FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 15

What a great 4 days in Orlando! After arriving at noon on Monday and departing at the same time on Thursday, I am happy to report my feet only throb a little today!

Having extended our brand and launched a new line of services last year, HIMSS 19 was busy with business development-centric meetings. Other than the opening kick-off, I only had time to attend one other education session.

Knowing this, I intentionally asked people for feedback throughout the conference on what they were most excited about, what they wanted to see and learn about, as well as what trends are they paying attention to. One esteemed colleague simply told me that, “FHIR is on fire!” Another remarked that that patient engagement is critical, but the technologies are not quite right to help us get there. It was a vast array of feedback on issues ranging from AI to block chain, and patient engagement to physician burnout. According to the conversations happening at HIMSS, disruption and innovation are alive and well in healthcare, with interoperability, the cloud, security and much more remaining buzz worthy.

Despite all this excitement, the central theme for me yet again is people. One client I met said he makes time to talk to everybody because the most important thing about HIMSS is networking – and I could not agree more! Throughout the week, I was reminded of the importance of the people in our industry as I witnessed providers, payers and vendors sharing ideas and opportunities to improve the quality of health care. It’s truly a unique environment, bringing together representatives from the private and public sector to learn ways to innovate and provide a better experience for patients, clinicians and support staff.

Here’s to an amazing HIMSS 2019, and to the future of healthcare!

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 13

Tuesday morning’s HIMSS 2019 Opening Keynote started the conference off with a bang, delving into the HHS announcement on Monday about driving towards data interoperability. You can read more about the opening keynote here.

After the keynote, the exhibit hall opened with about 1,300 exhibitors and over 300 education session topics. Seeing all of it come together was truly great source of information, inspiration and innovation!

One of my favorite parts of HIMSS in my 8 years attending is running into friends and colleagues in the industry. On Tuesday, I ran into my good friend Bill Kleyman, Director of Technology Solutions at EPAM.

I asked him for some insights into what he is seeing at the conference and he shared his interesting perspective:

1. The connected healthcare system is already here. There are amazing ways to benefit patients and healthcare services with leveraging IoHT.
2. Data is the lifeblood of healthcare, and there’s going to be a lot more of it going forward. Leaders in this space will need to find ways to both protect this information, as well as leverage it to improve services.
3. Cloud should become a part of everyone’s strategy. The power to scale healthcare services to support a younger, digital generation is critical to stay competitive. Cloud solutions helps healthcare get on that journey.
4. Don’t just use new technologies for the sake of it. There has to be real value to the business and the patients. A new solution needs to, in some way, simplify process and allow healthcare professionals to spend more time with patients. Further, even if it’s new and shiny, it can be complicated. Plan accordingly and work with good partners.
5. Security is a multi-faceted, much more complex approach. Healthcare systems are distributed, often complex and growing rapidly. Data is at the core of this and needs to be protected. However, a holistic approach to security is absolutely necessary to secure emerging digital healthcare solutions.

Then, sometime late afternoon, the skies opened up and the rain poured down, but this picture reminds me that HIT is full of great people and great companies providing great services around the world!

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 12

HIMSS 2019 has officially begun! The theme is ‘Champions of Health Unite’, and it is very appropriate when you consider the audience. This year, over 45,000 attendees from 90 countries and 6 continents will unite to make healthcare better.

As the keynote kicks off today, perhaps the biggest pre-conference news was the announcement from the HHS on Monday proposing new rules to improve interoperability and access to patient records. The proposal stipulates this is at no cost to the patient and will drive choice and control back to the patient. Stay tuned as we dissect and discuss this over the week. Looking forward to a great week with friends and colleagues in Orlando!