Spotlight on Volunteers
This page highlight the important work of members of COACH committees, tasks forces and other groups.
As a national organization, COACH's regional events, such as the Emerging Technologies Forum, presented in partnership with BCHIMPS in Vancouver, are important initiatives. The Regional Forums Steering and Planning Committee is responsible for overseeing all aspects of the planning, development and delivery of these events. The next regional event will be eHealthAchieve at HealthAchieve in November.
Regional Forums Steering and Planning Committee Members
For many years the Interoperability Showcase has been a popular feature of the e-Health Conference, Behind the scenes, the Showcase Planning Committee works for almost 10 months of the year to plan, organize and manage this event through to a successful demonstration at the conference. This is a joint committee of the three conference hosts -- COACH, Canada Health Infoway and the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI). Jose Mussi and Attila Farkas are co-chairing the 2012 committee.
The Showcase is expanding for 2012 with the inclusion of "innovation" and "success story" areas, and promises to be one of the most exciting parts of this year's conference. It will continue to demonstrate the current and near future use and capability of information exchange across the continuity of care.
In addition to the Planning Committee, many other volunteers, including tour guides, presenters, concierge staff and more, are needed for the Showcase. If you are interested in being a volunteer this year, please contact Steffie Mendaglio, smendaglio@coachorg.com.
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| Lise Pinsonneault |
Last year, the NTC-SIG surveyed 90 telehealth coordinators focusing on three themes: TC's Working Environment; TC's Job Descriptions and Responsibilities; and Impact of eHealth and ICTs on TC's Daily Operational Activities. The survey conclusions were as follows.
1) TCs see their professional futures in the areas of leadership, management and coordination of telehealth. As telehealth programs assess their service delivery models in accordance with Accreditation Canada standards, evaluation of changes to TCs work environment, their job descriptions and responsibilities becomes a priority.
2) As frontline healthcare professionals in the eHealth environment, TCs are well placed to support telehealth and eHealth integration into mainstream healthcare delivery and are valuable resources for health information management. With their broad technical expertise and clinical process knowledge, TCs understand the need for practical applications of ICTs to increase access to health services closer to home for providers and patients. (Jan. 12, 2012)
By now you may have noticed that the Connection enewsletter and COACH website look a bit different. The changes are due to the implementation of a new COACH association management system (AMS). Although called the "Website Task Force (TF)", this critically important group of volunteers led COACH through the entire process of describing our needs and selecting a new AMS vendor. Chaired by Gurpreet Rosales, TF members conducted extensive stakeholder interviews to gather requirements from the other COACH committees, the staff and members. The group then developed an request for proposal (RFP) and evaluated the responses. Changing AMS providers was one of COACH's largest projects ever and will allow our association to support our growing membership and suite of programs, services and forums. (December 14, 2011)
Website Task Force Members (Members Only)
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| Pat Ceresia |
Privacy and Security Steering Committee Members (Members Only)
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| Hélène Clément |
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| Liz Lowen |
CTF was created as a COACH forum to recognize and provide services to the telehealth community following the COACH/Canadian Society of Telhealth merger on April 1, 2010. NOTE: Any COACH member can join CTF, without an additional fee, by editing their online profile at www.coachorg.com or contacting the COACH office. (Oct. 19, 2011)
The HIP Resources Task Force (TF) is another important group of volunteers working to advance COACH's Health Informatics Professionalism (HIP) strategy. This small, but mighty group is co-chaired by Jackie Charko and Vishal Ratti. The members have been involved in human resources strategic planning and management in both the private and public sectors.
Early in its mandate, the TF examined the results of the HI & HIM Human Resources Report in more detail. Its main focus over the past several months has been the development of an exciting new resource designed to help HI organizations with the recruitment of talented resources - Health Informatics Human Resources Guidelines - Recruitment. This toolkit, to be available later this fall, contains practical guidance, templates and checklists for recruiting in HI. The TF is also working on a communications plan and ways to promote COACH's leadership and visibility on HI labour market information and issues.
(Oct. 5, 2011)
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| Jackie Charko |
Vishal Ratti |
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| Neil Gardner |
This year the committee does not have any projects of its own, rather it is focused on coordinating the interrelationships and ensuring overall alignment as work progresses within various HIP? committees. Next year, however, we will be updating COACH's HIP Core Competencies and the SC will play an important role in that project, since the competencies are a foundational piece for the overarching HIP program. (Sept. 29, 2011)
The HIP@school Task Force is an integral part of COACH's health informatics professionalism (HIP?) program. The Task Force was the driving force behind the growth of COACH's very successful Academic Institutional Membership (AIM) program. Chaired by Derek Ritz and composed of representatives from most of COACH's AIM schools, the Task Force has a full slate of activities planned for the fall including:
launching the 2012 Student Innovation Competition
growing the AIM Speakers Bureau and other elements of the AIM program
increasing the number, and participation of, both faculty and student AIM members
In addition, in 2011 the HIP@school Task Force launched a Curriculum Discussion Working Group to produce a report on health informatics curriculum at post-secondary institutions in Canada. (August 31, 2011)
Responsible for the governance of the CA portion of the CPHIMS-CA credential, the setting of the Canadian Supplemental Exam is.one of the Exam Committee's primary responsibilities. This very rigorous process includes selecting and refining questions proposed by the Exam Development Task Force and ensuring the exam meets all criteria for difficulty of questions and topic areas covered. Typically this happens at a very intense two-day, in-person session; the committee will meet to finalize the next version of the exam in January 2012.
Other important activities associated with governance include: setting the pass mark for each version of the exam, reviewing candidate comments, judging appeals and more. The committee has placed an increased focus on promotion and marketing this year and is actively working on a number of mini projects in this area.
Chaired by Dr. Kathryn Hannah, the committee is composed of experts from across Canada. The CPHIMS-CA credential is offered in partnership with HIMSS; a representative from the CPHIMS Technical Committee and a staff member are important members as well. (August 11, 2011)
COACH welcomes Patrick J. Ceresia, MD, as the new Chair of the Privacy and Security Steering Committee. Dr. Ceresia is Managing Director, Corporate Services and Privacy Officer with the Canadian Medical Protective Association. The steering committee carries out the important work of governing Guidelines for the Protection of Health Information suite of products and supporting privacy and security program. (July 2011)
By Jennifer Gillert, EPAC Chair
The Emerging Professionals Advisory Committee (EPAC) has been very active over the past several months.
We held a successful Health Informatics Professional Engagement (HIPE) event in Vancouver on March 2, where speaker Neil Seeman shared his insights on career development. Our next HIPE event in Toronto on May 30th (in conjunction with the e-Health Conference) and promises to be our biggest event yet!
The committee has also been building its LinkedIn Group - now at 216 members - and working on a broader communications strategy. We are also looking forward to welcoming new members to our committee, and wish to thank those whose term is up for their service. EPAC has several new initiatives underway for the new fiscal year and is actively working on expanding the EP presence and program at COACH.
