Communications Meeting 2010-10-26

Notes from Communications WG
Date: October 26, 2010
Time: 1:00pm – 1:40pm EST
Attendees: Brian Ahier, Noam Arzt, Brian Behlendorf, Janet Campbell, Karen Donovan, Rich Elmore, Dave Juntgen, Arien Malec, Uvinie Hettiaratchy, Caitlin Ryan
Actions
Actions for This Week

#	Date	Action	Status	Owner	Due Date
48	10/26/10	Make final adjustments to Direct Project presentation, incorporating comments	Open	Uvinie Hettiaratchy, Arien Malec, Caitlin Ryan	10/27/10
49	10/26/10	Work out logistics for drafting joint blog post	Open	Brian Ahier, Rich Elmore, David Kibbe	11/2/10
50	10/26/10	Discuss informational Direct Project blog	Open	Brian Behlendorf, Janet Campbell	11/2/10
51	10/26/10	Develop something to share with the WG about the informational website	Open	Janet Campbell	11/9/10
52	10/26/10	Continue to coordinate with ONC about Direct info on ONC website	Open	Uvinie Hettiaratchy	11/2/10
53	10/26/10	Develop content about Direct Project for ONC website	Open	Noam Arzt, Janet Campbell	11/2/10
54	10/26/10	Meet to decide roles and format in approach to pilots vignette	Open	Noam Arzt, Karen Donovan, Brian Ahier, John Blair, Rich Elmore	11/2/10
55	10/26/10	Track state HIE plans to incorporate in future marketing	Open	WG	11/2/10
56	10/26/10	Incorporate key messaging slides into November 30 Communications Event	Open	WG	11/2/10
57	10/26/10	Get self-attestation page up and going on wiki	CLOSED	Rich Elmore	11/2/10

Actions from Previous Weeks

#	Date	Action	Status	Owner	Due Date
41	10/12/10	Continue conversations with ONC to find presentation opportunities at HIMSS	Ongoing	Uvinie Hettiratchy	Ongoing
42	10/12/10	Assist in drafting of workgroup status “vignette” for implementation geographies	Open	Noam Arzt, Karen Donovan, Brian Ahier, John Blair	10/26/10
44	10/19/10	Approach Best Practices and Reference Implementation WGs about "vignettes" on recent progress	Open	Rich Elmore	10/26/10
45	10/19/10	Can reach out to IHE Connectathon organizer if WG chooses to proceed	??	Didi Davis	10/26/10
46	10/19/10	Put Direct Project Presentation up for WG Call for Consensus	Closed	Uvinie Hettiaratchy, Caitlin Ryan	10/26/10
47	10/19/10	Coordinate a Communications Events page on the wiki	Closed	Uvinie Hettiaratchy, Caitlin Ryan	10/26/10

Agenda -

1. Direct Project Overview - Call for consensus
2. Communications event - targeted for November 30
- Standards Committee - Arien Malec
- Simultaneous blog - David Kibbe, Brian Ahier, Rich
- Informational Website - Janet Campbell
-ONC coordination including web site - Uvinie, Noam
- Vignettes -
----Pilots - Noam Arzt, Karen Donovan, John Blair, Brian Ahier
----Reference implementation - Brian Behlendorf
----Best practices - David McCallie
3. Communications events

Notes
Rich Elmore

• Direct Project Overview – Call for consensus
• All approvals, one conditional yes
• Proposed cleaning up the presentation based on Janet Campbell’s suggestions

Uvinie Hettiaratchy

• Already made changes, put up a version with changes on Communication Priorities page
• There are a few more things to adjust that can be adjusted offline by her, Arien Malec, and Janet Campbell
• Noam Arzt’s comments will also be incorporated
• Will be available by COB today for Communications WG members to look at

Rich Elmore

• Asked if they should change the consensus completion date/time

Uvinie Hettiaratchy

• Feels consensus does not need to be extended, because changes were minor

Rich Elmore

• Verified that there was no disagreement
• By close of today, will consider presentation accepted, after incorporating changes suggested through Call for Consensus process
• Communications event - targeted for November 30
• Asked for an update from individuals taking on parts of the effort

