The Medical Panel is thrilled to have recently joined the Healthcare Convention & Exhibitors Association (HCEA) and supports their vision for quality, ongoing education, leading market research, strategic resources and networking. Most all of us in the healthcare industry want to attend the events that provide us the optimum return on our time and investment. HCEA strives to help the industry do just that by representing organizations with the common desire to improve the effectiveness and promote the value of appropriate conventions, meetings, and exhibitions. Originally launched as the Medical Exhibitors Association (MEA) in 1930, it has since grown and gone through multiple changes until becoming the HCEA in 1973. The association hosts the annual Healthcare Convention Marketing Summit and has a great searchable database of medical meetings.

During this year’s annual meeting, they announced the president as well as the lineup of officers and directors for the 2014-2015 season. Announcement below:

ATLANTA — Diane Benson, CTSM, Americas Exhibits Leader, GE Healthcare, was named President of the Healthcare Convention & Exhibitors Association (HCEA) for 2014-2015. Benson assumed the role of HCEA President during the 2014 HCEA Annual Meeting in Cleveland, Ohio, June 21-24.

Benson’s more than 25-year career in trade show marketing spans both the exhibitor and supplier sides of this industry. Currently President of HCEA and a member of EXHIBITOR magazine’s Editorial Advisory Board, Diane holds a BS degree in Business Marketing from the University of Phoenix. As one of the earliest CTSM’s in the industry, Diane was awarded her Diamond upgrade in 2012, and is currently one of only seven Diamond-level CTSM’s in the world.

During her acceptance speech at the HCEA Annual Meeting, Benson emphasized the importance of sharing knowledge with one another to ensure the continued success of HCEA as an organization and the industry: “HCEA is a community unlike any other. No one else offers the unique blend of corporate healthcare exhibitors, association meeting planners, and trusted business partners, where we collaborate to share best practices, learn whatever is important to move our businesses forward and learn how to compliantly and consistently deliver strong, successful results to our stakeholders.” Benson continued, “In all my years in this industry, I have received more encouragement, more support, more answers to my questions from HCEA than with any other group of people in my professional career.”

Benson has been involved with HCEA since the late 1980s and has served on the HCEA Board of Directors since 2010. Benson served as HCEA President-Elect during 2013-2014.

The Healthcare Convention & Exhibitors Association (HCEA) also announced its officers and directors at the 2014 HCEA Annual Meeting, June 21-24, in Cleveland, Ohio.  Diane Benson, CTSM, GE Healthcare, was inducted as President. Other 2014-2015 Board officers are:

President-Elect– Christine Farmer, Sanofi; Vice President – Don Schmid, MBA, CME/H, Hospira, Inc.; Secretary/Treasurer – Christine DiDomenico, MBA; and Immediate Past President – Sue Huff, Medtronic, Inc.

The Association’s 2013-2015 Directors are:

Ann Marie Bermudez, Daiichi Sankyo, Inc.; Cassandra Costello, Actelion Pharmaceuticals; Carol Fields, CME/H, Edwards Lifesciences; and Julie Wojda, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals.

The Association’s 2014-2015 Directors are:

Laine Mann, Pfizer; Kyle Wood, Group Delphi; Neketa Argrow, Alcon; and Stacey Chandler, CEM, American College of Rheumatology.

The Association’s Appointed Directors serving a one-year term are:

Teresa Lerch, American College of Physicians; and Chip Carman, Blue Telescope.

About HCEA:

The Healthcare Convention & Exhibitors Association (HCEA) is the only association solely dedicated to improving the effectiveness and promoting the value of all conventions, meetings and exhibitions for the healthcare industry. HCEA represents organizations involved in healthcare exhibitions and conventions.

Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis (IPF) is an affliction so bad, Evel Knievel couldn’t even beat it. A serious disease, IPF has no known cause or FDA-approved treatment, and causes lung tissue to thicken and stiffen with scar tissue over time. Over 40,000 new cases are newly diagnosed each year, most of which are fatal.

