February 1, 2005 - (Press Release) SunSHINE, the Sun Microsystems, Inc. (Nasdaq: SUNW) healthcare user community, will hold its second annual SunSHINE Summit in Dallas on February 14, 2005, offering attendees an opportunity to share best practices and to examine proven innovations which make healthcare IT easier and less expensive. The Summit will take place at the Dallas Convention Center in conjunction with the 2005 Annual HIMSS (Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society) Conference & Exhibition, the healthcare industry's largest technology show.
SunSHINE, an alliance between Sun Microsystems and HIMSS, is a forum for independent thinkers committed to advancing the effectiveness of Information Technology in the healthcare industry. The Summit comes as SunSHINE (Solutions for Healthcare, Information, Networking, Education) reaches a major milestone - its membership has surpassed 1,000 healthcare professionals, growing quickly from its founding in August 2003. SunSHINE offers education opportunities for healthcare IT professionals and provides an interactive forum for healthcare executives to share and discuss best practices. SunSHINE is a joint effort between Sun and HIMSS, the healthcare IT industry's membership organization, and is the first group in HIMSS's Healthcare User Group Alliance Program.
"Information technology lies at the core of today's healthcare challenges, including cost control, electronic health record initiatives, privacy and compliance," said H. Stephen Lieber, president and CEO of HIMSS. "The SunSHINE Summit will be a unique opportunity for healthcare IT professionals to learn new ways to address these challenges, while providing a venue to network with peers and meet industry leaders."
"We are encouraged by the rapid growth of SunSHINE," said Michael Haymaker, Sun's global healthcare industry manager. "Through our support of SunSHINE, Sun is committed to helping inform healthcare organizations, large and small, about better ways to control costs, secure their systems and patient information, and advance their IT infrastructures to capitalize on the latest innovations."
SunSHINE Summit attendees will also have an exclusive opportunity to sit down for an intimate conversation with Scott McNealy, chairman and CEO of Sun Microsystems, after his opening keynote address at HIMSS 2005. During this interactive session, McNealy will field questions on everything from Sun's recent agreement with Microsoft to its landmark decision to open source the Solaris Operating System.
The SunSHINE Summit agenda is developed by independent advisory board members including Dr. Leo Cousineau, director of Medical Informatics at the Kevric Company. "We're proud of the progress the SunSHINE organization has made over the past year and we're certain that the topics of this year's Summit are among the most pressing matters on the minds of medical professionals wanting to better integrate technology into their practice," said Dr. Cousineau.
The theme of this year's SunSHINE Summit is "Healthcare: Thinking Outside the Box." Summit sessions will explore today's top healthcare IT topics including: radio frequency identification (RFID) in healthcare, enterprise medical imaging, physician mobility and high availability systems. Featured presenters will be industry experts from provider, university and vendor environments, along with Sun's top technologists such as Liz From, RFID business strategist at Sun.
HIMSS has approved this conference for up to 6.6 contact hours of continuing education towards renewal of the CPHIMS and CHS credentials. For more information about the Summit, please visit: http://www.sunshine-healthcare.org.
