From the HealthCamp Philadelphia website
WHAT IS IT?
HealthCamp is a new kind of healthcare conference, an “un-conference”, where participants make the agenda.
HealthCamp is about putting Web technologies, open standards, mobile and social media, and process innovation to work for better healthcare and health technology. It brings health providers, health industry experts and technology professionals together for one day to exchange ideas informally, locally, openly. Participants themselves provide the content, with break-out sessions they develop themselves and plug into a schedule grid the day of the event. Anyone can present and host a session in nearly any format.
And, it’s FREE.
All you need to do is register before limited space fills up.
Here’s the big idea: promote real understanding of today’s and tomorrow’s health challenges through direct exchange of ideas in an environment of openness, sharing, learning, and inspiration. No filters, no bureaucracy, no pitches. Direct communication among practicing healthcare providers, health communicators and the developers and strategists who build stuff and reengineer processes. The objective? Action, innovation, entrepreneurship, collaboration, advancement. New solutions for healthcare that works in our region. It’s the right time. Expect an intense experience!
Where did this idea come from?
HealthCamps have been hosted in Washington DC, San Francisco, New York and London over the past year or so, with more planned throughout the USA and UK in 2009. The HealthCamp format has been adapted from the very successful BarCamp concept, originated by O’Reilly Media in 2005. Today there have been hundreds of BarCamps all over the world, including the extraordinarily successful BarCampPhilly in November 2008. We learned a lot from the folks who organized it. This conference is a BarCamp for and about Healthcare. It’s HealthCamp.
Who’s behind HealthCamp?
We’re all volunteers, most of us professionals with day jobs in regional health systems, health IT, web development, marketing, public health policy and outreach. You’ll meet us at the event, we’ll be the ones with the “Volunteer” name tags. Say hello, tell us what you’re interested in, and ask for help if you need it. HealthCamp does have business sponsors who are savvy to Health 2.0 and have helped us cover our costs, but there is no commercial entity here building a conference around a product or service that they’re promoting.
WHO SHOULD ATTEND?
If you’re a Health provider who’s ever wondered how technology and innovation can make your job easier, or why it isn’t better at helping you with patient care.
Physicians, Nurses, NPs, PAs & Allied Health Professionals with ideas to share about making technology work for better healthcare
Health Educators & Students interested in discussing ideas for new technologies in health education
Health Communicators & Marketers who want to talk about how new technologies can serve their customers.
Health Policy & Health Economics Pros interested in sharing experiences & ideas on the future of health technology & the health industry, especially in the Philadelphia area
Health and Consumer Advocates who want to talk about health records, privacy & HIPAA, consumer rights, access & data ownership
If you’re a Technology professional who wants to learn about the real issues directly from Healthcare Professionals and Health Industry Leaders, or who wants to exchange ideas with other Tech Pros about tackling these challenges.
Health Technology Professionals involved with Electronic Medical Records, Personal Health Records, Informatics & Interoperability
Web Developers, Designers & Usability experts
Database & Information Architects
Health IT Managers
Software Engineers & Product Developers
Health Project Managers & Analysts
Tech Entrepreneurs & Innovators from the Philly Tech Scene
You Don’t Have to Be an Expert to lead a session
Think bottom-up, not top-down. Participants set the agenda at HealthCamp. The schedule is mostly determined the morning of the event, with no keynotes or marquee speakers. Everyone is encouraged to come with a topic and host a roundtable or panel discussion, a case study, a Q&A on a topic, a stack of slides, a hands-on workshop, or a problem-in-search-of-a-solution. “The Law of Two Feet” prevails:
If at any time during our time together you find yourself in any situation where you are neither learning nor contributing, use your two feet. Go to some other place where you may learn and contribute.
Get there early to sign up for a slot. You’re not required to make a presentation, of course. But we do encourage it, and at the very least, your fellow participants are counting on you and the rest of us to be actively engaged, vocal, and contributing.
Frankly, some of the best sessions have been led by someone who’s simply worked in the trenches for a while, and asks the question “what if…?” among a group of industry peers, each of whom has probably wondered the same thing, but from a different angle.