Though 132,000 Americans are affected, sadly, many have never even heard of it. The documentary “Every Breath You Take” is a powerful and yes, breathtaking, look at the world these people live in and hopefully can make a dent in building public awareness. IPF leads to death in most cases in an average of 3-5 years due to respiratory failure, pulmonary hypertension, heart failure, pulmonary embolism, pneumonia, and lung cancer. This tragic and fatal disease is in desperate need of attention in the healthcare industry.

The Medical Panel by Resolution Research is aiming to do just that. We are performing a paid study with patients, including one of the patients from the above documentary, Bill, and caregivers to discuss their experiences with the disease, the treatments, and the accessibility of information in an effort to improve technologies and treatment methodologies.

If you are a patient with IPF or care for a loved one with the disease, we are looking for you and people like you to join our paid study. Details of the study:

– 50-minute telephone/web interviews taking place August 5-7

– Looking for patients and caregivers (together or individually)

– $100 compensation

To see if you qualify, please take our quick screener survey. If you know anybody suffering from this disease, please share the survey or this article with them to help us reach IPF patients and caregivers.

Don’t qualify for this study? You can still participate in paid research opportunities! Please join TheMedicalPanel to participate in paid professional medical studies — which may range from EHR to pharma to disease mgmt or malpractice insurance to everything in between.  You choose whether or not to participate in any study.  In addition, our medical community is built around serving medical professionals – from the best resources, to best connections, to digital diagnoses.  Join The Medical Panel to Connect, Collaborate, Cure!

Electronic Health Records (EHRs) have been a hot topic of debate in recent years. With the world becoming more and more dependent on technology, and, specifically, with President Obama’s Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act incentivizing EHRs, hospitals and doctors have been doing their best to go paperless and implement EHR systems. Unfortunately, as many readers will know, it hasn’t been going very smoothly.

In theory (and in some realities, like Kaiser Permanente), EHRs should reduce costs, increase productivity, and improve patient care through an electronic system that can communicate individual patient records across hospitals and departments, keep track of a patient’s history and remind them when to come in for check ups and procedures, and improve the accuracy of doctors’ diagnoses. In practice, however, many systems aren’t intuitive enough and don’t provide the interoperability necessary to benefit healthcare professionals.

Conversely, a number of health systems and hospitals are making gigantic strides in working within their system by sharing info between physicians for better solving cases. One example is MD Anderson teaming with IBM super-computer Watson to synthesize the vast array of historical and present-day cancer data, for their doctors’ access, to more effectively fight cancer. The University of California’s system is also extremely impressive, with their rural doctors being able to consult with their other leading doctors via video conferencing in 30 specialty areas. But patients cannot readily access their own EHRs. nor can an emergency room (at a hospital or system that the patient isn’t registered with which currently uses an effective EHR system) immediately tap into the patient’s health records for the best treatment when timing is critical.

How can we solve this issue? First and foremost, patients need to rise up and demand instant access to all their health records. Why is one’s own health background impossible to access and share with multiple doctors? Instead of ease of access, patients are required to sign multiple forms at multiple institutions and pay fees to transfer records – just so one specialist or new doctor (or ER physician) can find the information they need. If patients could simply and easily choose who to share their medical record with, a significant amount of time and energy could be saved. In addition, all EHR systems should be able to communicate seamlessly to provide any doctor anywhere vital access to the patient’s records in order to provide the best treatment. Why handcuff healthcare?

We believe that our new healthcare panel, TheMedicalPanel.com, for all medical and industry professionals around the planet, and ultimately all patients, patient advocates, support groups, and associations, may serve to help find a solution to that gap. Imagine accessing one’s own EHR and sharing it with a group of specialists to solve the health issue that won’t go away. Clearly, information is still king – that’s why we at Resolution Research are passionate about effecting change in such a critical time in healthcare. Our goal is to bring the data and the right people together.

If you work in the medical industry, please join TheMedicalPanel to participate in (paid) research studies and to collaborate with your colleagues. If you’re a patient – and who isn’t – join www.ResolutionPanel.com and indicate your medical conditions to participate in paid studies and/or clinical trials, which focus on your particular disease or condition. If you represent a medical association or group determined to find the cure, join us. Finally, to complete the circle, if your group needs research in the medical arena, contact us – our community has the patients and medical professionals necessary, as well as the experience, to provide the insights needed.

