| Members
of HDWA are health care organizations that practice, plan, design, or develop Enterprise Data Warehouses, or are interested in the same. There are no membership fees required to join or participate in HDWA. HDWA is supported completely by the participating members-it is the professional organization equivalent to open source software. |
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| What is the mission of HDWA and why was it created? |
- To facilitate greater use of analytical information systems that help lower health care costs and improve quality of care
- To advance the state of health care data warehousing and analytics by applying lessons and experience from other industries
- A lack of emphasis by other professional organizations on the operational issues affecting data warehousing in healthcare
- To assist other health care organizations that were just beginning or struggling to be successful with data warehousing and analytics
- To influence vendors-the fairness of their pricing, the quality of their products and services, their willingness to share our risk, and their understanding of issues unique to health care
- To facilitate the development of standards and best practices that could lower the costs of development and operation for Enterprise Data Warehouses in health care
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| How does HDWA accomplish its mission? |
- By fostering collaboration among member organizations
- By sharing lessons learned (both successes and failures)
- By focusing on simplicity and minimizing organizational overhead
- By sponsoring an annual conference for participating members
- By sponsoring monthly conference calls with peers dedicated to lessons learned and brainstorming - none of us is smarter than all of us
- By creating a collegial atmosphere of friends
- We pick up the phone and call each other or send an email and expect a response
- Collaboration --not competition-- with HIMSS, AMIA, and other professional groups
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| Membership Related Principles |
- Growth through word of mouth-- our emphasis is on quality of membership not quantity
- All members contribute knowledge sharing
- Who is encouraged to participate?
- Any health care organization that is interested in supporting the fundamental mission of HDWA
- Who is not encouraged to participate?
- Vendors. The HDWA is not an avenue for sales, though some vendors and consultants are invited to participate on an exception basis, and as approved by the Founding Members, in the interests of knowledge sharing and collaboration
- Membership is held by institutions, not individuals
- Proposed new members of HDWA should be sponsored by an existing member
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| How do I become a member? |
- Return the online HDWA Membership Application to hdwa@ihc.com
- Once the Membership Form is received, you will:
- Be contacted by the HDWA Membership Manager
- Be placed on the email and membership lists
- Receive a username and password for the HDWA Web site
- Be expected to actively participate and support the mission of HDWA
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| What is the history of HDWA? |
- Originated as a joint effort between BCBS of Alabama and Intermountain Health Care (IHC)
- Founded in May 2001
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| When does HDWA meet? |
- Monthly conference calls
- Occur on the fourth Thursday of each month with the exception of November and December
- Call time is 11:00-12:30 MDT
- As-needed emails and phone calls
- Annual Fall conferences
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