AEHIS 2018, A Year In Review

1.9.19
By Zach Donisch, Director, AEHIS, AEHIT, AEHIA Membership 

AEHIS members,

Welcome to 2019! Our association for security leaders is bursting at the seams with new opportunity, and in addition to highlighting some big initiatives for the upcoming year, it’s a pleasure to recap our successes in 2018. Over the last year, AEHIS has engaged in public policy on a national stage, grown our membership significantly, taken bigger bolder steps toward our fall summit, and expanded our education. By all indications, 2019 should continue those trends and more!

The AEHIS public policy team met regularly throughout the course of the year, and had significant influence in Washington, D.C. This year marked the first time an AEHIS member testified before a congressional committee, when 2018 Board Chair Erik Decker spoke to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce on cyber-preparedness. AEHIS members also contributed heavily to the Health Sector Coordinating Council, Joint Cybersecurity Working Group – four of the nine leaders helping to steer the group are AEHIS and CHIME members serving in leadership roles in our organization.

This year, we’ve made great strides in education and professional development. Thanks to strong work by our AEHIS Education committee, we’ve doubled the number of online webinars offered and begun to offer podcasting opportunities for members and industry partners. We’ve also ramped up our AEHIS Focus Groups, allowing CISOs and security leaders the opportunity to offer feedback on industry partner initiatives and make their voices heard. In addition to our ongoing efforts, the AEHIS Fall Summit Planning Committee took a bold look at what was possible for the AEHIS Fall Summit, and in addition to a fantastic agenda, we doubled our attendance from 2017.

Thanks to word of mouth from members, recruiting opportunities at industry events and more, AEHIS gained over 150 new members in 2018. With more nodes in our network, we become an even stronger organization. AEHIS’s goal is to connect healthcare information security leaders and transform healthcare IT. With additional engaged members, we draw closer to that vision of a transformative organization for this industry!

Looking ahead to 2019, we’re increasingly excited about opportunities to partner with CHIME on new education and professional development initiatives. We look forward to offering more webinars and focus groups for members to learn, network and ask important questions that can help them solve problems. Our industry partners are eager to share their knowledge and passion for healthcare information with you, and we hope you’ll attend many webinars and events throughout 2019 to help foster our community of like-minded security leaders.

AEHIS will be continuing the development of a healthcare information security credential to signify excellence in healthcare-specific information security work. Engaged members met in 2018 to begin development, and CHIME and AEHIS will continue these efforts in 2019. We’re looking forward to aligning our professional development opportunities in a CHIME-like mold, while still providing the connection and expertise of information security leaders you’ve come to expect from AEHIS.

I look forward to your continued involvement in AEHIS and all the exciting opportunities to join healthcare information security leaders in changing healthcare. If you have any questions about your membership or how to get engaged in your association – please reach out to me at zdonisch@chimecentral.org.

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