Resolution Research has been in the market research business since 1990. Nina Nichols is the founder and active CEO of Resolution Research and The Medical Panel. You may reach her at nina@themedicalpanel.com or 303-830-2345 or follow her on twitter at NinaNichols.

Gain more information online at:

The Medical Panel on Facebook

The Medical Panel on Twitter @MedPanelTweets

The Medical Panel Website

The Medical Panel on LinkedIn

Resolution Research Website

Integrated delivery networks or systems (IDN’s) have great potential to help reduce healthcare costs as well as improve efficiency and quality of care.  Labor, not surprisingly is the number one cost, of a healthcare facility. The second largest expense is in supply chain management — the purchasing of inventory, including products, devices, and all the items needed to run a network of healthcare facilities and healthcare providers.  It is clear that the health system’s purchasing director have a clear view of each touchpoint from the final point of consumption through the ordering process all the way back to the dock.

If you influence product or equipment purchase decisions for a hospital or non-acute care facility (including physician practices, surgery centers, clinics, etc.) that’s part of an IDN, we need to hear how you operate – from tools that work or don’t work and everything in between.  Are you experience savings?  Please tell us what you think — we’ll pay you $100 for participating in an online survey that takes about 15 minutes.  Click here to learn more!  Feel free to share with industry associates who deal with the same issues you manage.

We, The Medical Panel by Resolution Research, protect your personal information from end clients and we pay your directly.  To learn more about TheMedicalPanel or Resolution Research, please visit our websites or follow us on Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn.

We’ve noted a few of the integrated delivery systems in the US below, for your perusal, which incorporate many hospitals and numerous sites of care.  Of course, there are many more systems out there and likely many more to come.

Advocate Health Care (Oak Brook, IL) — 13 hospitals. Advocate Health Care was named one of the top 10 U.S. health systems in quality and efficiency by Thomson Reuters in 2009 and 2010. Combined, the systems hospitals have more than 3,000 beds and more than 28,000 employees, as well as partnering with 3,600 physicians on the medical staffs of Advocate hospitals, who are part of the managed care joint venture, Advocate Physician Partners. www.advocateHealth.com

Intermountain Healthcare (Salt Lake City, Utah) — 23 hospitals.  According to SDI Health, Intermountain Healthcare is the fifth most integrated system in the country which comprises a third of all hospitals in Utah. Intermountain was launched with 15 hospitals in 1974 by the Church of Latter Day Saints and currently has over 32,000 employees. This IDN system runs Intermountain Medical Group, which includes over 750 doctors and clinicians, as well as the insurance company SelectHealth, which has approximately 500,000 members. www.IntermountainHealthcare.org

MultiCare Health System (Tacoma, WA) — 4 hospitals.  MultiCare Health System has been part of the top 100 integrated health systems for 11 consecutive years, as well as one of the nation’s most wired systems according to Health IT Magazine in 2013. There are more than 93 locations and over 1,000 physicians on staff, yet it manages to be one of the few health systems in the nation to have a full electronic health record system. www.multicare.org

Sentara Healthcare (Norfolk, VA) — 8 hospitals. Sentara began in 1888 with a mere 25 beds in Norfolk. Currently, it is running on ten years as one of Modern Healthcare’s top integrated healthcare systems and has grown to more than 100 sites of care. They are national leaders in heart and kidney care, stroke care, and infection prevention, and were the first in the nation to pursue and eICU – a remote monitoring system for intensive care. Two of its hospitals, Sentara Norfolk General and Sentara Heart Hospital, rank among the nation’s best heart programs as reported in U.S. News & World Report’s Best Hospitals 2010-2011. www.sentara.com

Please join TheMedicalPanel to participate in paid professional medical studies — which may range from EHR to pharma to disease mgmt or malpractice insurance to everything in between.  You choose whether or not to participate in any study.  In addition, our medical community is built around serving medical professionals – from the best resources, to best connections, to digital diagnoses.  Join The Medical Panel to Connect, Collaborate, Cure!

Join the Medical Panel by Resolution Research team with PrIME Health Collaborative tonight at the PrIME @ Industry Meetup to discuss the digital health needs of Colorado and learn from fellow health professionals and entrepreneurs at a new and exciting coworking space in Denver.

