Follow and join the conversation with #NHITWeek, #IheartHIT

With partners across the U.S., National Health Information Technology Week is a virtual event with various activities in communities from Maine to California. As a partner-driven event, we encourage participants to leverage the opportunity to raise awareness and help the collective cause by recognizing the Week in local communities. To this end, we’ve put together 10 ways you can celebrate NHIT Week in your hometown. Feel free to use one or more of our ideas, or come up with ideas your own!

For specifics on how to implement these ideas, click each link, or you can download the full Toolkit as a PDF file at NHIT Week Partner Toolkit.

1. Participate in the NHIT Week Social Media Conversation. To help get the word out about NHIT Week, use your existing social media outlets, or establish new ones. Post a blog, tweet about #NHITweek, and highlight NHIT Week on your existing Facebook account, website, and other digital media outlets.
2. Promote NHIT Week in your existing communications. Add the NHIT Week logo to your email signatures and your organization’s internal calendars. These are simple ways that pack a big impact to let your network and colleagues know that your organization is celebrating NHIT Week and the benefits that health IT brings to patients and providers.
3. Incorporate NHIT Week into an upcoming activity. If your organization has an upcoming announcement or event, plan to hold it during NHIT Week. That way you can recognize NHIT Week as part of your activity.
4. Promote NHIT Week internally. To communicate with your internal stakeholders, display the NHIT Week poster in elevators, hallways, offices, cafeterias, on vending machines, bulletin boards, etc. Another way to communicate with your internal audiences may be to place an article in your organization’s employee newsletter or intranet. (NHIT Week posters, logos, web buttons, and customizable newsletter articles will be available at www.healthitweek.org.)
5. Distribute a news release. NHIT Week organizers have prepared a “Swiss cheese” release. Fill in the blanks and distribute the release to local healthcare and IT reporters, editors, and broadcast producers in your city. Add the NHIT Week logo next to your own to show this is about more than just your organization. Encourage stories about local health IT projects and investments. If you need help creating a media list, NHIT Week can help.
6. Write an op-ed. Draft an op-ed (700-800 words) to place in your city’s newspaper. The op-ed should focus on NHIT Week and discuss why patients and healthcare facilities—from doctors’ offices to emergency rooms—benefit from healthcare IT.
7. Proclaim NHIT Week. Working with the mayor or governor’s office, proclaim this year’s dates as NHIT Week in your city or state. Be sure to publicize the proclamation for maximum benefit.
8. Host a NHIT Week Event. Gather state policy experts, healthcare IT professionals, and other stakeholders to hold a seminar where you provide the very latest information about healthcare IT. Invite internal employees, elected and appointed officials, the public, the media and other stakeholders.
9. Conduct a tour of your facility. Another idea is to hold a tour of your facility for local and state officials, such as your Congressional representative, state legislators, or state health IT coordinator. If you are in a healthcare facility, such as a hospital, you may want to conduct a tour to illustrate how technology, specifically EHRs, are simplifying and improving the delivery of medical care in your facility.
10. Reach out to reporters. Include reporters in your NHIT Week efforts by arranging one-on-one appointments with journalists to brief them at their desks. Or, brief several reporters at one time by holding a media session. (Serve snacks or a light meal to help entice journalists to attend the event.)

This list was taken from the Toolkit  found at www.healthitweek.org.