| Once again, we had a great turnout on a cold January day where 40+ of you gathered at PRNewswire offices to welcome the New Year and discuss the topics that are so important to us all as healthcare consumers.
First of all I would like to thank PRNewswire for continuing their support and sponsorship of our meetup in 2010. If you have any press release needs please contact Laurie (Laurie.Wheeler at multiview.com). Secondly, I would like to welcome Shauna to a role of a medical advisor for this growing group. Shauna, has actually been with us since we had 4 people in a small conference room by Penn Station and always provides us with valuable feedback with an eye of a clinician. Shauna is an up -to-date Family Physician for over 10 years in the UK National Health Service where Primary Care is focused on preventive medicine and wellness, with GPs forming the foundation of Medical Professionals, serving the role of Gatekeeper. Routine work involves patient-centered care, practicing evidence-based medicine, empowering patients to be actively and jointly involved in their health and wellbeing, and consciously apportioning the resources of the Govt. She is a Royal College Member, her Consultation skills and keen interest on clinical excellence, aiming for best outcomes for health and holistic approach to clinical practice allows her insights and experience to contribute to our Group on every level (as she has been for over a year)
January's meetup topic was "enabling better care by enabling clinical staff". Our healthcare system is swarming with inefficiencies, high costs and lack of transparency. While we are (or should be) the stewards of our own health, the clinical staff needs some help. 
Our first presenter, Matthew Browning, who was a sponsor for HealthCampNYC, is a passionate and vocal person. His company YourNurseIsOn is completely focused on inefficiencies that exist in nurse scheduling. As a Family Nurse Practitioner, he saw a gap and a need to solve it. We captured a short clip of Matthew and you can review his slides below. 
I had an MRI done just a few weeks ago - no worries - i will live! :) And as an engaged patient, I ran downstairs to request my images and in <30 min I had it, but boy would I love to get the images somewhere in the cloud for other radiologists to read it and collaborate together. Francisco & Chris from OmniPACS provide just that. While their main target market are radiology departments and not individual consumers, they are offering a piece of software - OmniPACS router that sits in the office but the rest is hands off. Instead of maintaining all the infrastructure and the headaches that come with it, OmniPACS provides all that in the cloud.
Our wonderful Lynn Nezin lead a session on healthcare resolutions for 2010. She did a great job bundling your contributions into the below slides.
See you all next month. Agenda and speakers to be announced soon | 
