President George W. Bush to Speak at HIMSS15

Every conference has their keynote speakers who have proved to be innovative in their fields and show up to offer their advice and suggestions on how to succeed. This year's annual Heathcare Information and Management Systems Society symposium has scheduled the president of Walgreens, the acting administrator of the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and the president and chief executive officer of Humana. However, it also includes the man who started the transition to electronic health records – former U.S. President George W. Bush.

White House push for interoperability
In April 2004, Bush issued Executive Order 13335, which called for compatibility between health care information systems among medical staff. This announcement established the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology and assigned it the task of implementing programs to achieve interoperability among EHR software. The goal of the new ONC was to improve health care through widely available but secure EHRs in a cost-efficient way. The Meaningful Use program was started in 2011 to help transition hospitals and doctors' offices over to interoperable EHR software.

Even though the initial 10-year "Interoperabilty Roadmap" has not completely come to fruition, the ONC continues to promote Bush's health care ideals. In 2014, the agency released a new plan to achieve interoperability in health IT. By 2024, the ONC hopes to have the integration of interoperable EHR software completed. Adding new features on existing technology will lower medical costs, increase communication between providers and offer patients more control over their own care.

Former POTUS to speak at HIMSS15
Bush was an essential part of jumpstarting the integration of EHR software, and because of this, he has been invited to speak at the HIMSS' conference this month. His hour-long keynote presentation is scheduled for April 15 at 4:30 p.m. While the former president will discuss the importance of the ONC and the need for widely accessible EHRs, he will also touch on his experiences in his two terms in the White House and the problems facing the nation today.

All the keynote speakers at HIMSS15 can offer insight into the medical industry, no matter what part of it conference attendees are interested in. Each session includes something new and different from the others, from business to patient care. Bush will cover how the ONC came to be, as well as provide an inside look at the governmental side of health care.

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