No sooner had I returned to blogging after a long break, than I should come down with a cold that I am now s-l-o-w-l-y recovering from, so my apologies for the slow and irregular postings lately. How ironic, especially considering that this blog is about medicine and pharma .

Anyway, for those of you in the Massachusetts area, you might be interested to know that the Massachusetts Technology Leadership Council (Mass TLC) is holding it’s Healthcare/IT Summit on Thursday, June 5th, 2008 at the Hyatt Regency in Cambridge, MA. Here are details of the event below:

MassTLC Healthcare/IT Summit: Placing Bets – Top IT Vendors’ Healthcare Visions and Investments

Thursday, June 5, 2008
7:30-11:00 am
Hyatt Regency, Cambridge, MA

During the past 18 months, we’ve seen significant investment in patient-centric healthcare technology solutions from major IT vendors such as Microsoft (HealthVault), Google (Google Health), IBM (Center for HealthCare Management), Intel (Digital Health Group), and Apple (iPhone as healthcare platform — Kleiner Perkins is investing $100M into companies developing new applications for the iPhone).

We’ve convened a panel of thought leaders from the IT community to brief us on their investments and their vision for the healthcare IT market. We’ve also assembled a panel of healthcare CIOs and IT buyers to give us their perspectives on these investments and expect a lively and provocative exchange. 

Participants:
- Michael Barrett (moderator), President, Critical Mass
- Patrick Boyle, Vice President, America’s Healthcare & Life Sciences, IBM
- Tammi DeVore, Senior Healthcare Manager, ATT
- “ePatient Dave” deBronkart, Cancer patient, healthcare blogger, Patient Advisor, Patient-Centered Primary Care Collaborative
- David Hendren, General Partner, Catalyst Health Ventures
- John Halamka, CIO, Care Group/Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
- Paul Mattes, Managing Director, US Health & Life Sciences, Microsoft
- Dan Nigrin, CIO, Children’s Hospital
- Gary Sevounts, Senior Director, Global Healthcare Solutions, Symantec

Tables for eight people are available for $300/$600 (members/non-members).  Please contact Heather Johnson at heather@masstlc.org to reserve your table.

Thanks to Our Event Sponsor: Microsoft

Thanks to Our Healthcare Cluster Sponsors: Altarum, Blue Cross Blue Shield of MA, Partners HealthCare, and UK Trade and Investment

Register at: http://function.masstlc.org/programs_new/event_single.cfm?eventid=830