The 17th annual HMO Research Network (HMORN) conference will be hosted by Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute in Boston, MA on March 23–25, 2011. The theme of the 2011 conference is Collaborations in Population-Based Health Research. This theme denotes the network's commitment to research partnerships both within and beyond the HMORN to address significant health care issues using the resources of its large populations. Abstracts are invited for consideration as a presentation or as a poster at the conference.

Authors are encouraged to submit abstracts that fit the categories for planned concurrent sessions, which are listed below.  Examples of topics relevant to each category are provided below.

• Cancer:  Risk factors (including commonly used medications), prevention, screening, diagnosis, treatment and prognosis, palliative care, survivorship, and patient communication
• Cardiovascular Disease:  Risk factors, prevention and treatment strategies, disease self-management, surveillance
• Child Health:  Epidemiology, clinical effectiveness, and health services research on children and families
• Chronic Illness Management:  Adherence to treatment, disease self-management, translation of evidence-based interventions
• Diabetes, Obesity, and Physical Activity:  Risk factors, prevention and treatment strategies, disease self-management
• Disparities and Vulnerable Populations:  Racial/ethnic and socioeconomic disparities in health care use and outcomes, high-risk populations
• Health Informatics:  Using electronic medical records and other health data to improve care and conduct research
• Health Insurance and Economics:  Effects of health care utilization, financing, and plan benefit structures – economic evaluation
• Health Care Policy & Reform:  Effects of policies, both local and national, on health care, drug use, and health outcomes
• Interventions and Clinical Trials:  Prospective studies of the efficacy and effectiveness of interventions, including clinical and cluster randomized trials
• Mega-epidemiology and Genetics:  Research based on prospective collection of data, beyond that collected during routine care, including genetics and biobanking studies
• Pharmacoepidemiology:  The use, safety, and effectiveness of medications, vaccines, biologics, devices, and other medical products in populations
• Virtual Data Warehouse:  Tools, techniques or processes used for the implementation and adoption of the VDW, including:  infrastructure development, ETL, QA, collaborative processes and usage