The next Ad Hoc Motorcycle Guy Harley Award ...

As promised, here is the recognition for contributions to Health IT that I promised at the start of Health Information and Technology Week.  The last award this year was a bit of a struggle, mostly because this winner is a very good friend also.  If it hadn't been for this award winner, this blog might not even exist, and it would certainly have a different name.  In fact, my entire online presence would use different names.

What can I tell you.  Bubbly, yes, that is a good description.  But also an extremely skilled concensus builder.  I recall a meeting in 2007 between myself, John Moehrke, two very well-respected academics, this person, and another standards colleague that wasn't going very well until this person stepped in.  As the rest of us talked past one another, ___ asked a question that translated what I was saying into the terms the other person was using.  ___ and my other colleague continued this back and forth sort of questioning through the rest of the day until we finally reached concensus.  This was before Skype became popular as a back-channel, so the only coordination was through eye-contact, but build consensus they did.  The result of their efforts was to wind up in the IHE Basic Patient Privacy Consents profile. 

There are a ton of other stories I could tell.  This person almost single handedly changed the way that IHE ITI assessed profiles based on the principles of Risk Management, only inverted.  Think of it as opportunity management, and you might understand.  The work of this colleague also strongly influenced the IHE Risk Management white paper, and the HL7 Security Risk Assessment Cookbook.  The slides used in both of those documents were created by this next recipient. 

And if that wasn't enough, there's a ton of work that would never have been done with such quality in ANSI/HITSP, and the HL7 PASS project wouldn't be nearly so far along.

I've been asked to be a reference for this on several occasions.  What I've always done is describe my rating system first:  I rate on a scale of 1 to 5. 

1. If hire this person, I'll quit.
2. Don't hire this person
3. Meh, I don't care whether you hire this person on not.
4. Hire this person
5. If you don't hire this person, I'll quit.

This next recipient is a five, and I've only ever given that out twice.  Without further ado...

This certifies that 

Gila Pyke of Cognaissance

Has hereby been recognized for outstanding contributions to the forwarding of Healthcare Standardization

Gila, congratulations.  May you always be listened to, because I know you always listen.  Thank you for all of your work in standards.

As an extra little tidbit, here is why Gila is in part responsible for this blog.  She's "that chick" in the following post.