Public Meeting Tuesday at Forum 09 to Introduce 'Clinical Groupware Collaborative'

The Clinical Groupware Collaborative will hold an informational meeting next Tuesday, Sept. 22, at The Forum 09, the 11th annual meeting of DMAA: The Care Continuum Alliance, in San Diego.

The meeting's purpose is to provide a brief overview of clinical groupware and to introduce the newly forming Clinical Groupware Collaborative. The meeting takes place from 6 to 7:30 p.m., in Aqua 304, at the Hilton San Diego Bayfront, the host hotel for The Forum 09. The event will start with refreshments from 6 to 6:30 p.m., followed by presentations to introduce the collaborative's work. DMAA President and CEO Tracey Moorhead and Gordon K. Norman, MD, MBA, DMAA Chair and Alere Executive Vice President, Science & Innovation, sit on the work group.

Clinical groupware is an emerging model for developing and deploying health IT platforms and applications. Its proponents envision it as a "software as a service" (SaaS) system, using the Internet as a platform for on-demand distribution of applications to fixed and mobile devices. Clinical groupware characteristics include explicit design for health data exchange and provider-consumer communication, and modular architecture to allow aggregation of tailored applications for specific tasks. The concept would accommodate market-driven data exchange standards and protocols.

Clinical Groupware advocates include software developers and technologists; practicing physicians; care management and provider executives and managers; patient advocates; and leaders in life sciences, home monitoring and medical device manufacturing firms. The Clinical Groupware Collaborative unites these stakeholders to promote the concept and growth in the acquisition and use of affordable, easy-to-use and interoperable electronic health records technology.

At the Sept. 22 meeting, Vince Kuraitis, Principal, Better Health Technologies, and a working group member, will moderate presentations from fellow members Steve Adams, CEO and co-founder, RMD Networks Inc.; John Haughton, MD, MS, CEO, DocSite LLC; Ravi Sharma, president and CEO, 4Medica Inc.; and Martin Pellinat, CEO, VisionTree. Other working group members include Bill Crounse, MD, senior director for worldwide health, Microsoft; Michael Fleming, MD, chief medical officer, Amedisys; and David C. Kibbe, MD, MBA, American Academy of Family Physicians.