The meeting will be moderated by self-proclaimed serial entrepreneur Jeffrey Nathanson, who co-developed two health startups, including FitLogix®, an internet-based weight management program utilizing state-of-the-art weight and wireless activity monitoring systems, and “Green” Children’s media company and Big Green Rabbit TV series in partnership with Rocky Mountain PBS. He is currently the CEO of Strategic Catalysts and VP of Marketing and Business Development for Vokl, Inc.

About PrIME Healthcare Collaborative

PrIME was founded in July 2012 as a network of health innovators looking to improve healthcare while reducing costs through the promise of emerging technologies. It consists of more than 450 health care administrators, physicians, technologists, academics, entrepreneurs and investors coming together to discuss digital health in Colorado. PrIME believes “the implementation of digital health technologies can streamline healthcare delivery, improve patient experience, reduce healthcare costs and improve clinical outcomes in Colorado.“

PrIME @ Industry (PrIME Health Collaborative Statewide Meetup)
Thursday June 12, 2014
5:30-8:00 pm
Industry
3001 Brighton Blvd.
Denver, CO 80216

A Panel discussion-What are Colorado’s Digital Health needs?

What are the needs and requirements of healthcare delivery and provider systems
for digital Health products and services?

Confirmed:

Susan L. Moore, PhD, MSPH
Assistant Director, Health Services Research, Denver Health
Assistant Professor, Department of Medicine,
University of Colorado School of Medicine
email: susan.moore@dhha.org

Blake Dickeson Director,
Clinical Innovation &
Product Development
Catholic Health Initiatives

Andy Steele, MD, MPH, MSc
Chief Medical Information Officer
eHealth Services, Denver Health

Ron Kubit
Healthcare IT entrepreneur
President, Colorado Healthcare Strategy Management www.chsm.org)
Past President of the Colorado Neurological Institute
Board of Directors No Barriers (www.nobarriersusa.org) and Roosevelt University in Chicago.

David N. Gans, MSHA, FACMPE
Senior Fellow Industry Affairs
Medical Group Management Association

The Society of Physician Entrepreneurs (SoPE), founded by Dr. Arlen Myers, CEO & President, has invited Nina Nichols, CEO of Resolution Research, to speak at the SoPE Colorado Chapter Meeting this June 5th, 2014.  Nichols, who created and is launching TheMedicalPanel.com, is excited to share her vision regarding this new online medical community designed for all medical and healthcare professionals which not only provides paid research opportunities but also allows members to gain the latest insights and expertise from the medical community through a number of shared digital resources  (see more here).  The Medical Panel’s slogan is Connect, Collaborate, Cure™ and its goal is to connect the right professionals via the right platforms to do just that!  If you’re interested to participate in this type of community, please send Nichols an email: nina@themedicalpanel.com and she will send you an invite when the site is fully launched.

The SoPE Colorado Chapter meeting will take place Thursday, June 5th and Nichols will be speaking at 8:00 AM. Full schedule below and registration can be found on the SoPE website:

Thursday, June 5, 2014

7:00 AM to 9:00 AM

Copic Insurance Co

7351 East Lowry Boulevard, Denver, CO

Featuring Speaker – ROBERT D. TRAVER

“Personalized Medicine in Patent Law Update”

7-8 AM Networking and Breakfast

8:00-8:05 Company Presentation

Featuring: Nina Nichols, CEO of The Medical Panel and Resolution Research

8:05-8:45 AM Presentation

About The Medical Panel by Resolution Research

The Medical Panel by Resolution Research® is an online panel designed for the medical and healthcare industries that offers paid research opportunities to medical professionals and allows members to gain insights and expertise from the medical community through market research.

Resolution Research created The Medical Panel solely for the purposes of serving and supporting the medical and healthcare community. Resolution Research is a full-service market research firm headquartered in downtown Denver, Colorado. Nina Nichols, CEO and founder, has nearly 25 years of experience conducting market research studies serving professionals in all fields, including medical professionals, key opinion leaders, decision-makers, corporate executives (C-level), as well as studies with patients for clinical trials and more. Resolution Research has served clients since 1990.