HIMSS11 Conference Planning

I could spell out what HIMSS stands for, but if you have to ask, you probably aren’t planning to attend this major gathering for the healthcare industry.  HIMSS (okay, it stands for Health Information Management Systems Society) is a membership organization that was established 50 years ago for IT professionals working in healthcare, but has grown to include adjacent segments with interests in health IT.  The annual conference attracts close to 30,000 attendees (about 28,000 last year in Atlanta, but I expect a higher number in Orlando this year) and requires advanced planning to arrange meetings and optimize one’s route to minimize miles walked per day. 

Last year, I was pleased to see so many “traditional” healthcare publishers with a presence in the exhibit hall.  My blog post last March mentioned many of them.   This year, I expect to see even more publishers in the exhibit hall, on the program, and sitting in education sessions.  Better yet, I expect to see more progress in creating point-of-care clinical decision support tools and care management tools that build on the best-of-breed authoritative content and data sources. 

Forging alliances between the healthcare publishers and EMR/EHR/Health IT vendors is an important part of what we do at Health Content Advisors.  We’re not always the final dealmaker, but we get involved in identifying content and technology partners in nearly all of our client projects.  So, whether you are on the publishing side or the IT content integration or data exchange side, we’re interested in learning what is new among your offerings.  Please contact me @ jmccallum@infocommercegroup.com if you’d like to set up a meeting at HIMSS11.

On the “social” side, I’m looking forward to meeting up with the healthcare folks I interact with on a near daily basis on Twitter and via this blog.  It was terrific to connect with many so many of my social media contacts last year in Atlanta and I look forward to catching up with even more people this year-with better advanced planning-in Orlando.  HIMSS will have an expanded social media center in Exhibit Hall E, Booth 7981 , where I know I’ll see familiar faces.  I still remember getting a Twitter message from Liza Sisler @lizasisler who recognized me from my online photo when I sat in one of the social media sessions last year (“is that you across the aisle from me?”).   Also, I plan to attend the new media bloggers tweetup at the MEDecision booth #2563 on Tuesday, February 22 from 4:30-6pm. 

For more information on the HIMSS11 conference, see the conference home page.  Along with all the activities I mention above, there is also an impressive line-up of keynoters, including the who’s who of federal healthcare officials.  I look forward to seeing you there!

Comments

[EMR and HIPAA]

Nice summary of HIMSS. It is an amazing event for content producers. There's no doubt about that.

Thanks for mentioning the New Media Bloggers Tweetup at HIMSS. I know you've registered, but we'd appreciate others registering so we know how many to expect. We're planning some great food and drinks. Not to mention I'm working on some fantastic giveaways!!

I have 2-3 announcements I'm planning to make in anticipation of HIMSS that I think you'll find interesting. I'll send them over once they're ready.

[EMR and HIPAA]

I forgot to put the link for people to register for the New Media Meetup: http://www.emrandhipaa.com/himss-2011-new-media-meetup-registration/