Sachin Jain, MD, MBA, Special Assistant to the National Coordinator for Healthcare Information Technology, will present the opening NIQIE Conference keynote. This is an important time for healthcare information technology as healthcare reform and economic stimulus funding promote the use of electronic health records and other technology to improve healthcare delivery. Nancy Davis, PhD, NIQIE's Executive Director, says, “He is particularly interested in the role of HIT in medical education and performance improvement. It’s not just about physicians recording patient notes and receiving lab results electronically, it’s about using real practice data to identify performance gaps and monitor improvement.”

The third annual conference of the National Institute for Quality Improvement and Education, scheduled for September 12–14 in Chicago, will focus on how integrating continuing medical education, quality improvement, and healthcare information technology, along with the dissemination of comparative effectiveness research, will result in continuous performance improvement in healthcare. Keynoters include Sachin Jain, MD, MBA, special assistant to the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology; and Nirav Shah, MD, MPH, associate investigator from the Center for Health Research at Geisinger Health. Also on the agenda are Mary Ann Bailey, PhD, who will help clear the confusion regarding appropriate use of Institutional Review Boards; and CME experts Don Moore, PhD, and George Mejicano, MD, MS, who will present an integrated systems model for practice-based learning and evaluation of outcomes.

“Our goal is to provide a conference that rolls up all the components for continuous performance improvement in a very pragmatic way,” says Davis. “We started NIQIE with an emphasis on QI and CME, but it’s clear that HIT and dissemination of clinical research are key to ensuring competent, high-quality care.” Go to niqie.org for more info.

For highlights of last year's conference, read:
PI CME.