Gleaning the Future at HIMSS12

In my write-up of HIMSS11, I summed up the theme of last year’s event by describing how the need to meet Meaniningful Use (MU) stage 1 requirements had produced the foundation for all sorts of value-add applications and analytics. Dashboards that illustrated how providers were ready for population health analysis based on stage 1 MU measures were on display everywhere.

This year, I’ll be on the lookout for higher-level dashboards and will have a specific interest in learning more about health IT software that helps bridge the business and clinical sides of medicine. After all, with accountable care organizations (ACOs) on the horizon, providers will need to establish links between their clinical performance and their financial performance. It sounds strange, but it’s not really a stretch to say that providers have to worry about how clinical outcomes affect their bottom lines for the first time in a long time.  

Staying focused at HIMSS is difficult. There’s an excess of topics being discussed in education sessions, too many exhibitors for any one person to visit (approximately 1,100) and so many people to meet up with that it’s impossible to see it all and it’s very easy to get distracted. But, with a core set of meetings and sessions that cover clinical decision support, analytics, and collaboration between stakeholders, I’ll try to stick to my plan.

Please contact me if your company has something new and interesting in clinical decision support or business intelligence solutions that align clinical and financial performance. My schedule is already packed, but I’m prepared for a week of sensory overload!