President and CEO of Association of American Medical Colleges to Present Opening Keynote for Collaborative Communications Summit in May

The Spring Collaborative Communications Summit: Transforming Healthcare through Health Information Technology will take place May 5-7, 2008, at the Mandarin Oriental Washington D.C. (www.collaborativecommunicationssummit.com). Darrell G. Kirch, MD, the President and CEO of the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC), will provide the opening keynote address for the Spring 2008 CCS HIT. Dr. Kirch's presentation, entitled The Challenge of Culture Change Meets the Promise of Technology, will take place Monday, May 5th at 9:15 am.

New York, NY (Issues Wire / PRWEB) February 11, 2008 -- The Spring Collaborative Communications Summit: Transforming Healthcare through Health Information Technology will take place May 5-7, 2008, at the Mandarin Oriental Washington D.C. (www.collaborativecommunicationssummit.com)

Darrell G. Kirch, MD, the President and CEO of the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC), will provide the opening keynote address for the Spring 2008 CCS HIT. Dr. Kirch's presentation, entitled The Challenge of Culture Change Meets the Promise of Technology, will take place Monday, May 5th at 9:15 am.

"While health information technology holds great promise for increasing the efficiency and quality of health care, our greatest obstacles to achieving that promise may very well be the traditional culture of health care," Dr. Kirch said. "Transformational change in our culture from an emphasis on individual autonomy to a culture of collaboration and mutual accountability may be the single most important factor in unleashing the power of technology. It is time for health care to devote as much energy to culture change as we have devoted to strategic planning and technology investments."

A distinguished physician, educator, and medical scientist, and a noted authority on the organization and management of academic medical centers, Dr. Kirch's career spans all aspects of academic medicine and includes leadership positions at two medical schools and teaching hospitals, as well as at the National Institutes of Health.

Dr. Kirch assumed the position of AAMC president in July 2006 following six years as senior vice president for health affairs, dean of the college of medicine, and CEO of the Milton S. Hershey Medical Center at The Pennsylvania State University, where he and his leadership team are credited with revitalizing the institution and guiding it through a period of educational innovation and major growth in clinical activity and research funding. Before joining Penn State, Dr. Kirch held a number of leadership positions at the Medical College of Georgia from 1994 to 2000, including serving as dean of the medical school, senior vice president for clinical activities, and dean of the school of graduate studies.

The theme for the sixth edition of the Collaborative Communications Summit (CCS) is 'HIT 2008: Achieving the High Performance Health Care System'. This year's spring summit will bring together some of the nations most influential and forward thinking healthcare leaders addressing HIT and where we're headed.

Participants of the Spring 2008 CCS HIT include: Association of American Medical Colleges, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Florida, California HealthCare Foundation, Carespark, Center for Aging Services Technologies (CAST), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Erickson Retirement Communities, Federation of American Hospitals, Florida Hospice of the Sun Coast, GE Healthcare, Harvard University Health Services, Healthcare IT Transition Group, IBM Healthlink Solutions, Indian Health Services, HHS, Inland Northwest Health Service, Jaxcare, Kaiser Permanente, Markle Foundation, McKesson Corporation, New York-Presbyterian Hospital, Northrop Grumman, Revolution Health Group, The Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine, Saint Luke's Health System, Thomas Jefferson University, University Hospitals, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Visiting Nurse Service of New York, and WellSpan Health.

Sponsors of the Spring 2008 CCS HIT include AT&T, CareData Solutions Corporation, GE Healthcare, MDdatacor and Welch Allyn. Media and Association Partners include Federal Telemedicine News, FierceHealthcare, FierceHealthIT, ARMA International (Association of Records Managers and Administrators), American Hospital Association Solutions and the Healthcare IT Transition Group.

About CCS:
The Collaborative Communications Summit: Transforming Health Care through Health Information Technology (www.collaborativecommunicationssummit.com) is designed to help top-level executives, legislators, physicians, regulators and technologists come to grips with the swirling forces of technology change, policy development and changing business models, giving you unparalleled insight into the forces that shape tomorrow's healthcare information technology markets.

Contact:
Chad Reott
+1.330.294.0094

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