Deputy Director of Telemedicine and Advanced Technology Research Center to Deliver Plenary Address at Upcoming NOSORH HIT Summit

October 16, 2009 -- Sterling Heights, Michigan

Col. Ron Poropatich, MD, deputy director of the U.S. Army Telemedicine and Advanced Technology Research Center (TATRC), will deliver the plenary address at the upcoming Preparing for Tomorrow Today – Meet the Experts in Health Information Technology summit being held by the National Organization of State Offices of Rural Health (NOSORH). The summit will take place on Tuesday, November 17 at the Hilton Garden Inn Downtown in Austin, Texas.

TATRC, the U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command’s central laboratory for advanced technology research, carries out medical science/advanced technology research programs designed to provide maximum benefits to military medicine and national healthcare. Building upon its unique relationships with government, academia and industry, TATRC programs in medical robotics, health information technologies, medical imaging technologies, advanced prosthetics & human performance, computational biology, biomonitoring technologies and simulation & training technology seek to address ever-changing medical requirements both on the battlefield and in hospitals of the future.

Poropatich, who is also a practicing pulmunory/critical care medicine physician at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, DC, is a former president/board member of the American Telemedicine Association and currently serves as associate editor of the Telemedicine and e-Health Journal. Poropatich was instrumental in implementing the use of advanced technologies to support deployed forces as far back as 1993 when he was deployed to Somalia during Operation Restore Hope.

NOSORH’s day-long Preparing for Tomorrow Today summit is designed to help State Offices of Rural Health, State Departments of Health Information Technology, electronic health record specialists, rural network leaders and others identify model programs, tap into the expertise of various public/private agencies, develop models of collaboration and form recommendations for improving health information technologies. A summit agenda and registration information – as well as information regarding NOSORH’s annual meeting in Austin on November 18 and 19 – is available http://www.nosorh.org/news/annualmeeting.php. Please note the Hilton Garden Inn Downtown’s registration deadline is Friday, October 23.

Editor’s Note: For additional information, please contact NOSORH Executive Director Teryl Eisinger at teryle@nosorh.org or (586) 739-9940 or NOSORH Communications Coordinator Bill Hessert at billh@nosorh.org or (814) 308-8697.