The University of Texas at Arlington will host the second annual Texas Health Informatics Alliance (THIA) Conference next month.
The conference will be held on September 9 in the Bluebonnet Ballroom on campus, according to a UT Arlington press release. The first THIA conference was held virtually during the COVID-19 pandemic, but this year’s event will be in person.
The THIA is a collaboration between the UT Southwestern Medical Center and UT Health Science Center at Houston.
The conference, referred to as THIA22, brings together Texas health informatics professionals. Students, nurses, physicians, technologists, and pharmacists are also part of the conference.
Gabriela Wilson, a professor of kinesiology and the Multi-Interprofessional Center for Health Informatics (MICHI) co-director, explained how the day-long event is a great opportunity for the region.
“Alliances must be built, and conversations must happen if we want to improve data exchange and population health at all levels,” Wilson said. The event is an “opportunity to connect with peers and discuss how we can improve the health of our communities while providing equitable access to all,” she added.
Dr. Edward H. Shortliffe and Dr. Bryan Vartabedian will be keynote speakers at the conference. Shortliffe is the chair emeritus and an adjunct professor with the department of biomedical informatics at Columbia University. Vartabedian is the director of community medicine for the division of gastroenterology, hepatology, and nutrition at Texas Children’s Hospital.
This year’s THIA conference theme is “All In: Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning to Accelerate Health.”
The event will feature presentations on “how artificial intelligence and machine learning can be used to advance health care and diagnostics.” Conference presenters will also discuss how these two technological advances can be seen “through the lenses of ethics, health equity, and social determinates of health.”
Marion Ball, the executive director of UTA’s MICHI and the Raj and Indra Nooyi endowed distinguished chair in bioengineering, shared that these technologies will be prevalent in the future.
“These and other enabling technologies will dominate health care in the future and help support the best possible care delivery at the bedside as well as education and research initiatives,” she explained.
The check-in for THIA22 starts at 8 a.m. and includes breakfast. The presentations will immediately follow, running from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. A reception after the conference will last from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m.
The Bluebonnet Ballroom can be found in UT Arlington’s E.H. Hereford University Center. Registration for the event is open for $100 per ticket, and sponsorship opportunities are available.
