Thoughts on the HIT100

If you've been following Health IT for any length of time on Twitter, you are probably familiar with the now annual HIT100 "competition".  I've done pretty well over the years in being recognized by my fellow tweeters.  In 2011 I came in second, tenth in 2012 and 2013.  In 2014 I never saw the official results, but unofficially I was somewhere in 42nd to 44th place.  In 2015, the HIT99 was announced, and I showed up in 22nd place.  This year I'm probably in the top 50, but haven't really paid much attention to it, except for the nominations in my stream.

I liked the HIT100 when it first came out, because it truly did introduce me to new faces in Health IT. Over the years, it's become less relevant, somewhat steeped in contention between competing parties, and clearly more of a popularity contest at the top levels.  BUT, it's still a good list of people to pay attention to.

What it has stopped being is a place where I can identify interesting people to watch that I'm not already paying attention to.  I know most of the people on these lists.

Michael Planchart (@theEHRGuy) has done us all a great service in starting the HIT100, and regardless of what I've heard about motivations, I also thank John Lynn (@techguy) for ensuring that something like it continued in 2015.  And, I'm glad Michael's back in the saddle for 2016.  I'm staying out of the middle of any debate as to the virtues of vices associated with the 2014 and 2015 contests.

I look forward to seeing the results.  I know some of who has been trolling for nominations, and like I've previously said, the standings at the top ten don't matter much to me.  I hope the event continues, and with less angst than in prior years.

But I'd also like to see a new event celebrating people we wouldn't otherwise hear about or notice, perhaps because they have something valuable to say, but don't know how to say it so that we can all hear it, or perhaps because they are new in the field and we just haven't noticed them yet.  I'm not going to start it (at least any time soon), and would love to see someone take this idea up and run with it.

     Keith

P.S. For all of you who nominated me this year, I am extremely grateful.  There's been some lovely GIFs in those nominations which I share below, along with some truly satisfying feedback.  I'm trying to get back into blogging (its been months since I posted two days in a row!) as I finish up my degree, and get steady in my new role(s).

My HIT100 Picks

I always hated popularity contests in high school.  I was never very popular.  The only teams where I was ever highly sought after was in math, and even there, I always came in second after Michael C, who was even more of a geek that I was.  I also get rather frustrated with most of the Health IT media attention on top N Health IT leaders.  Yes, CEOs and CIOs and CMOs and CMIOs of major healthcare providers are important.  But rarely in those contests does it ever say you need to have "Chief" in your job title, and while I know about the importance of support and leadership and air cover at the C-level, usually their technical understanding of what it takes to make the Health IT projects work that they get credit for is at Sea-level.

I do OK in the HIT100 because for the most part the initial stages really do identify the folk worth watching.  So, I kind of like the contest.  Though once you get past HIT100 into HIT10, HIT5 or HIT1, it becomes not just a popularity contest, but a vote stuffing contest, and I never try to win that.  The recognition might be nice, but it never lasts beyond the end of August. Do you recall who won in 2011 and 2012 (I do, but that's another story, I can't get dumb facts out of my head).

I made it a point this year to nominate people to the HIT100 who I hadn't yet seen a nomination for.  There are a couple of folks working on Blue Button Plus, a couple on FHIR, and a good chunk of my nominees are from outside the US.  Here are a few of my nominees:

John Moehrke (@johnmoehrke): As I told @SusannahFox, when Health IT mixes with privacy and security, John is my go to guy, and his blog is my go to blog.  It helps that I have his mobile on speed dial.

Heather Leslie (@omowizard):  One of the few Aussie's with a Regina Holliday jacket, Heather's blog is to OpenEHR as mine is to CDA.

Ewout Kramer (@ewoutkramer): Ewout is second only in my mind behind Grahame Grieve (who had already been nominated) as one of the leaders of the FHIR-storm that is taking over HL7.  He's building the C# reference implementation of a FHIR Server.

Rene Spronk (@Ringholm): Rene is one of Europe's best sources for information on HL7 CDA, and also a strong promoter of FHIR.  Rene's blog is another good source of information, although he publishes less frequently than I like.

