As we roll into 2008, Western PA HIMSS members have something to celebrate!  WPHIMSS is the recipient of the 2007 Chapter Innovations Grand Prize Award!  The focus of the innovation is on our PR and communications efforts for the Chapter.

As a building block of HIMSS, WPHIMSS realized that an approach taken should embrace visibility and image building for both local and national organizations within the healthcare community.  This would also reinforce the bond between Chapter and Society.   To this end, WPHIMSS implemented a multi-pronged approach for public relations and communications.  This approach enabled the Chapter to spread the message about both WPHIMSS and HIMSS.

WPHIMSS President Barry Ross developed a "business" partnership with Harvey Kart, the publisher of Western Pennsylvania Hospital News, whereby the publication would serve as an outlet of Chapter information while WPHIMSS would provide articles about healthcare management systems and IT.  During FY 2006-2007, WPHIMSS published the following:

• Innovative Applications of Electronic Health Medical Records (November 2006). This was an article that critiqued an October 2006 educational program.
• Recognizing the Synergy and Strength of Collaboration, HIMSS and eHealth Initiative Align on Health Information Exchange (HIE) and RHIO Initiatives (October 2006). This was a reprint, by permission of HIMSS, to provide a better understanding to the region what HIMSS and WPHIMSS is about.
• Pittsburgh: The Roots of HIMSS (February 2007). This was an article developed as a result of the president's role in leading the effort to document the history of HIMSS and to pay tribute to the Society's Pittsburgh heritage.
• Consumer Directed Healthcare and Transparency: What Is It and Why Do We Care (April 2007). This was an article that critiqued a March 2007 educational program.

As WPHIMSS worked with Hospital News on this initiative, it was apparent that there could be mutual benefits garnered from a similar relationship between the publisher and HIMSS.  Therefore, WPHIMSS facilitated building this connection.  This arrangement not only gave HIMSS access to Western Pennsylvania, but the other regions where different editions of Hospital News is published (Chicago, Atlanta, and southern Florida) as well.

Concurrent with the FY 2006-2007 objective of building the Hospital News relationship, WPHIMSS wanted to make inroads with other publications so as to expand Chapter coverage and exposure.  Once again, WPHIMSS President Barry Ross led the Society's history documentation effort and a relationship was forged with the editor of ADVANCE for Healthcare Information Executives (ADVANCE).  Two HIMSS legacy articles appeared in the magazine (November 2006 and April 2007) and the second (HIMSS and Its Beginnings) referenced WPHIMSS and western Pennsylvania and the western Pennsylvania roots of HIMSS.

As the relationship with ADVANCE grew, the editor was invited to attend the WPHIMSS first annual Northeast U.S. Healthcare Trade Faire & Conference on May 11, 2007.  He wrote about the presentation of the first Edward J. Gerner Scholarship, by the Chapter, during the trade faire; it appeared in the July 2007 issue. 

As a result of this PR/communications initiative and on-going practice, WPHIMSS has realized the benefit of promoting the Chapter and advertising its events without considerable financial expense.  However, through this ability to promote WPHIMSS and other initiatives, the Chapter experienced dynamic membership growth this past fiscal year; there was a 56% growth between June 2006 and June 2007. WPHIMSS has increased its visibility, as demonstrated by other healthcare professional associations reaching out to us to develop affiliations, by making it easier for WPHIMSS to reach out to other healthcare professional associations and by supporting the Chapter's member recruitment efforts and corporate sponsorship relationship building.  The Chapter's image building has also helped to gain recognition within the academic community in the area and has paved the way to enable WPHIMSS to speak to students about the healthcare management systems/IT profession, about the Chapter, and about HIMSS.  The July 2007 ADVANCE article (cited above) has been circulated and has garnered student interest in WPHIMSS and HIMSS.