(ANSI: New York) -- The Healthcare Information Standards Technology Panel (HITSP) announced today the launch of a new education and outreach campaign that will build awareness of the importance of health care information sharing, the role of the HITSP in enabling health care information technology (HIT) interoperability, and opportunities for stakeholders to become engaged in the panel’s work.

Organized by the HITSP Education, Communications and Outreach (HITSP-ECO) Committee, the series includes a total of nine sessions that will be presented throughout the summer of 2008.

“We are reaching out to a wide range of audiences to explain the value of HITSP and its work products,” explained Dr. Walter Suarez, co-chair of the HITSP-ECO Committee and president and CEO of the Institute for HIPAA/HIT Education and Research. “Raising awareness and understanding of the panel’s interoperability specifications will affect how the standards are ultimately adopted and used by the industry.”

The first webinar, “Standardizing How We Share Information in Healthcare: An Introduction to HITSP,” will be held on Thursday, June 5 from 2:00 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. This webinar will offer a solid base of HIT knowledge for consumers, government representatives and policy makers, healthcare providers, standards developers, vendors, and any other interested stakeholder.

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