Healthcare organizations are leveraging real-time, web-based applications to increase operational efficiency. During this 90-minute audio conference on CD-ROM, you learn how healthcare organizations are using enterprise portals to achieve these goals.

Our expert panel includes:

• Gary Austin, Director IT Strategy and Health Management Services, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts;
• Deborah Kohn, Principal, DAK Systems Consulting; and
• Larry Stofko, VP, IT Strategy and Innovations, St. Joseph Health System

You'll get details on:

• the stages of portal evolution;
• an overview of portal software used to deploy web applications;
• which applications provide the best ROI;
• learn how St. Joseph's has achieved an average of 30 percent adoption of its physician portal;
• hear why Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts is paying its members to complete HRAs;
• integrating data across different systems;
• the challenges in deploying enterprise portal technology;
• quantified benefits of enterprise portals;
• early results from an e-visit program at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts;
• security/role-based access; and
• new trends in enterprise portals in 2004.

Who Will Benefit from this audio-conference?

CEOs/presidents, CIOs, e-business directors, vice presidents, health plan executives, and strategic planning directors.

Speaker Biographies:

Gary Austin

Gary M. Austin is the Director of Health Management Systems Delivery at BlueCross BlueShield of Massachusetts. Since joining the company in 2002, Gary has served as both Director of IT Strategy as well as Director of IT Strategy and Architecture. In his current position as Director of Health Management Systems Delivery, Gary is responsible for the oversight and delivery of all health management systems supporting utilization, disease, case, and population management. He also co-chairs the corporate eCommerce Steering Committee, and serves on the Diversity Committee and Senior Management Committee.

Deborah Kohn

The principal of Dak Systems Consulting, Deborah Kohn, has twenty-five years of health care management and information technology experience. This includes several years of experience in hospital management positions, in systems design and marketing positions with one of the nation's leading suppliers of health care information systems, and in technology architecture consulting. Since founding Dak in 1985, Ms. Kohn has earned a nationally recognized reputation for her expertise in strategically architecting component technologies of Computer-based Patient Record/Electronic Patient Record systems. She has published many articles on health care delivery and information systems. Also, she is a sought-after speaker on CPR/EPR systems as they relate to web initiatives, document management technology, diagnostic image technology, and other health care technology applications.

Larry Stofko

Larry J. Stofko joined the St. Joseph Health System (SJHS) IT executive management team in April 2000 and currently serves as Vice President for IT Strategy & Innovation. SJHS is a non-profit 15-hospital delivery system operating in California, Texas and New Mexico with annual revenues of $2.7 billion. He is responsible for the development and direction of a comprehensive information technology and e-health strategy for the organization, as well as providing key areas of oversight and management in the organization’s 10 year IT outsourcing agreement with Perot Systems Corporation.

Over the past several years, Larry has assumed corporate-wide responsibilities for four functional areas: IT strategic planning and architecture, physician integration, e-health strategy and delivery, and managed care systems. He has provided key leadership to the successful deployment of physician information access and connectivity, establishment of multiple entity-based SJHS branded web portals, and the planning and deployment of the employee intranet. Most recently, he has laid the groundwork for system-wide Care Redesign foundational technology, including clinical documentation and computerized physician order entry (CPOE) systems, based on a strategy that maximizes existing investments.