The Medical Panel is thrilled to have recently joined the Healthcare Convention & Exhibitors Association (HCEA) and supports their vision for quality, ongoing education, leading market research, strategic resources and networking. Most all of us in the healthcare industry want to attend the events that provide us the optimum return on our time and investment. HCEA strives to help the industry do just that by representing organizations with the common desire to improve the effectiveness and promote the value of appropriate conventions, meetings, and exhibitions. Originally launched as the Medical Exhibitors Association (MEA) in 1930, it has since grown and gone through multiple changes until becoming the HCEA in 1973. The association hosts the annual Healthcare Convention Marketing Summit and has a great searchable database of medical meetings.

During this year’s annual meeting, they announced the president as well as the lineup of officers and directors for the 2014-2015 season. Announcement below:

ATLANTA — Diane Benson, CTSM, Americas Exhibits Leader, GE Healthcare, was named President of the Healthcare Convention & Exhibitors Association (HCEA) for 2014-2015. Benson assumed the role of HCEA President during the 2014 HCEA Annual Meeting in Cleveland, Ohio, June 21-24.

Benson’s more than 25-year career in trade show marketing spans both the exhibitor and supplier sides of this industry. Currently President of HCEA and a member of EXHIBITOR magazine’s Editorial Advisory Board, Diane holds a BS degree in Business Marketing from the University of Phoenix. As one of the earliest CTSM’s in the industry, Diane was awarded her Diamond upgrade in 2012, and is currently one of only seven Diamond-level CTSM’s in the world.

During her acceptance speech at the HCEA Annual Meeting, Benson emphasized the importance of sharing knowledge with one another to ensure the continued success of HCEA as an organization and the industry: “HCEA is a community unlike any other. No one else offers the unique blend of corporate healthcare exhibitors, association meeting planners, and trusted business partners, where we collaborate to share best practices, learn whatever is important to move our businesses forward and learn how to compliantly and consistently deliver strong, successful results to our stakeholders.” Benson continued, “In all my years in this industry, I have received more encouragement, more support, more answers to my questions from HCEA than with any other group of people in my professional career.”

Benson has been involved with HCEA since the late 1980s and has served on the HCEA Board of Directors since 2010. Benson served as HCEA President-Elect during 2013-2014.

The Healthcare Convention & Exhibitors Association (HCEA) also announced its officers and directors at the 2014 HCEA Annual Meeting, June 21-24, in Cleveland, Ohio.  Diane Benson, CTSM, GE Healthcare, was inducted as President. Other 2014-2015 Board officers are:

President-Elect– Christine Farmer, Sanofi; Vice President – Don Schmid, MBA, CME/H, Hospira, Inc.; Secretary/Treasurer – Christine DiDomenico, MBA; and Immediate Past President – Sue Huff, Medtronic, Inc.

The Association’s 2013-2015 Directors are:

Ann Marie Bermudez, Daiichi Sankyo, Inc.; Cassandra Costello, Actelion Pharmaceuticals; Carol Fields, CME/H, Edwards Lifesciences; and Julie Wojda, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals.

The Association’s 2014-2015 Directors are:

Laine Mann, Pfizer; Kyle Wood, Group Delphi; Neketa Argrow, Alcon; and Stacey Chandler, CEM, American College of Rheumatology.

The Association’s Appointed Directors serving a one-year term are:

Teresa Lerch, American College of Physicians; and Chip Carman, Blue Telescope.

About HCEA:

The Healthcare Convention & Exhibitors Association (HCEA) is the only association solely dedicated to improving the effectiveness and promoting the value of all conventions, meetings and exhibitions for the healthcare industry. HCEA represents organizations involved in healthcare exhibitions and conventions.

Integrated delivery networks or systems (IDN’s) have great potential to help reduce healthcare costs as well as improve efficiency and quality of care.  Labor, not surprisingly is the number one cost, of a healthcare facility. The second largest expense is in supply chain management — the purchasing of inventory, including products, devices, and all the items needed to run a network of healthcare facilities and healthcare providers.  It is clear that the health system’s purchasing director have a clear view of each touchpoint from the final point of consumption through the ordering process all the way back to the dock.

If you influence product or equipment purchase decisions for a hospital or non-acute care facility (including physician practices, surgery centers, clinics, etc.) that’s part of an IDN, we need to hear how you operate – from tools that work or don’t work and everything in between.  Are you experience savings?  Please tell us what you think — we’ll pay you $100 for participating in an online survey that takes about 15 minutes.  Click here to learn more!  Feel free to share with industry associates who deal with the same issues you manage.

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We’ve noted a few of the integrated delivery systems in the US below, for your perusal, which incorporate many hospitals and numerous sites of care.  Of course, there are many more systems out there and likely many more to come.

Advocate Health Care (Oak Brook, IL) — 13 hospitals. Advocate Health Care was named one of the top 10 U.S. health systems in quality and efficiency by Thomson Reuters in 2009 and 2010. Combined, the systems hospitals have more than 3,000 beds and more than 28,000 employees, as well as partnering with 3,600 physicians on the medical staffs of Advocate hospitals, who are part of the managed care joint venture, Advocate Physician Partners. www.advocateHealth.com

Intermountain Healthcare (Salt Lake City, Utah) — 23 hospitals.  According to SDI Health, Intermountain Healthcare is the fifth most integrated system in the country which comprises a third of all hospitals in Utah. Intermountain was launched with 15 hospitals in 1974 by the Church of Latter Day Saints and currently has over 32,000 employees. This IDN system runs Intermountain Medical Group, which includes over 750 doctors and clinicians, as well as the insurance company SelectHealth, which has approximately 500,000 members. www.IntermountainHealthcare.org

MultiCare Health System (Tacoma, WA) — 4 hospitals.  MultiCare Health System has been part of the top 100 integrated health systems for 11 consecutive years, as well as one of the nation’s most wired systems according to Health IT Magazine in 2013. There are more than 93 locations and over 1,000 physicians on staff, yet it manages to be one of the few health systems in the nation to have a full electronic health record system. www.multicare.org

Sentara Healthcare (Norfolk, VA) — 8 hospitals. Sentara began in 1888 with a mere 25 beds in Norfolk. Currently, it is running on ten years as one of Modern Healthcare’s top integrated healthcare systems and has grown to more than 100 sites of care. They are national leaders in heart and kidney care, stroke care, and infection prevention, and were the first in the nation to pursue and eICU – a remote monitoring system for intensive care. Two of its hospitals, Sentara Norfolk General and Sentara Heart Hospital, rank among the nation’s best heart programs as reported in U.S. News & World Report’s Best Hospitals 2010-2011. www.sentara.com

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