Margalit Gur-Arie (@margalitgurarie):  Thoughtful, insightful and cutting. Margalit's posts are almost always all of the above.  Her twitter presence is almost completely dominated by links to her blog posts, but with that kind of content, little else is necessary.

Eric Poiseau (@ericpoiseau): I can't think of anyone else other than Steve Moore who has contributed as much to the success of IHE Connectathons.  Eric is the brain behind the IHE Connectathon test management tools, and also contributes a great deal to IHE Europe and the IHE Laboratory Domain.

Josh Mandel (@JoshCMandel): A leader in Blue Button+ Pull efforts, and lead architect for SMART.

Nayan Jain (@supernayan): Up and comer, Presidential Fellow and fellow Blue Button+ aficionado, Nayan may be new to our scene, but look out, I expect great things from him.

Thomas Sullivan (@GovHITEditor): I like his stuff.

Hacking HIPAA (@HackingHIPAA): I think this is a great project that deserves more attention.

Another Ad Hoc HealthIT Award

Those of you who have been reading for a while know the deal. For those who don't: This is an award I give out about 5 times a year to recognize a significant contribution to the development of Healthcare Standards. The contribution is often a singular one, and when it isn't, I don't do repeats in the same year. I'm the sole arbiter and judge. There is no contest or nomination period (although nominees are always welcome).

Over the last few weeks the HIT Community on Twitter has been voting on the #HIT100, and then the #HIT5, producing the #HIT1.  Not to upstage @theEHRGuy, but to add to the recognition that Social Media has had on Healthcare Standards, I decided that it was time to give a Harley to the person who best represented what it means to be involved in both.

The next winner of the Ad Hoc Harley is an individual who blogs about Healthcare Standards and Social Media, communicates regularly through Twitter, FaceBook and elsewhere, and who has been a leader in Social Media as it is related to Healthcare IT.  Through that person's actions, I've seen the development of at least one other HIT Social Media champion in the #HIT5, and the creation of yet one more tweet chat using their work as an example.

This certifies that 

Erica "@TheGr8Chalupa" Olenski of CorePoint Health

Has hereby been recognized for outstanding contributions to the forwarding of Healthcare Standardization through the Use of Social Media

Erica, thanks for all that you do, and for all the late nights you spend on #HITsm and other tweet chats. I can think of no-one else who's had a more direct effect on others in Healthcare Social Media.

   Keith

P.S.  Just for fun, I've timed this post to go out a couple minutes before the start of tonight's #HITsm tweet chat, with the appropriate hash tag.

The HIT100

After a couple of weeks of anticipation, the HIT100 tallies are finally out.  I was very grateful to finish in second place, just behind Brian Ahier in a very close race.  Michael Planchart e-mailed me his results spreadsheet so I could post it here.  Others (Nate Osit for one), have also posted the list on their blogs.

And just as he finished, theEHRGuy posted a new set of instructions for selecting the #HIT5 and #HIT1.  I've extracted them from the twitter stream below:

Just when you thought the fun was over now we have to choose our #HIT5 and #HIT1 #healthIT heroes! Instructions below:

• Those that scored above 12 will have an opportunity to have their place in #HIT5 and #HIT1. The top #HealthIT ranks. 
• Those that scored above 12 must abstain from voting. Please do not re-tweet votes since they will be ignored. 
• Please do not reply to votes. 
• The tweep that gets most votes from this round wins the #HIT1 place in history. Others fall in the #HIT5 according to their scores. 
• Vote like this: #HIT100 My #HIT5 vote goes to @twitterhandlehere #HealthIT
• Deadline for voting (according to a recent tweet by @theEHRGuy) is Thursday, July 21st.

I've made it easy for you.  In the list below, if you click on the link, it will take you to twitter with a correctly formatted vote.  Please follow Mike's instructions to make it easy for him to do the final tally.  I'm pretty sure Twitter folk don't fit the profile of people who like to wait.

