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Conference Planning and Meeting Management Projects
Follow-up Activities to the From Prison to Home: The Effects of Incarceration on Children, Families and Low-income Communities
Since 2002, HSR has assisted the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation in facilitating follow up activities for the From Prison to Home conference. Specifically, HSR supports the conduct of workgroups and symposia that convene diverse groups of experts to discuss how children, families, and communities are affected by the incarceration of a parent. These symposiums aim to identify research and program development needs, and the format includes both remarks from notable experts and facilitated discussion among participants. Recently, HSR has facilitated discussion among researchers and program and policy experts on how to strengthen the marriage of men in prison. HSR is developing a summary report that will include recommendations for future collaboration and suggestions to improve outcomes for these children and families.
American Health Information Community (the Community) meetings
Currently, HSR is providing support to the American Health Information Community (the Community), a Federal advisory committee coordinated by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology. The Community was chartered to promote the use of health information technology (HIT) to lower medical costs, improve health care quality, and provide better information for patients and providers. In support of this advisory committee, HSR planned and facilitated a series of conference calls with HIT experts responsible for crafting high-level briefings to the Community. In addition, HSR provides ongoing logistical support for the Community and its six workgroups, maintains a workgroup Web site, and provides transcripts and summaries of each workgroup meeting.
The 2004 National Health Information Infrastructure (NHII) Conference
In the summer of 2004, HSR assisted the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in the conduct of a Secretarial Summit on Health Information Technology and the NHII 04: Cornerstones for Electronic Healthcare conference. This meeting, held in Washington, DC, brought together a broad range of over 1,500 public- and private-sector stakeholders to develop recommendations on an action plan for the adoption of a national health information technology infrastructure.
National Summit on Creating Healthy and Caring Communities
In 2003, HSR planned and managed this major conference for the Administration on Aging, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The agenda included several plenary sessions and 36 concurrent sessions and workshops. The exhibition hall featured 40 exhibitors. Held in Orlando, Florida, the conference attracted around 1,000 registrants. Our meeting planning team oversaw all activities associated with conference planning, conduct, and followup. In addition, we created a Web site that allowed participants to register for the conference online as well as to make hotel reservations at the time they registered. The site also allowed us to collect registration fees using a secure e-commerce provider. It also enabled us to post changes to the agenda or other information and to display the speakers' PowerPoint presentations in an Americans with Disabilities Act-accessible format following the conference.
Secretary's Roundtable of Leading Healthcare Thinkers
In late 2002, Secretary of Health and Human Services Tommy Thompson brought together health care experts from around the country for a 2-day roundtable discussion of major health issues facing the country. Invitees were high-level officials from the public and private sectors. Our meeting planning team had full responsibility for planning and conducting this session. We made all hotel and travel arrangements, worked with a caterer to provide food and beverages, prepared meeting materials, designed the room setups, and provided onsite logistical support.
New Freedom Initiative's National Listening Day
This meeting was convened as part of the Federal Government's New Freedom Initiative, the goal of which is to improve the lives of disabled Americans. The purpose of the National Listening Day was to give disabled persons and other consumer advocates an opportunity to speak directly to senior Administration officials and identify what aspects of Federal policies and programs present barriers to them living independent and productive lives. The program attracted great interest, and HSR's major challenge was to design an agenda and processes that would allow as many disabled persons as possible to share their stories and perspectives.
For this meeting, HSR helped refine the agenda, coordinated publicity and audiovisual needs, and handled the many logistical challenges that arose in ensuring that the needs of all disabled participants were met. At the meeting, a panel of senior officials from 10 Federal departments and agencies and the White House--including U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson--and hundreds of attendees heard testimony from more than 80 disabled Americans and consumer advocates. HSR Director Lawrence Bartlett moderated the meeting.
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