Greetings,

As we reach mid-September, I realize we are only a few weeks away from the InSight 2007 Annual Conference, taking place October 17-20, in Atlanta, Georgia.

Thanks to those of you who have already secured your participation at conference. I look forward to meeting and exchanging ideas with you. I hope those of you who have not yet registered take advantage of this opportunity. With more than 300 educational sessions, over 100 products in the Product Solution Center, along with informal and formal networking events, this year's conference is primed to be a great experience for everyone.

I want to thank the Conference Planning Committee for building such an enormous event. Their dedication and preparation in planning the InSight 2007 Annual Conference will pay great dividends. This team has worked diligently on designing educational programming that speaks to the greater McKesson customer community in a format that lends itself for peer exchange and networking. I'm proud of their accomplishments and look forward to making the most out of their successes.

I also want to thank the CIO Forum Task Force for their hard work in creating the CIO Forum, an event specially tailored to CIOs attending this year's conference.

To read the President's Message in its entirety, click here

Ann Shirley
RN, MSN, CNOR - Clinical Informatics Analyst - UHS of Texoma, Inc., Denison, Texas

InSight Volunteership:
Education Chair for the Paragon Resource Management SIG (2006-present)

InSight Membership: 2 years

1. Can you explain what volunteering with (or being a member of) InSight has done for you personally?
Getting to work with the potential speakers for InSight has been a great experience. I have been very fortunate to work with my McKesson liaison (Harry Corey) who has helped me tremendously in selecting and organizing sessions for InSight. My first year as the Paragon Resource Management SIG Chair was due to someone from our organization leaving our facility, which left the position vacant. I stepped in to help, and have been here ever since. I have appreciated the opportunity to work with folks from other facilities that have so much to share. This has provided many opportunities for networking and new friends.

2. Can you explain how volunteering with (or being a member of) InSight has helped your organization?
UHS of Texoma, Inc. is a big supporter of InSight both through SIG Chair involvement and InSight Speaker participation. One of the major benefits is the interaction with McKesson executives and with peers who use the same information systems. At Texoma, we are fortunate to be able to participate in various Beta processes. By participating in InSight and networking, we have been able to collaborate with other Paragon users and McKesson to help make our products better.

3. Can you provide an example of how InSight has brought you and/or your company measurable value?
Interaction with the McKesson executives strengthens the partnership between the hospital and the vendor, and interaction with peers allows us to collaborate to improve both the software and our processes. Networking with peers to see how they have dealt with specific issues helps us to solve problems as they arise, and in some instances, even before they become an issue.

4. What excites you the most about the future of InSight?
As a nurse who has moved to the "Other Side," there could be no more exciting time to be involved in healthcare and information technology! We are in a position to make a difference for our patients through our abilities to collect and share needed information with other healthcare providers. InSight provides us with opportunities to work with McKesson to help develop these systems that will be changing the world of healthcare for the future. There is a tremendous amount of talent that can be shared between users and McKesson to make these products facilitate our care of patients.

There is still time to register for the InSight 2007 Annual Conference and you can do so at a discounted rate. Encourage your colleagues to join you at the conference and as an InSight member you can save $340 ($555 per each registration in a group vs. $895 for individual registration).

To qualify for the group rate* there must be five or more registrations from the same organization submitted together with the full payment. Each person must complete a registration form.
*group rate is non-refundable

This year's conference offers several special sessions designed to deliver a unique learning experience:

Per Se
InSight and McKesson are partnering to offer ANSOS One-Staff and ORSOS One-Call customers educational sessions and networking opportunities to increase their knowledge in the ever-changing healthcare arena. For more information on the sessions offered at conference, visit the Per Se Web page.

RelayHealth
RelayHealth customers can learn more about improving their business and delivery of care through the use of technology featured in a track of seven sessions presented by customers and product managers, especially for RelayHealth users.  Visit the RelayHealth Web page for more information on the sessions offered at conference.

You can also register now for Pre-Conference Workshops at the InSight 2007 Annual Conference.  All Pre-Conference Workshops take place from 8:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. on Wednesday, October 17, and have a separate registration fee of $235.

Visit the Conference Schedule Builder to create your own personal itinerary or to search all of the educational sessions.