Position	Twitter Handle	Nominations
76	sonalpatel_HIT	4
76	poikonen	4
76	meducate	4
76	marxists	4
76	lostonroute66	4
76	Jsamplesgmt	4
76	JohnSharp	4
76	jimtate	4
76	HealthIT	4
76	HealthEugene	4
76	harrygreenspun	4
76	GrahameGrieve	4
76	GovHITeditor	4
76	EMRDailyNews	4
76	EHRoutlook	4
76	drjosephkim	4
76	dirkstanley	4
76	danamlewis	4
76	cyberslate	4
76	cristianliu	4
76	CorepointHealth	4
76	blogbrevity	4
76	billians	4
76	Anthony_Guerra	4
76	anitasamarth	4
63	RossMartin	5
63	RMartinBoulder	5
63	richelmore	5
63	omowizard	5
63	lisacrymes	5
63	IngaHIStalk	5
63	HITNewsTweet	5
63	hitconsultant	5
63	GailZahtz	5
63	fierceEMR	5
63	erikpupo	5
63	ElinSilveous	5
63	Andrewspong	5
52	todd_park	6
52	ShimCode	6
52	rilescat	6
52	RichmondDoc	6
52	realworldhl7	6
52	jkvedar	6
52	jbselz	6
52	HIMSS	6
52	gnayyar	6
52	cindythroop	6
52	BarbaraFicarra	6
40	WTeeGreen	7
40	MicrosoftMD	7
40	MedicalQuack	7
40	kevinmd	7
40	KentBottles	7
40	JessPKahn	7
40	jasoncolquitt	7
40	fredtrotter	7
40	FairCareMD	7
40	Egrunden	7
40	bobcoffield	7
40	acowatch	7
33	westr	8
33	tedeytan	8
33	pjmachado	8
33	ftvelasco	8
33	ekivemark	8
33	EdBennett	8
33	CLOUDHealth	8
29	PhilBauman	9
29	john_chilmark	9
29	HITExchange	9
29	histalk	9
27	jonmertz	10
27	HealthyThinker	10
26	jimmyweeks	11
22	VinceKuraitis	12
22	HITAdvisor	12
22	healthblawg	12
22	aviars	12
18	HealthStandards	13
18	faisal_q	13
18	Cascadia	13
18	boltyboy	13
15	susannahfox	14
15	Lygeia	14
15	Farzad_ONC	14
13	ReginaHolliday	16
13	2healthguru	16
12	jhalamka	17
10	MatthewBrowning	18
10	ej_butler	18
9	Perficient_HC	20
8	janicemccallum	21
7	EMRAnswers	22
6	lizasisler	23
4	NateOsit	26
4	ePatientDave	26
3	TheGr8Chalupa	31
2	motorcycle_guy	35
1	ahier	36

---

Based on comments by @omowizard and @ej_butler, I equalized rankings of those with equal votes.

My HIT100 Nominees

TheEHRGuy (Michael Planchart) started it.  These are simply my nominations for it, not the final list.

@theEHRGuyMichael Planchart

The hash tag #HIT100 is representative of the top 100 influential people for Health Information Technology in social media.

You are probably familiar with the Modern Healthcare 100 list or the Healthcare Informatics 100 list.  When they came around again this year, I was wondering if there would ever be a list of movers and shakers in Health IT that I might show up on.  Well, I guess this is one of them.

Given that this was announced on twitter, most of the nominees already thus far are on Twitter, but social media for me includes bloggers and others using Facebook, LinkedIn and other Social Media venues.  For example, John Halamka does very little on Twitter, but his blog is extremely influential in Health IT, and the same is true for many others. My scope is International, rather than US Centric, although it is, due to my location, heavily influenced by my location in the US.  Influential to me is qualified by "in social media", so although @Farzad_ONC is extremely influential in Healthcare IT, it is not really due to his activities in Social Media, and so he doesn't make my list (this year).

Here are my selections (around 75), along with a brief explanation of why and links to their twitter handles and blogs (Sorry, just not a facebook kinda person).