Arien Malec

• One complication—Standards Committee requested an update Wednesday, October 27
• At that meeting Arien will ask to come back in a month and present to the Standards Committee about the pending pilots and the status of the specs and reference implementation

Rich Elmore

• So we should still be on track for November 30

Simultaneous blog

• David Kibbe is traveling and unable to make the call
• Their intention was to have a joint blog entry posted to O’Reilly and THCB

Brian Ahier

• Connected with O’Reilly, his message is winding its way through their channels of leadership
• Matt is the editor of the page
• Brian doesn’t foresee any problems with posting there
• He is also letting people know there are big things happening in health IT, and that toward the end of November people should be watching the healthcare blogs—trying to build some buzz

Rich Elmore

• That’s great
• We need to get going on drafting the blog post
• Do you have any preference on how you want to start that?

Brian Ahier

• Suggested Brian Ahier, Rich Elmore, David Kibbe have a call offline to work out logistics of drafting the blog post

Informational website
Janet Campbell

• General framework—besides cleanup, looking at content and the best way to arrange
• Specifically there is a want for a happy informational website
• Should keep the info tight and compact so someone can work their way through the website and get a general idea of what Direct is

Rich Elmore

• Right, then we can push off into more depth
• He and Brian Behlendorf were discussing how this new website could be pulled into the wiki
• Suggested Brian Behlendorf and Janet Campbell discuss offline
• Brian is sending an e-mail on transferring the Direct Project website
• Rich will transfer on his end, then Janet and Brian can work out how that comes to life
• Asked Janet for any other feedback or updates

Janet Campbell

• It should mainly be a high-level introduction, FAQs, how to get involved
• Accessible to a wide range of communities
• Then more targeted, “what does Direct mean to me?” and “why do I care if I’m a provider/state HIE?”
• Would like to have something to share within the next two weeks, and get feedback for the Workgroup

Rich Elmore
ONC Coordination for HIMSS

• Two parts:
  • One, with all these different elements, we want to make sure there is some visibility with ONC folks to make sure they are comfortable with our messaging
  • Then also using the ONC website where we are already mentioned to leverage those links and content to be updated for the Direct Project
• Original idea was for Uvinie Hettiaratchy and Noam Arzt to take the lead on that
• Asked Uvinie where she might need help

Uvinie Hettiaratchy

• Direct should let the ONC website folks know as soon as possible about the name change and get the project description updated
• Need a brief draft of a Direct Project description for the ONC website
• This description will likely come from content we have already put together, but it would b great to have something more tailored for the purpose of the ONC website

Rich Elmore

• Asked if Noam Arzt could assist

Noam Arzt

• Can try to draft
• May not have to say much more than pointing over to the info on the website
• Will be at ONC next week doing a session with HIE leaders
• From State HIE statement of agreement, ONC has been pushing the Direct Project as a solution to State HIE issues

Arien Malec

• Suggested Noam work with Janet Campbell to develop content for the ONC website, and Uvinie coordinate with ONC

Vignettes for pilots
Rich Elmore

• A number of volunteers from this group to write those up
• Asked for updates

Noam Arzt

• Hasn’t made progress yet
• Asked if Uvinie could convene a sub group
• Doesn’t know when the deadline is

Karen Donovan

• Suggested a meeting outside of this one, assigning projects for each person to be responsible for

Uvinie Hettiaratchy

• If it would be helpful, we can help set up and coordinate

Noam Arzt

• Thinks that would be helpful
• Need to agree on who is doing what and on presentation and structure

Comment

• Might be a good idea to include the folks who have been really active with the pilots to

Noam Arzt

• Isn’t sure that would be necessary
• The implementation geographies have written lots, posted to the wiki
• This task isn’t difficult, we likely have the material from the pilots available already
• We need to get our act together to find out what we can do more precisely

Rich Elmore

• To reemphasize, we’ll learn more as we go through
• Reminder about the intent of the vignettes: in a simple way, more from an individual’s perspective, what does it look like? What does it mean that there is a pilot going on? Where will we be at the end of November?
• A few paragraphs
• Will be used in the new website, other fact sheets, other materials coming out
• Core content that can be used in a number of different ways
• If we have something we are happy with a couple weeks from now, will be helpful going forward

