Pharmacy professor presents at summit; selected for ASHP education committee

Posted on by

BlashSmallDr. Anthony Blash, medication management clinical informaticist at Healthcare Corporation of America’s (HCA) corporate headquarters and assistant professor of Pharmacy presented at the Health Information Management Systems Society’s (HIMSS) 2013 Summit of the Southeast, which includes HIMSS chapters from Tennessee, Mississippi and Kentucky.

This annual two-day conference draws more than 900 healthcare information technology professionals from across the Southeast to discuss top issues surrounding the evolution of care delivery, gain greater insight into the ever-evolving field of healthcare and learn from leading experts in healthcare IT. This year’s theme was “Driving Patient outcomes through Care Collaboration.”

Blash’s session explained the Meaningful Use components of the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act and how Pharmacist Informaticists are able to play a role in promoting and expanding the adoption of health information technology.

In addition, Blash was selected to be an Educational Steering Committee member for the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists’ (ASHP) Section of Pharmacy Informatics & Technology. The main tasks for this committee are the following:

  • Developing “hot topics” for ASHP’s Midyear Clinical Meeting (MCM), which is attended by more than 20,000 pharmacists, other health professionals and pharmaceutical industry exhibitors. The MCM is the largest annual international gathering of pharmacists.
  • Reviewing requests for proposals for MCM from Section Advisory Groups
  • Coordinating the Informatics Bytes: Pearls of Informatics for the MCM
  • Assisting Member Section Program Chairs to share topics for session content
  • Providing suggestions to Section Advisory Groups on topics for Networking Webinars

ASHP is the national professional organization whose nearly 40,000 members include pharmacists, pharmacy technicians and pharmacy students who provide patient care services in hospitals, health systems and ambulatory clinics. For 70 years, the society has been on the forefront of efforts to improve medication use and enhance patient safety.