Name	Twitter Handle	Blog or Website
People
Amit Popat		Comments on HealthCare Standards
	Amit is a member of the IHE Quality, Research and Public Health Workgroup and as you can guess, an avid @motorcycle_guy follower. I conned him into this gig by tweeting about a conversation he had with another colleage. He's done remarkable work since then.
Andy Oram	@praxagora	O'Reilly Radar
	Andy's now in charge of the Healthcare sector for O'Reilly media. He writes from time to time on Radar.
Anita Samarth	@anitasamarth
	Tweeter on Meaningful Use, HITPOL and HealthIt
Arien Malec	@amalec
	Leader of Direct Project and coordinator of SI Framework efforts. Tweets mostly related to those topics, and not so much lately.
Barbara Duck	@MedicalQuack	The Medical Quack
	Two words: Algorithms and Bar-codes. A busy web site, with occasional scoops from the Health IT industry.
Blackford Middleton	@bfm
	Infrequent but interesting and sometimes obscure tweeter on Health Technology
Brian Ahier	@ahier	Healthcare, Technology and Government 2.0 O'Reilly Radar Ahier.net
	Wow, what can I say. This guy is everywhere. One of my first follows and should definitely be one of yours for anything HIT related. Great collator of news and definitely Writer 2.0
Bruce Schneier	@schneierblog	Schneier on Security
	Nothing usually HealthIT specific, but if you aren't following his blog, you should be.
Chris Connor	@eclinicalguru	Musings on Clinical Development Process and Technologies
	I just like his tweets, but he's been in Stealth mode (perhaps still is) for quite a while.
Dave deBronkart	@ePatientDave	e-Patient Dave The New Life of e-Patient Dave e-Patients.Net
	The spearhead of the e-Patient movement. Give him his damn data.
Dave Shaver	@realworldhl7
	I would expect that Dave is the reason that Corepoint has a really good Social Media presense. I think he used to tweet HealthStandards before Erica took that over. Dave's a long time HL7'er.
David Tao		Harmonious Health IT
	David Tao is a Siemens Standards Geek. Very bright, very harmonious. When David talks, I listen.
Didi Davis	@DidiDavis	HIT Gypsy
	Contributor to many HIT efforts nationally and regionally, writing about some of them infrequently.
Ed Butler	@ej_butler	#hcsmanz
	A tweeter from Downunder, who is one of the leaders behind #hcsmanz
Erica Olenski	@HealthStandards@TheGr8Chalupa	HL7 Standards #HITsm
	Erica is one of the driving forces (along with Dave Shaver) behind the @HealthStandards twitter handle, and is also the leader of the HITsm chat on Monday nights. That chat has been the source of a great many twitter connections for me.
Erik Pupo	@erikpupo @siframework
	Modeller extraordinaire, leading up #siframework TOC efforts and former HITSPite
Faisal Qureshi	@faisal_q	Mμ
	Cool thoughts on Healthcare IT
Fred Trotter	@fredtrotter
	Hacker (white hat) working for social change, especially in Healthcare
Gary L. Thompson	@CLOUDHealth	Cloud
	Big proponent of cloud computing (obviously), with great insights on what it can do for Healthcare.
Glen F Marshall	@glenfmarshall
	One of my mentors in IHE, early leader of IT Infrastructure, now tweeting useful and sometimes fun stuff on technology and security/privacy (one of his areas of expertise).
Grahame Grieve		Health Intersections
	Graham is another HL7 Geek who recently started blogging on the underpinnings (or perhaps the underside) of HL7 Version 3. Great person to know and a reviewer of at least 5 chapters of The CDA Book.
Healther Leslie	@omowizard	Archetypical
	I met Heather in Australia in January, along with Sam Heard (see below). She writes about OpenEHR archetypes and clinical models.
Inga	@IngaHIStalk
	Not sure whether Mr. HISTalk or Inga is doing the real work. Again, great source of news and rumours.
Jacob Reider	@Jacobr	Doc Notes
	Jacob is a really great guy, and I really like his musings. He's also been around the block a few times in HealthIT.
Janice McCallum	@janicemccallum	Health Content Advisors
	I met Janice through Brian Ahier who RT'd one of her tweets. Turns out one of her family members goes to my church. I follow Janice for her focus on Health content and EBM.
