Key Chapter Topics
Clinical Informatics
Clinical Informatics (aka. Health Informatics) promotes the understanding, integration, and application of information technology in healthcare settings.
HIMSS supports the role of clinicians working in these vital communities by providing thought leadership, networking opportunities, clinical informatics job information, degree programs, salary information, research, resources, virtual and in-person education. And the HIMSS team is here to help you with several resources to grow your chapter’s clinician membership base.
Step by Step: Engage & Interact with More Clinicians
Community Care Outcomes Maturity Model (C-COMM)
The Community Care Outcomes Maturity Model (C-COMM) moves beyond traditional outpatient clinics and is designed to address a more comprehensive array of non-acute care settings in the community, measuring foundational elements of digital maturity to improve care delivery and outcomes.
Health Equity
Engage in Health Equity - Beyond Global Health Equity Week
- Get involved in the Global Health Equity Network. To join, login to the HIMSS member center and add under "Chapter and Community Participation"
- African American Community
- Latinx Community
- Women in Health IT Community
- Native American and Indigenous Peoples Community
- Advocate at the state and provincial level for health equity
- Leverage the Public Policy Points of Engagement
- Engage with the HIMSS Legislative Action Center
- Set up a Chapter-led state-level virtual march – Contact policy@himss.org to learn more.
- Continue to promote Virtual Marches
- Identify and contact elected officials.
- Track state legislation.
- Hold chapter brainstorming/planning meetings and webinars on health equity
- Browse the HIMSS Learning Center for webinars on equity
- Identify and highlight women and people of color as webinar speakers
- Create a health equity or diversity committee
- Put out a chapter statement on diversity and equity (Check out the Tennessee Chapter’s statement.)
- Submit a member profile to be recognized through the Global Health Equity Monthly Update.
- Ensure chapter initiatives allow equal opportunity for all
Contacts:
Global Health Equity Week and Network: ghen@himss.org
Women in Health IT
The HIMSS Women in Health IT Community is addressing the gender gap in health information and technology, and the need for more community, resources and recognition of women who have made a difference sector-wide in our mission to improve health through the best use of information and technology.
The HIMSS Women in Health IT Community’s primary purpose is to foster thought-provoking discussions to reduce the gender gap, equip women for ever-increasing leadership roles, and recognize influential women at every health IT level.
The Women in Health IT Community page curates information on upcoming webinars, podcasts, and blogs. In addition, Healthcare IT News hosts a dedicated section of the website – "a room of one's own" and a newsletter with resources and news focused on the achievements of Women in Health IT.
Opportunities to Engage
Host a Women in Health IT event
- Education seminar – Plan a special event for Women in Health IT that provides multiple education sessions focused on topics that are top of my mind.
- Panel discussion – Engage influential women to take part in a discussion, this can be on a webinar or in a meeting room as part of a special day event or pre-scheduled conference.
- Networking event – Add a reception to your calendar of events or include in an upcoming conference schedule.
Submit the event details to chapters@himss.org to post on the HIMSS Calendar of Events. Contact us for recommended speakers or panelists.
When hosting an event please communicate this message to attendees:
HIMSS Women in Health IT initiative is inclusive to all people and welcomes attendees of all gender identities. The intent of Women in Health IT events is to form a welcoming community of all those who empower, support, and advance women while addressing the gender gap in health information and technology.
Mentorship
- Create Mentoring circles at upcoming chapter meetings and conferences
- Select topics in advance and ask attendees to select which discussion they would like to participate in
- Topic examples: Future of the Industry, Board Bound, Work/Life Balance, New to Healthcare IT
- Assign a moderator (mentor) to lead each discussion
- Select topics in advance and ask attendees to select which discussion they would like to participate in
- Match chapter members into one on one mentoring or group mentoring relationships
- Match based on area of interest, competency level, and available time commitment
- Mentoring matches work best when the mentee selects the mentor
- Someone can be both a mentor and mentee, based on the subject matter level of expertise
- To avoid conflicts, determine upfront the end date of formal mentorship relationships and the maximum number of concurrent relationships a mentor will accept
Share your Story
- Contribute an article to the Chapter eNews
- Is there a woman in your chapter who should be recognized for her successes?
