Our History

IHA traces its roots to September 13, 2008, when the industry group “RFID in Healthcare Consortium” was founded by Harry P. Pappas and Emily Sopensky.  The association’s mission aimed at helping educate the global healthcare community, including assisted living and nursing home industries, on adoption and implementation of RFID and RTLS technologies to improve patient care and patient safety, and to reduce hospital operating expenses.

At that time the group’s scope was isolated to RFID and RTLS technology and its role in improving healthcare.  Since that time the association has grown and evolved to include numerous complementary technologies for a more holistic approach to educating the healthcare community on the use of technology to cultivate health and well being.

The group’s Intelligent Hospital^TM Pavilion, first opened in 2010 at HIMSS, has presented RFID and (since 2011) a wide variety of technologies, from a multitude of vendors, in a simulated healthcare setting to enable testing and demonstration of a specific product’s interoperability and its effectiveness in improving healthcare quality and patient outcomes.

This year the IHA introduces the Intelligent Medical Home^TM at HIMSS 2014 to showcase and enable testing of technology in the simulated home environment.  The IHA continues its dedication to the continuum of healthcare through technology.

Members

Members of the IHA are comprised of the following groups:

Corporate technology members including technology vendors, telecommunication firms and software vendors Associate members consisting of health organizations to include: Hospitals Military facilities Clinics Health related labs Health Insurance firms

Government organizations Professional health organizations and health related trade associations Academic health related institutions: Medical Schools Schools of Nursing Schools of Pharmacy Other related groups engaged in health