Executive Director's Letter

Dear members and friends of the Alliance:

September always brings mixed feelings for me. Part of me is glad that the unofficial "work season" has started again and that I can dive into the projects and events that have been in development since the late spring season ended and those lazy summer days interrupted the work flow. But, on the other hand, I sure do like the long days and warm weather and the occasional spontaneous trip to the beach or the golf course that summer seems just right for. Well, it's time to put away those white pants and flip-flops because September is here and 'work season' has begun.

Much of my time in August and September goes into the planning for the 2006 Annual Conference. We are down to the last two weeks now and everything is starting to come together. This year's conference will be in San Diego, at the beautiful Hyatt Regency La Jolla hotel, just north of San Diego proper. If you haven't spent any time in this area, I recommend you take a few extra days either before the conference or after and enjoy to great beaches, rocky coast line, and beautiful seaside community around La Jolla. It is sooo California! The agenda went through some last minute changes and surprises, but now I think we have a fantastic, well balanced program for you to enjoy. We have really loaded up on the end-user perspective this year, with most speakers not representing the supplier side of the smart card industry. It is good for our industry to hear more from the customer and user of our technology, rather than from one another for a change. We have issuing banks, issuing transportation agencies, issuing government agencies, and issuing hospitals to name a few examples of this. We also have a few industry-led sessions to remind everyone that smart card technology is always changing and that we need to look within our industry to identify the things that are new but also the things that limit adoption or make smart card technology more difficult to implement than it needs to be. The Alliance went big this year, looking for another Richard Clark-like keynote speaker, and landed R. James Woolsey, the former head of the CIA who now works at Booz Allen Hamilton. Mr. Woolsey promises to give an entertaining perspective on national security as the Thursday luncheon keynote -- so don't plan on leaving early! We will also celebrate new technology and innovation with our first Emerging Technology and Innovation Showcase event where attendees get to judge the selected new technologies on display and pick the "best of the show"-case. Also returning are the popular birds of a feather discussion groups, which give attendees an opportunity to listen and contribute to an informal roundtable discussion on topics important to our industry.

 

Member Profile

This month, Smart Card Talk spoke with Frank Avignone, Vice President of Business Development, Healthmeans.  A healthcare practitioner, Mr. Avignone effectively combines his knowledge of healthcare and his practical experience in the delivery of healthcare services to bring proven leadership, vision and business development expertise.  Prior to joining HealthMeans, Mr. Avignone held executive positions with HealthBlocks Corp., Emergisoft Corporation and KPMG Peat Marwick.  Mr. Avignone’s professional background in the information technologies field includes technical support, development, management consulting, marketing and sales.  Mr. Avignone directs the HealthMeans strategic initiatives to further build the Company’s healthcare offerings and refine the technology business model.  In addition, Mr. Avignone is a licensed healthcare professional, has over 15 years experience in various aspects of healthcare delivery, and chairs the Smart Card Alliance Healthcare Council.

Feature of the Month

Multi-site Hospital System Impliments Smart Card for Patient Management

Throughout the United States, healthcare organizations are now investigating and deploying new information technology that is designed not only to solve the significant challenges that the industry is facing, but that also provide new functionality that improves patient care and the efficiency of healthcare delivery.  Smart card technology is being incorporated into many of these new healthcare systems as an instrumental component that protects and enables convenient access to patient data and that supports new applications that deliver both clinical and administrative benefits.

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