NJDVHIMSS 2021 Virtual Fall Conference


Every fall, we look forward to connecting with key vendors, sponsors, and members to discuss the innovation of healthcare. In the past this event has taken place at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City. This year at the 14th annual DVNJHIMSS event, we went virtual and welcomed 300-plus vendors, sponsors, and members to participate in exciting educational sessions to hear presenters offer insight into the latest trends in healthcare technology.

Starting Strong on Day One

We kicked off the event with opening remarks from our chapter’s President, Kennedy Ganti. Then, Timothy J. Friel, MD, Lehigh Valley Health Network Chair, Department of Medicine Infectious Diseases, started off with his keynote presentation that focused on the transformation that took place in healthcare during the COVID-19 pandemic and the chaos that ensued due to the virus.

Friel indicated that COVID-19 was the defining moment of his career. “There was some fear and uncertainty, but at the same time I think there was a call to arms,” said Friel. “Really it was one of the first times that I think people were demanded and demanded from themselves the need to step up to the occasion to provide care and bring order to the looming chaos that was seeking its way to American shores.” He ended the presentation by indicating that vaccines continue to be effective and save lives.

Virtual Vendor Hall

After this keynote presentation, and throughout the event, registrants had the opportunity to stop by the virtual sponsor hall where vendors set up virtual booths to promote their company, solutions, and address questions via Zoom. Prizes were offered to encourage attendees to stop by sponsors’ booths.

Wrapping Up Day One

After the virtual vendor hall, there was a panel discussion titled, “Data Liquidity in the Era of COVID-19.” The panel discussion was moderated by Jose Horta, Director of Client Services at Healthjump, Inc. and featured the following panelists: Cliff Cavanaugh, Chief Technology Officer, of Healthjump, Inc., Christopher Williams, M.D., Chief of Ophthalmology at Crozer-Chester Medical Center, and Sam Wilson, Chief Technology Officer and Co-Founder of Bainbridge Health.

“This isn’t just a rebranding of interoperability,” said Sam Wilson. “What we’re saying is that the data needs to be part of this ambient environment. It’s more than just saying I can ship records from here to there. It’s being able to say that at the point of interaction, that you have the ability to address the data you need, to answer the questions that are relevant to that (patient) encounter.”

The next panel discussion on Wednesday was moderated by Dr. Anthony Rosania and featured the following panelsits: Dr. Matthew Hoffman, MD, MPH FACOG, Endowed Chair, Department of OB/GYN, Director Center for Women & Children’s Health Research at ChristianaCare, Edmund Pribitkin, M.D., Executive Vice President at Jefferson Health, and Mona Liza Hamlin, MSN, RN, IBCLC, Nurse Manager of Perinatal Resources, Community Programs and Milk Bank for Women’s & Children’s Services at ChristianaCare.

This session focused on experiences that providers had, and how they were forced to remain creative in their delivery of patient care over the past year since the landscape of patient and provider care was transformed and transitioned to mostly in-person to remote.

The last keynote presentation was hosted by Superbowl champion and former scout, Carly Helfand who detailed her journey of working with the Philadelphia Eagles, the Philadelphia Soul, the University of Pennsylvania and then ultimately making her way to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers where she played a key role in leading the team to its 2020 Super Bowl victory.

Kicking Off Day Two

On day two, we started off strong with opening remarks from our chapter’s President, Kennedy Ganti. Then Dr. Don Rucker, Former National Coordinator, ONC spoke about the 21st Century Cures Act and the emergence of interoperability in healthcare. “There are some things as consumers that we are on the fence on,” said Rucker. “There are some things in medicine that people are on the fence on. If we went to a market economy in healthcare, there is no doubt in my mind that it would work.”

Following the first keynote presentation, Jennifer D’Angelo, Senior Vice President of the New Jersey Innovation Institute moderated a panel discussion. Panelists for this session included: Bryan Welsh, Manager of Clinical Information Systems at Hunterdon Healthcare, Julia Staas, AVP of Technology at Virtua Health, and Richard Mohnk, CIO of Bayhealth.

This session covered everything from managing employee productivity in a remote and hybrid workforce, security implications of remote workforce, the technology that was used and what health IT looks like in a hybrid environment. They each discussed their own experiences, best practices, lessons learned and the current structure of their work environment.

The final panel discussion was moderated by Gerry Blass, CEO of ComplyAssit and featured the following panelists: Mark Ferrari, Co-Founder and CEO of Latitude Information Security, Ron Belfont, CISO of Bayhealth and Frank Sinatra, CISO at University Hospital. The panelists all discussed how their organizations responded to COVID. Each panelist zeroed in on COVID-related security demands, and the challenges they experienced.

2021 Virtual Sponsors

A special thank you to our 19 sponsors for supporting our chapter as this event couldn’t take place without you and to everyone who joined us this year to make our virtual fall event a successful one! 

Session Recordings

Be sure to visit the DVNJHIMSS website and click the "2021 downloads" button in the top navigation menu to rewatch all the keynote presentations and panel discussions.