Healthcare informatics conference to emphasise real-world experience

Experiences of real-life implementation and change will feature at this year's BCS Healthcare Computing Conference (HC2007).

The event, which takes place on 19-21 March in Harrogate, will focus on how informatics challenges the boundaries in the healthcare context, concentrating on actual experiences and what practitioners need and want to know, said the BCS.

Organised by the BCS Health Informatics Forum, HC2007 combines the interests of information technology and management practitioners, clinicians and researchers.

Stephen Kay, a professor on the BCS Scientific Programme Committee, said, "Challenging boundaries is what we do, simply because much of it has not been done before in a healthcare context. The boundaries need to be tackled and overcome, but it is not easy.

"Whether it be NHS Connecting for Health endeavouring to implement the largest national IT programme of its kind in the world, or innovative research seeking to discover new knowledge on which to base our work practices and systems, the boundaries are there to be crossed."

The conference will hear from a range of high-profile speakers including BCS president Nigel Shadbolt, a world leader in the field of artificial intelligence, who will talk about the semantic web and its relevance to healthcare.

Kevin Dean, managing director of Cisco Systems' Public Sector Healthcare Internet Business Solutions Group, will provide an overview of the current and emerging technologies and the challenges that these bring for the future of electronically enabled healthcare.

Lord Hunt, minister of state for NHS reform, will provide an update on the National Programme for IT in the NHS and will describe the strategic framework within which work is being done in the NHS in England.

Delegates will have the opportunity to listen to case studies of implementations at various hospitals, which will focus on risk assessment, project design, success factors, approaches and lessons learnt.

As well as keynote sessions, delegates will also have the opportunity to attend panel and paper sessions, tutorials, masterclasses and debates, including a series of workshops entitled "Understanding Healthcare".

There will also be a full exhibition organised by the British Journal of Healthcare Computing with more than 120 stands.

More information:

www.health-informatics.org