Our January Health TechNet meeting focused on important new concerns and regulations relating to the handling of hazardous substances by laboratories at many of the nation's hospitals and private laboratories in populated areas, as well as a new project CMS has underway to equip hospital leadership (management and Board members) with new tools to measure and improve hospital quality.
The meeting featured the presentations of Leslie Platt from Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman and Greg Laughlin, also with Pillsbury and a former Congressman from Texas and member of the House Ways and Means Committee, as well as Mark Koepke from CMS. Mr. Platt provided us with an overview on safety issues in academic and company research laboratories focused on CDC infectious and biohazardous agents while Mr. Laughlin covered the topic of House Subcommittee hearings on reported problems and system failures in CDC research programs at various U.S. academic, company and government labs. Mr. Koepke provided us with an overview of a draft for Hospital Leadership and Quality Assessment Tool©. This draft survey is designed to assess the perceptions of Board members and hospital leadership about important areas of clinical quality improvement in their hospitals.
Edgar Bueno of Pillsbury also briefed the group on a new California Privacy law which requires notification of all affected patients in the event of a breach of private health information.
Other matters of interest to the Washington area technology community were also discussed.
Presentations of the speakers are attached.