Jason Colquitt	@jasoncolquitt
	One L, two T's. Both crossed. Detail oriented IHE guy, and tweeter on HealthIT and HITPOL issues, as well as live-tweeting some great stuff.
Jeff Brandt	@jeffbrandt
	I met Jeff at HIMSS this year, he's doing (and tweeting about) cool stuff in #mHealth and the Cloud
Jenny Laurello	@HITExchange	Health IT Exchange
	I don't know where Jenny finds some of the stuff she tweets about
Jim Tate	@jimtate
	Great links on HITECH, MU, Certification, et cetera. I know Jim's helped a number of organizations get their products certified.
Joel Amoussou	@jamoussou	Adventures in Computing
	I love good techy writing, and Joel excells at it. His posts go in depth into technical details. We don't always agree on things, but we have great conversations.
John Halamka	@jhalamka	Life as a Healthcare CIO
	Oh man, do I need to say more? John's probably the single most influential blogger in the Healthcare IT space that I can think of. His reach is even more important because he hits people outside of the #HITsm spectrum.
John Moehrke	@johnmoehrke	Healthcare Security/Privacy
	John does for the Security/Privacy space in HL7 and IHE as I do for the Clinical Content space. He's a colleage at GE Healthcare, and if it weren't for him (and to some degree Glen Marshall), I wouldn't know half of what I do about security.
John Moore	@john_chilmark	Chilmark Research
	Great analysis of the Healthcare Industry, much of it shared (in summary form) on his blog.
Justin Barnes	@HITAdvisor	JustinBarnes.com
	Justin is a great person to follow on HIT Policy issues. A former chair of the EHRA.
Keith W. Boone	@motorcycle_guy	Healthcare Standards
	The list wouldn't be complete if I wasn't on it, but I'll let you decide why.
Linda Lia	@EMRAnswers	The EHR Project
	I just started following Linda because I realized that even though I was seeing several of her tweets a day in my stream, I was missing at least half. A sign of great content.
Margalit Gur-Arie	@margalitgurarie	On Healthcare Technology
	Extremely thoughtful posts about Healthcare IT and policy. She deserves to be in my auto-tweet stream (and now is).
Mark Segal	@msegal111
	Mark is another GE collegue. He follows HIT Policy issues and tweets useful facts about Meaningful Use.
Michael Planchart	@theEHRGuy	The EHR Guy's Blog
	I mostly know theEHRGuy because he's been a strong supporter of The CDA Book. I've been to his site several times, but can't get there today for some reason.
Mr. HISTalk	@histalk	HISTalk
	The enigmatic Mr. HISTalk and his website is a great source of HIT news, rumors, et cetera affecting our industry.
Nate Osit	@NateOsit	Bio-Digital Jazz
	An incredible up and comer in the Twitter #HITsm and #pickAHashTag streams.
NIST	@usnistgov
	NIST is involved in a lot of efforts around Healthcare IT. I follow them because I want to see what they are talking about. Just of bit of it is related.
Pam Dolan	@Pdolan_amnews	American Medical News
	Pam covers HealthIT issues for American Medical News. She's one of the few Healthcare reporters I know through twitter.
Paul F Levy	@Paulflevy	Not Running a Hospital
	Occasional insightful posts since he left BIDMC, the older stuff is definitely worth reading. I hope he lands somewhere that will allow him to get back to more operational healthcare blogging.
Peter Hendler	@drjava
	One of the leaders of HL7 RIMBAA efforts, and java developer extroidinaire
Phil Bauman	@HealthIsSocial@PhilBauman	Health Is Social
	Phil regulary writes insightful posts on his blog about Health IT and its intersection with Social Media.
Regina Holliday	@ReginaHolliday	Regina Holliday's Medical Advocacy Blog
	I first encountered Regina's story when it was live-streamed during the Meaningful Use regulation announcements. I cried for her. I've heard it again several times. Her work is an extremely powerful incentive to get [Health] IT right.
Rene Spronk	@Ringholm	Ringholm bv Blog