Housing is filling up quickly in Atlanta , so make your reservations today. There are discounted rates for conference attendees at three downtown hotels:

Atlanta Marriott Marquis
The discount code "insinsa" has been pre-populated .
Telephone: (800) 228-9290
Rate: $155 plus tax for single occupancy, $165 plus tax for double occupancy

Westin Peachtree Plaza
Telephone: (800) 598-1864 or (404) 659-1400
Rate: $159 plus tax, single/double occupancy

Sheraton Atlanta
Telephone: (800) 325-3535 or (404) 659-6500
Rate: $189 plus tax, single/double occupancy

Reservations are accepted on a first-come first-served basis and are subject to the hotels' availability.

InSight will provide shuttle service from all hotels to the Georgia World Congress Center.

For more information on conference accommodations and travel arrangements, visit the Travel & Housing page.

CIO Forum at the Annual Conference
Designed specifically for CIOs, by CIOs, this unique event-within-an-event provides CIOs and top IT executives access to one another and McKesson leaders for the betterment of their businesses and professions.

Where some education tends to be more technical, the CIO Forum is designed to inspire critical, strategic thinking between CIOs and top IT executives sharing similar roles and experiences. It also brings McKesson top executives into the fold so that companies stay tapped into the direction of McKesson and can better leverage their technology investments.

Whether you're a CIO and/or top IT executive or whether you think your CIO would be interested in participating in this event, send a note to ciopeers@insight-net.org for details.

CIO Forum Webcast Series
Following another successful CIO Forum Webcast, held on August 30, McKesson, in partnership with InSight is presenting the final Webcast in the series on September 27: McKesson's Healthcare Leadership Strategy: Giving You the Power to Perform.

This month's Webcast will discuss how current dynamics are creating an environment for unprecedented movement in the adoption of ambulatory electronic health records and how hospitals can take this opportunity to use IT and related revenue management services to strengthen their partnership with physicians.

For details or to register for either the CIO Forum and the Annual Conference or the CIO Forum Webcast, contact ciopeers@insight-net.org.

*This program is designed for and offered only to CIOs and top IT executives within a company.

The Strategic Enhancement Process is currently going through the last discussion period of 2007. This discussion period will end on September 24. Please login to the Web site and participate in this discussion period. InSight is continuing to improve the enhancement process and there will be two educational sessions at the InSight Conference for membership which will provide an overview of the 2008 Strategic Enhancement Process and kick off the new tools and technology of the InSight Web site. The 2007 Membership Update for Strategic Enhancement Process and Web site Committee presentation will be available for all members on Oct. 21, 2007.

Webinars were held in the month of August for Council Chairs and SIG Leaders to introduce the new process and have received positive feedback. To view this presentation click here or it can be viewed at a later date as a link from your Personal Dashboard page. Janice Snow, Director of Enhancements, and Eileen Donnelly, VP of Enhancements both look forward to seeing members at this year's conference.

On behalf of Debe Gash, InSight President, and Sandra Ott, InSight Secretary, please be notified that there will be a meeting of InSight membership taking place at this year's InSight Annual Conference on Saturday, October 20. This meeting will be held at the venue in room B405, (8:00 a.m. - 9:00 a.m.). Please see the agenda below:

• Secretary report: Approval of 2006 minutes
  • Approval of Bylaw Change
• President report: State of InSight
• VP Finance report
• Director, Membership report
• VP Enhancements report
• VP Education report
• McKesson Liaison report
• Executive Director Report

At this year's meeting, a proposed bylaw change will be presented during the membership update. As a voting member, you will have the option to approve or reject the proposal. The change would incorporate another Board position, Vice President-Membership. To view the new draft of Article VI, click here.

For the past nine months, Spartanburg Regional Medical Center, Spartanburg, S.C., has used McKesson's Horizon Real-Time Location System™ solution to wirelessly track and electronically record the location history of 550 IV pumps. "This system started paying for itself the day that it was installed," said Ray Shingler, senior vice president and CIO. "In fact, we cancelled our planned order of 50 new IV pumps at $10,000 each because we located 25 of them in stand-by storage."

The small, active RFID tags are affixed to critical assets or to key individuals. The tags send signals through the wireless network to a location engine that uses software to map and report tag locations on a geospatial view of the hospital. Software alert functionality sends automated text or emergency pages when equipment leaves authorized areas of the hospital.

Rapidly locating critical equipment such as IV pumps, defibrillators, crash carts and wheelchairs can make the difference in safe patient outcomes, while also improving asset utilization. Additionally, program administrators can quickly find and direct critical hospital staff to reduce clinical workflow bottlenecks and thereby increase patient throughput.

Now generally available, McKesson's RTLS solution uses a hospital's existing 802.11 Wi-Fi network, active RFID (radio frequency identification) technology, and software to instantly track the location and movements of these critical assets and hospital personnel. For more details, read the press release.

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