Susan Houck Clark, BS, RHIT, CHTS-PW, CHTS-IM, SD Clark Consulting, LLC.
LinkedIn: Susan Houck Clark
Column: Clark on Connecting
There are two kinds of joy I carried home from the Medicaid Enterprise Systems Conference (MESC) this year in Milwaukee. One was unexpected and a little quirky, the discovery of a mobile karaoke truck on the last day of the conference (yes, that really happened). The other was more lasting, the joy of making and sharing #clonnections.
At Briljent’s party, I had the good fortune to deepen one of my existing clonnections. My friend Terri Stewart, CEO of SYNCRONYS, New Mexico’s health information exchange (HIE), introduced me to her technology partner, Braydon Harwood of Orion Health. Braydon recently relocated from New Zealand to Texas, and the three of us found ourselves trying our hand at dartball, a Midwestern bar sport I had never even heard of before that night. There’s nothing like throwing darts at a baseball diamond on a board to spark good conversation and laughter.
The following day, I met Michael Pancook, Health Information Technology Coordinator for Maine’s Department of Health and Human Services. Michael is part of the team that works closely with my connection, Shaun Alfreds, CEO at HealthInfoNet, Maine’s HIE. My colleagues and I at Converge Health had just been in conversation with Shaun, so it was a delight to meet another member of Maine’s health IT community.
What happened next is what I love most about #clonnections: they multiply. I introduced Michael to Braydon, since Orion also happens to be the platform behind HealthInfoNet. In the same conversation, Terri was able to share insights from initiatives in New Mexico that Maine may want to learn from. What began as a casual introduction quickly turned into knowledge exchange across three states and two vendors, all in a conference breakout room.
And the timing couldn’t have been better. Michael was also eager to learn more about the CMS 0057 rule and its implementation. Sitting right behind us was my friend Mark Scrimshire of Onyx, who played a pivotal role in developing the HL7 standards embedded in that very regulation through the DaVinci project. I smiled and said, “Boy do I have the right guy for you!” and made yet another connection.
That’s the beauty of MESC and of #clonnections. One moment you’re singing karaoke in a truck or tossing a dart at a board you don’t understand, and the next you’re linking people who will shape the future of Medicaid technology across the country.
I left Milwaukee with a full heart, a handful of new contacts, and the reminder that while conferences are about sessions and exhibits, the real magic is in the clonnections we make between them.
If you are interested in full time or fractional strategic planning or implementation of technology and data innovation, privacy & security, or federal and state legislation and regulation, please reach out to me at sdclarkconsulting@gmail.com
