HIMSS congratulates all the recipients of the 2009 Advocacy Awards. The next HIMSS Policy Summit will be held in June 2010. Visit the HIMSS Advocacy and Public Policy Center for more information and for updates on this upcoming event.
About HIMSS
The Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) is a comprehensive healthcare-stakeholder membership organization exclusively focused on providing global leadership for the optimal use of information technology (IT) and management systems for the betterment of healthcare. Founded in 1961 with offices in Chicago, Washington D.C., Brussels, Singapore, and other locations across the United States, HIMSS represents more than 23,000 individual members, of which 73% work in patient care delivery settings. HIMSS also includes over 380 corporate members and nearly 30 not-for-profit organizations that share our mission of transforming healthcare through the effective use of information technology and management systems. HIMSS frames and leads healthcare public policy and industry practices through its educational, professional development, and advocacy initiatives designed to promote information and management systems’ contributions to ensuring quality patient care.
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