As we head towards the end of November this is not a time to be taking a breather as next week will be absolutely full-on with the HiNZ Conference, Innovation Award announcements, NZHIT AGM and new Board members being named will mean the NZHIT crew and members won't be getting a lot of rest! The following week I'm heading to the Medical Software Industry Association (MSIA) Summit and AGM being held in Sydney on the 28th of November then catching up with some of our Sydney based members the next day.

So, before the next couple of weeks is upon us the following is an update on some key areas of interest......

HiNZ Conference

I'm sure you'll be aware that the HiNZ Conference being held in Wellington next week is going to be massive - registrations have gone through the roof and it's almost going to be standing room only! It's not too late to register for some of the workshops that are being held before the conference starts and you might be able to register for day passes only at the conference - but you'd better be in quick.

I'm attending the SNOMED workshop on the Tuesday afternoon and really looking forward to it. Also, HL7NZ are holding the FHIR Connectathon that day and I know it's created a lot of interest amongst our members (hence, I'm not sure if there are any tickets left but you should check it out just in case there's some last minute spaces available).

There is also fantastic support from NZHIT members for the HiNZ Conference with 37 of our member organisations either sponsoring, exhibiting or speaking at the conference. The list is too long to mention in this update but I'll be letting you know more as the conference progresses. In the meantime, you can check out all of the member listings on our website here.

NZHIT AGM

If you've not already done so, please register your attendance here. This year's AGM is purposely being held during the HiNZ Conference to make it convenient for our members to attend.

Why attend? Firstly, we'll provide some coffee, tea and breakfast to help kick start you for the full day of conference presentations ahead - who would turn down an offer of free breakfast? We'll have some other gifts to hand out to thank you for attending and for your support throughout the year.

More importantly, this is an excellent opportunity for you to have an update on how well we've done during the past year, our plans for next year and the announcement of the successful nominees to the Board.

PLUS (there's more), we are going to be recognising and honouring the Founding Members of NZHIT who had the foresight to establish the 'NZ Health IT Cluster' (NZHIT) in 2002, 16 years ago! We've defined the "founding period" as being the first 2 years - 2002 through to end of 2004 and have identified 19 current members who fit this criteria. Most have remained in operation throughout this period and some have continued their support for NZHIT following an acquisition or merger of a founding member.

So, it's an action packed hour to get us all energised and focused for a big Thursday at the conference!!

Ministry of Health Architecture and Standards Briefing and Workshop

On the 29th of October we held this workshop at the Waitemata DHB meeting facility (Whenua Pupuke) on the North Shore of Auckland. We had a full room of 70+ attendees who joined Peter, Alastair, Evelyn and Grant from the MOH for a briefing from the Technical Working Group Leads of each of the 3 domain areas. Everyone then put their heads together and workshopped feedback for the working groups. There was a fantastic amount of positive contribution put in by everyone and the outputs were high quality.

The presentations and roadmap posters that were presented at the briefing are now available in the resources page (interoperability & standards section) of our website here.

There is more to come in 2019 on this topic so keep tuned for updates and events.

Final Networking Event for 2018 - Christchurch, 6th of December

One of our first events this year was in Christchurch, and we got amazing support when there for the Emerging Tech in Health Symposium held in May, so it seems fitting to finish the year off back in this beautiful place.

Sam Johnson (Mycare) and Steve Vlok (Celo and NZHIT Board member) are the keynote speakers. This is an excellent opportunity to join your colleagues for a pre-Christmas get-together, listen to Sam and Steve's amazing journeys in life, entrepreneurship and social engagement and have a good old chat about the amazing time you had at the HiNZ conference.

Register at our website here - spaces are limited so please don't leave it till the last minute.

Also, if you have someone in your network who isn't a NZHIT member then they're most welcome to attend as well - we like to spread the good word far and wide. You'll see there's a non-member registration option for a nominal $25 (incl GST) fee, which is excellent value.

News and Events

Check out the NZHIT website for latest news and events. There's been quite a few news stories provided by members over the last couple of days and Anna has been working hard to get them all up on the website especially for you to have a read.

If you've got any news stories, case studies, events, etc that you want showcased then don't hesitate to send them to Anna at [email protected] - the more the merrier and I'm sure you'll have plenty to share during and following next week's conference.

All the best, have a fantastic conference, see you at the awards ceremony, AGM, conference dinner and lots more!

Scott Arrol

CEO, NZHIT

+64 21 414631 [email protected]

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