Big Decision Today

So, if you remember, I've been thinking about buying a car for quite some time now. It's been something that I've always wanted to do (and thought that I could afford), but somehow always talked myself out of it. Besides, even though my car has given me some problems, it still had some life in it, so I couldn't justify spending money when I didn't need to.

Well, that all changed today. This morning I bought my first car. I bought it because the dealerships were offering 0% financing and I could get a new car for effectively the same price I would spend on a used car. Anyway, I got the car that I've wanted for about 8 years now - a Jeep Grand Cherokee. It's quite a step for me and I was a nervous wreck for the past 24 hours while I was making the decision. It's not easy signing your name to documents that commit you to that many thousands of dollars. I have no idea how I'll ever be ready to buy a house! I do love the Jeep - it rides so nice and it has just enough room for me. I think it's going to be a great fit. Anyway, I haven't gotten any pictures of my Jeep, but here's one from the Jeep website that looks just like mine!

Exciting News In the Future

I may have some exciting news to report later today. Actually, I'm pretty sure of it. Stay tuned...

2 Star Speakers

The 2006 HIMSS Annual Conference and Exhibition concluded today with three keynote addresses. The morning session brought Dr. Craig Barrett, Chairman of the Board of Intel Corp. The 2nd speaker was Gov. Mark R. Warner, the Commonwealth's former governor. Most people were relatively surprised by the knowledge Gov. Warner held about healthcare information technology. While he is well known around the beltway and in Virginia, Mark Warner is still gaining name recognition in other areas of the country. It wasn't his best performance that I've seen, but I think he affirmed his position on how technology can help to improve healthcare. As a bonus, he highlighted many of Virginia's efforts - including many of our Medicaid programs. My school even got a shout-out during the speech.

The conference ended with a spectacular performance by Dana Carvey. I had no idea how funny Dana Carvey actually was - I'd seen his performances on SNL and of course, in Wayne's World, but hadn't really seen much of his standup. He was perfect for the crowd and got great responses everytime he intentionally mispronounced HIMSS. I didn't know this either, but Carvey underwent a very unfortunate series of events when doctors discovered he had severe arterial blockages. So anyway, he was able to put on a terrific performance while still being able to relate to the healthcare industry.

ABBA Lives within each of us

Last night, HIMSS held a party on the USS Midway for a little over 2000 of the attendees of the conference. As staff members, we were able to go and I think we can say we all had a great time. The band Bjorn Again, which is a world-class ABBA cover band was the main act. It took a while for people to get warmed up, but by the end of the night, the whole boat was rocking to the tunes of "Momma Mia" and "Dancing Queen".

You have to love good 70s/80s music. No matter how "hip" you may be, when one of those classic songs come on the radio or over the sound system, it's like there's a chemical reaction starts and we're forced to at least tap our feet - and usually ends up with us out on the dance floor letting loose. Anyway, I think everyone had a great time and the band was just great. HIMSS definitely one-upped the Tanya Tucker performance of last year!

HIMSS 2006

Today marks the mid-conference point of the HIMSS Annual Conference and Exhibition. For those of you not caught up on your conference knowledge, the HIMSS conference brings together the best and the brightest in healthcare information technology. We see a wide range of roles, from hospital executives, vendors, academics, and politicians. In fact, our opening session this year featured Dr. David Brailer, the National Coordinator for Healthcare Information Technology (NCHIT) and 3 congressmen.

Healthcare IT is a booming field right now. Most people know - or have heard - that healthcare is severely antiquated in terms of technology use and are grossly inefficient because of it. These people at this conference have a vision to get our healthcare facilities into the 20th (notice I didn't say 21st) century so that our doctors, nurses, and other healthcare professionals can care for their patients better. It's a tough spot because you want the bring these hospitals and doctors offices up to par, but you can't just throw technology at a problem and expect it to solve the inherent inefficient processes or just increase quality. It has to be a systems approach.

While the education is nice, the Exhibit Hall is what some 28,000 attendees come to see. This year, there are over 800 vendors that have setup shop in the San Diego Convention Center. They are here to demo their products and to convince those that make the IT decisions that the product they are selling is the right fit for the person's organization. These vendors spend exorbitant amounts of money in this endeavor. Many of the booths and bigger - and nicer - than my apartment. A few are bigger than most of your parent's houses (McKesson's booth boasts 11,000+ square feet). In addition to these complex booths, most of the larger vendors also "host" evening "events" - (read: they throw insane parties) at the most upscale places in town. Yesterday, I personally visited the McKesson "event" at the House of Blues and followed with Microsoft's at the exclusive JBar. Tomorrow evening, HIMSS throws a conference-wide party on the deck of the USS Midway Aircraft Carrier Museum.

It's been a good week so far, but my feet hurt from walking miles each day and I'm tired (I have to be up at 5AM every day). Look for a conference wrap up on Friday or Saturday. Gov. Mark Warner and Dana Carvey are slated to speak on Thursday - I'm sure I'll have some good stories after those talks!

A Week in SoCal

I get to take a bit of a break this week as I'm in San Diego at a conference. The conference, of the Health Information Management and Systems Society (HIMSS), is taking place at the San Diego convention center this year. The location is very exciting, especially given that the East Coast is about to get 4-5 inches of snow! It should be near 70 degrees every day here.

I'm looking forward to the week for a couple of reasons, but mainly, this is like a "mini-vacation" for me. I will be working at the conference (that's how I get them to pay for pretty much everything), but they treat the student volunteers very well here and I'm sure I'll have plenty of stories for the blog. (Last year, I got to ride in a stretch Hummer limo to dinner one night!)

"Not Too Bad"

Don't you love when you have a really good day? Today was one of those days for me. It wasn't that anything spectacular happened (or that anything catastrophic didn't happen), but I just had a good day. I'm not sure we appreciate these types of days very often. I think that unless something grand happens, we shrug off these days as "the norm." I wish I could appreciate all the good that happens in a day. Even on our bad days - I think it'd be a safe bet that on most bad days, there is probably more good that happened than bad (we just remember the bad stuff so easily).

I've been trying to change something to help out with this. When people ask me how my day is, or how my weekend was, my typical response is "not too bad." It's not that I mean I didn't have a fine weekend, it's just the language I've adopted over the years. Anyway, my boss pointed out the negativity of this statement a while back and I agreed with her point. If you've fallen prey to this phrase too, then try what I'm doing and banish it for a week. See if it makes any difference. I'll let you know how I'm doing.

Groundhog Day

Rise and shine campers! Don't forget your booties because it's cold out there today!

You know, we have some strange traditions here in the United States. Where else in the world do people wake up on some random day and wait to see what an animal does when he comes out of his den - this is even more ridiculous with the staged show that goes on up in Gobbler's Knob. I mean come on, how would we ever know what Phil's reaction is with all those people holding him up for the cameras? Anyway, I just find it an odd tradition - but at we got a movie out of it that's pretty quotable. And let's be honest, that's what's really important here.

I'm a bit skeptical of Phil's forecast this year. We just concluded the 10th warmest January in Richmond's history. So if we're going to have more winter, does it mean a mean ice storm is on it's way, or does it mean that more 60-degree days are in our future? Oh well, the mild winter is nice, but I'm looking forward to being in San Diego in about a week where it'll be close to 70 each day!