National Institute for Health Innovation (NIHI)

Although there’s been quite a lot of pre-conference activity, we only arrived in the early hours of this morning (Sunday), had a short sleep and I met up with Jim at 8.30 to go off to the conference. We’re struck by how big everything is. The conference building is massive. The brochures talk about 20,000 people attending but the building is so big that it’s hard to get a feel for that many people. The opening plenary by Dennis Quaid was in a hall so big that the giant screens were essential for anyone beyond the front row to see the real person. He talked about the medical error his twin babies experienced with heparin when they were in hospital for a staph infection and issued a call for action to health informaticians to develop information technology to help reduce this kind of risk.

Prof Jim Warren (NIHI, University of Auckland) and Dr Shane Reti (BIDMC, Harvard Medical School)

Jim and I met up with Shane Reti, who’s really enjoying the buzz of being in the US with so much happening as a result of the economic crisis. His energy was palpable as he talked about the innovative things he’s involved in with the hospital and university he’s working with here in the US. Very different from Whangarei! In size, speed and sheer enormity of what’s happening over here. He’s also involved in a huge EHR project in Dubai where they’re installing an EHR that spans primary and secondary care. It was really inspiring talking with him and hearing about his exciting experiences.