- Write a blog post
- Give advice on how you achieved workplace accomplishments
- Provide insight on current events affecting women
Examples of chapter events
GIC HIMSS Women in Leadership Event - Playing to Win in Business
Join us on May 18 as we celebrate Women in Leadership with guest speaker Shirley Weis. Shirley went from the bedside to the boardroom in her nursing career, becoming a senior leader at Mayo Clinic, one of the most famous healthcare organizations in the world. Her success was not due to luck but to an understanding of the rules of the game of business.
Northern California Chapter - Women in Healthcare IT Event - Path to Success
The event will be headlined by some of healthcare IT’s top women including political advisors, journalists, C-level executives and technologists. There will be no-holds barred discussions about achieving success as women in HIT. These leaders will share their first-hand experiences and will be available for consultation and Q&A in small group table discussions.
VA Chapter of HIMSS, Inaugural Women in Healthcare IT forum
Deborah Davis will begin the evening with a CEO’s perspective on transforming Healthcare IT in today’s dynamic business environment. Immediately following we’ll hear from a panel of leaders who are responsible for executing on their respective organization’s vision.
Engage with Social Media
Use your existing social media outlets to post a blog, tweet, or promote upcoming events with #WomeninHIT.
- Great social media content:
- Invites responses by asking questions
- Shares provocative, thought-leading insights
- Focuses on the value of health IT
- Celebrates the health IT community and its progress
- Has a clear and engaging call to action
- Celebrates the health IT community and its progress
- Focuses on the value of health IT
- Shares provocative, thought-leading insights
- Produce an event recap:
- Pen a blog post:
- Sharing original posts on the value of health IT from your unique perspective not only clues your audiences in on who you are but highlights your contribution to the collective and ongoing health IT conversation. Blog posts should focus on idea sharing and thought leadership and should avoid any mention of products or services.
Fundraising
Create promotional products with no risk to the chapter. Use a site, such as Custom Ink, to sell custom products and collect payment. You can create a design and fill the orders all online. The chapter does not need to purchase inventory and manage the shipment. At the end of the campaign, the company will send a check and report of all who participated.
You can also create a design competition to garner further interest before the campaign opens. The fundraising site allows for multiple designs per campaign. Find out more here.
Additional Resources
2018 HIMSS U.S. Compensation Survey and Salary Calculator
HIMSS Longitudinal Gender Compensation Assessment
Leveraging nine years of data (2006 to 2015) from the biennial HIMSS Compensation survey reveals that on average, female HIT workers in the United States have consistently been paid less than their male peers. A gap which seems to exist no matter how the data is cut, and one which appears to have widened over the years. Download the full report.
NCWIT
The NCWIT Affinity Alliance represents a national network of change leader organizations that convene, educate, support, and mobilize advocates of NCWIT's mission to significantly increase the meaningful participation of girls and women in computing. Access NCWIT Resources.
LeanIn
Research shows that we feel more confident and are able to accomplish more in groups. Lean In Circles are small peer groups that meet regularly to learn and grow together. We run a network of more than 33,000 Circles in cities and on campuses around the world, and they are changing lives. Members are asking for more, stepping outside their comfort zones, and leaning in.
Awareness Days
- International Women's Day – March 8 annually
- A global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women. The day also marks a call to action for accelerating gender parity.
- Women's Equal Pay Day
- This date symbolizes how far into the year women must work to earn what men earned in the previous year.
- National Women's Health Week - Begins Mother's Day annually
- National Women's Health Week is an observance led by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office on Women's Health. The goal is to empower women to make their health a priority. The week also serves as a time to encourage women to take steps to improve their health.
- Women's Equality Day – August 26 annually
- The observance of Women’s Equality Day not only commemorates the passage of the 19th Amendment but also calls attention to women’s continuing efforts toward full equality.