MCLEAN, Va., May 20 /PRNewswire/ -- Emerging federal policies and demands from health plans and employers are driving the need for healthcare executives to know how their institutions are faring in quality and efficiency. The Executive Healthcare Forum, sponsored by Cisco Systems, The National Alliance for Health Information Technology and BearingPoint, Inc., will bring together healthcare leaders as well as industry executives from provider and payer organizations for two interactive half-day sessions to discuss healthcare trends and transformation in an engaging and informative format. Executive Healthcare Forums are currently planned for Miami on May 24, 2005 from 8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. and Houston on June 9, 2005 from 8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.

Cisco, The National Alliance for Health Information Technology and BearingPoint share the healthcare industry's concerns to better utilize Information Technology (IT) to improve patient outcomes and safety and advance the overall quality of patient care. The Forums will provide participants with insight into the delivery of affordable, accessible quality care and how to bring these new strategies to bear on provider organizations.

Hosts and speakers for each forum include: * Scott Wallace, President and CEO of The National Alliance for Health Information Technology, who will lead a panel on the policy environment for healthcare and the outlook for 2005. * Peter Boland, PhD, president of Boland Healthcare and management consultant to world-leading health organizations, who will deliver the keynote address. * Dennis Weaver, M.D., Chief Medical Officer and Managing Director with BearingPoint, Inc.'s healthcare practice, who will lead a panel on the importance of executive leadership in information technology.

"The 'rules of the game' are escalating and the healthcare industry is being asked to demonstrate that they can deliver quality care in a way that makes sense to both patients and payers," said Peter Boland. "This means using technology in new and effective ways to help hospitals to advance their core mission -- which is better patient safety and better clinical outcomes. These Forums are designed to help healthcare executive explore these issues in an informative and collaborative format."

For more information, and to register for these events, please call 1-888-696-0696 or visit http://www.cisco.com/offer/healthsouth2/nahitbearingpt/part/

About Cisco Systems

Cisco Systems, Inc. , the worldwide leader in networking for the Internet, celebrates 20 years of commitment to technology innovation, industry leadership and corporate social responsibility. Information about Cisco can be found at http://www.cisco.com/. For ongoing news, please go to http://newsroom.cisco.com/

About The National Alliance for Health Information Technology

The National Alliance for Health Information Technology is a diverse partnership of leaders from all healthcare sectors working to advance the adoption and implementation of healthcare information technology to achieve measurable improvements in patient safety, quality of care and operating performance. The Alliance works with healthcare and government leaders to help shape the policy environment and accelerate the implementation of world-class, standards-based information technology aimed at creating the most effective, safe, unified, and inclusive health system possible. Since its founding in 2002, the Chicago-based Alliance has helped forge consensus and advance progress on such important initiatives as barcodes and electronic health records. The Alliance is a co-founder of the Certification Commission for Health Information Technology. More information about the Alliance is available at http://www.nahit.org/.

About BearingPoint, Inc.

BearingPoint, Inc. is one of the world's largest business consulting, systems integration and managed services firms serving government agencies, Global 2000 companies, medium-sized businesses and other organizations. We provide business and technology strategy, systems design, architecture, applications implementation, network infrastructure, systems integration and managed services. Our service offerings are designed to help our clients generate revenue, reduce costs and access the information necessary to operate their business on a timely basis. Based in McLean, Va., BearingPoint has been named by Fortune as one of America's Most Admired Companies in the computer and data services sector. For more information, visit the Company's website at http://www.bearingpoint.com/.

CONTACT: Lois Padovani of the National Alliance for Health Information
Technology, +1-630-241-1430, l.padovani@comcast.net; or JoAnn Johnston of
Cisco Systems, Inc., +1-650-322-6245, jojohnst@cisco.com; or Amanda Davis of
BearingPoint, Inc., +1-703-747-4024, amanda.davis@bearingpoint.com

Web site: http://www.bearingpoint.com/
http://www.nahit.org/
http://www.cisco.com/