Noam Arzt

• Question—is our real focus where we will be at end of November?
• If so, the answer will be “not very far”

Arien Malec

• Thought the message for November will be “the project has completed all the lead work; we have specs that have been endorsed by the Direct Project and two reference implementations that are ready for use with pilots about to begin”
• Then in Jan/Feb 2011 the Communications Event will be about the real world pilots

Noam Arzt

• November’s vignettes can describe what the pilots hope to achieve not where they are at

Rich Elmore

• Agreed
• This is the information that will be used November 30

Arien Malec

• Question to Noam: When the state plans are approved by ONC, are they in the public?

Noam Arzt

• Eventually
• States are welcome to publish their own plan
• There are a couple states that have had their state plans approved already but there is proprietary info they need to “X” out to make the documents appropriate for a general audience
• Only a half dozen or so have been approved thus far

Arien Malec

• Is aware of a significant number of state plans that have Direct as one of the components, after pushing and prodding on ONC’s part
• There could be a really nice message talking about the state plans and the degree to which Direct is incorporated
• But is much more difficult to use if Direct needs to go state by state and get approval to use in communications
• Easier if publicly available

Noam Arzt

• General expectation is that they become publicly available
• Some just need sanitizing along the way

Arien Malec

• Knows of five plans that have mentioned or will mention Direct as core component of their overall state plan

Noam Arzt

• Problem, some were submitted in April and may not mention Direct because it was too early

Brian Ahier

• In our plan we had some verbal asks
• We were fortunate in getting response from ONC
• We did get requests for more detailed info, some was about our reference to the Direct Project in our plan
• Some of the other states have the same questions
• Ultimately the final plan approved by the ONC is absolutely required to be published
• He thinks that possibly even federally, before funds are approved, there needs to be a public document
• Thinks we will know more soon
• If we could gather together a half dozen or so states that call out Direct, would be a good thing

Rich Elmore

• Asked what WG wants to do with this

Arien Malec

• Thinks it is something the WG should be tracking, and have good awareness of by November 30th
• We may be able to say a lot or not much about it, we need to be flexible

Reference Implementation Vignette
Brian Behlendorf

• At the end of November, we will be able to complete and point to pilots using the software or about to start using the software
• Might be able to point to vendors who are incorporating Direct into their products
• The vignettes can talk about what we’ve worked on and how we’ve worked
• Can say Direct standards and specs are the products of people working for Microsoft, Kryptiq, Surescripts, other organizations

Best Practices Vignette
Rich Elmore

• David McCallie has agreed to do a write-up on best practices for where they’ll be on November 30
• Asked for round on November Communications Event plan

Round the Room: Thoughts on the November Communications Event

	Asked about the sets of slides focused on each key audience segment Arien Malec Wanted to get the base set of slides done first, then go to audience-specific slides Noam Arzt Asked if those slides should be worked into the November 30 event Rich Elmore He and Janet talked about using for the new information website, but they should also be part of the plan, yes
Karen Donovan	No comment
Dave Juntgen	No comment
Brian Ahier	No comment, agrees
Brian Behlendorf	No comment

Arien Malec

• Given the SureScripts announcement, and state HIEs incorporating Direct into their plans, it also be good to have an overall messaging list of HIE vendors with plans to incorporate Direct in their product line
• Companies can be uneasy about talking about things that aren’t released yet
• He wondered about the extent to which Direct can have a list of vendors who have made some level of commitment or some statement regarding Direct into their products
• Has had conversations with a bunch of vendors in this situation

Rich Elmore

• Could create a page on the wiki, asking vendors to indicate intention to incorporate Direct
• Should do it in a way that doesn’t indicate a hard commitment

Arien Malec

• Right, last week we had talked about a self-attestation page

Rich Elmore

• Will get the self-attestation page up and going
• Communications Events page
• Arien filled in the first event, HIMSS 2011
• To the extent you are aware of other events, or can attend other events in, please add those to this page
• Asked for other topics
• Closed meeting