	Rene is one of those non-US HL7 geeks that has a lot to contribute on CDA, RIMBAA, Java, and V3. His blog is definitely worth reading.
Rich Elmore	@richelmore
	Rich was another one of the contributors to the Direct project and I've been following him since then.
Robert Horn	@rjhorniii	Fairhaven, The River
	Rob is an ubergeek. He does GIT in e-macs. Really well-thought out insights into Healthcare IT. You don't really get all that from his blog right way, for that you need to meet him in person, but well worth meeting.
Ross Martin	@RossMartin	Ross Martin, MD The American College of Informatimusicology
	Ross makes us laugh at ourselves and does so in an incredibly artistic and musical way. Extremely talented. Worth a follow just for the occasional new production.
Sam Heard	@samheardoi
	Member of the OpenEHR board and infrequent twitterer, but tweets the occasional pithy remark or insightful idea.
Shawn Riley	@rilescat	Health Technica
	Shawn was my first Health IT follow, probably because "Health IT" is his middle name on twitter.
Susannah Fox	@SusannahFox	Pew Internet
	Susannah knows what patients are doing, and she tells you regularly based on Pew Internet research.
Tim O'Reilly	@radar	O'Reilly Radar
	Tim's musings on Healthcare IT are definitely worth reading. His musings on General IT too.
Tom Sullivan	@GovHITeditor	Government HealthIT
	Editor of GovernmentHIT and tweets on related topics.
Tonya Hongsermeier	@drtonyah
	Clinical Informaticist at Partners and sometime tweeter about CDS and EBM
Vince Kuraitis	@VinceKuraitis	e-CareManagement Blog
	Vince is better than Google and Bing combined when looking for Social Media content. Twice he beat Google and Bing on making lists of important posts on topics like PCAST and MU.
Wes Rishel	@wrishel	Wes Rishel
	Wes is one of the grand old men of HL7, and a former chair of the Organization, and an analyst for Gartner on Health IT. I first met him in the Claims Attachments workgroup of HL7 which he led for many years. He writes periodically about Health IT issues, especially those being faced by the HIT Standards Committee (of which he is a member). Some of his writing spawned the Direct project.
Organizations
ACO Digest	@ACODigest	ACO Digest
	ACO Digest hosts a great web site containing new of interest on ACOs.
AHIMA	@AHIMAResources	AHIMA
	Good resources usually from the AHIMA Website.
American Medical News	@amednews	American Medical News
	First of many media outlets on my media list. Useful for getting viewpoints from American medical Association.
Healthcare Scene	@emrandhit	Healthcare Scene EMR and EHR EMR and HIPAA
	Great set of web resoures and posts that I refer to frequenly
GE Healthcare Solutions	@GEHCSolutions	Next Level
	Tweeter of great posts from a variety of bloggers on getting to the next level.
Government Health IT	@GovHIT	Government HealthIT
	Another Media Outlet, covering what's going on in the US Government space with respect to HIT.
Healthcare Informatics	@HCInformatics	Healthcare Informatics
	Another Media Outlet, covering from the Informatics perspective.
HIMSS	@HIMSS	HIMSS
	As a professional association, HIMSS is one of the driving forces behind Healthcare IT and Interoperability. I love reading their blog and know many of the contributors personally.
Healthcare IT News	@HITNewsTweet	Healthcare IT News
	One of my favorite media sources of great info on Healthcare IT, and a place that occasionally picks up my better posts.
iHealthBeat	@iHealthBeat	iHealthBeat
	Great list of daily tweets, usually summarizing good journalism elsewhere.
Modern Healthcare	@modrnhealthcr	Modern Healthcare
	Another great media outlet, and home of the Healthcare 100.
NeHC	@NationaleHealth	National eHealth Collaborative
	NeHC puts on a number of great educational events, many free. I follow them for news on what they are doing next.
Perficient	@Perficient_HC
	Perficient_HC posts a lot of tweets about HealthIT, links I usually end up following.
W3C	@w3c	http://www.w3c.org
	W3C Standards are used throughout quite a bit of Healthcare IT. I follow W3C to see whats coming.