As the 2012 Annual HIMSS Conference & Exhibition opens on Feb. 20, attendees will find familiar and new education, exhibition and networking opportunities. This year, the conference comes to Las Vegas, a first for the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society. The conference will be held at the Venetian Sands Expo Center from Feb. 20 through Feb. 24.
In my 12 years as president and CEO of HIMSS, I've found that attendees have a definite objective when they arrive at the conference -- whether it's identifying a new health IT or management systems solution or attending education sessions on a certain topic, or maybe both. With much to absorb in these five days, here is my checklist of what to watch in the week ahead.
1. Meaningful Use
At publication time, we are anticipating release of the proposed rules for Stage 2 of the meaningful use incentive program. HIMSS12 already has many sessions and exhibits focused on meaningful use, and I expect discussion to be ongoing about meeting Stage 1 and what's ahead for Stage 2.
In my February post on the HIMSS Blog, I predicted the chatter at the conference would find more vendors talking about their role in helping hospitals, health systems, clinics and medical practices meet Stage 1 of meaningful use. Achieving positive patient outcomes with the best use of health IT truly demands an integrated and ongoing effort among all players in the health care continuum, and vendors are now sharing their role in helping health care organizations reach that goal.
National Coordinator for Health IT Farzard Mostashari joins us on Thursday, Feb. 23, to open the day with his keynote presentation. Other meaningful use sessions appear in different symposia, education sessions and throughout the conference. In addition, the federal government is offering several sessions throughout the conference, including some addressing meaningful use.
2. Knowledge Centers
Each year, certain topics come to the forefront of discussion at the Annual HIMSS Conference & Exhibition. We decided to connect education sessions, exhibits, exhibitor case study presentations and HIMSS subject matter experts in these Knowledge Centers at HIMSS12. I am, of course, interested in how these areas of the exhibit floor come together, but I think we will see ongoing synergy and sharing of ideas and solutions among all the people who come to any of the Knowledge Centers. Here is a list of the Knowledge Centers.
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Accountable Care Organizations / Value-Based Purchasing
Booth 6466, Hall D
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Mobile Health
Booth 12928, Hall G
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Medical Devices Integration
Booth 14647, Hall G
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Business and Clinical Analytics/Intelligence
Booth 13247, Hall G
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Cloud Computing
Booth 13642, Hall G
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ICD-10
Booth 14542, Hall G
3. Emersion and Integration
Earlier, I mentioned the integration of meaningful use into different educational sessions and exhibits at HIMSS12. This integrated learning exists throughout the conference because improving health care delivery with the best use of health IT demands collaboration and alignment across many sectors, and our education sessions and exhibits do the same.
The HIMSS12 Interoperability Showcase, Booth 11000, Hall G, held in conjunction with Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise, stands out because in this collaborative setting, vendors and educators are working together by demonstrating how patient health information can be shared throughout a virtual patient care scenario. This year, the Showcase has 140 participating organizations demonstrating over 170 unique clinical information system roles. Attendees also will see 12 clinical use cases and three health care business use cases that deal with challenges from the payer community, such as ICD-10 and the patient payment experience. The Federal Health Architecture will host a large demonstration of health information exchanges that have deployed interoperability solutions, such as Direct, CONNECT and the Virtual Lifetime Electronic Record. And the theaters will host more than 50 presentations on interoperability.
The Intelligent Hospital™ Pavilion,Booth 12442, Lower Level Hall G, focuses on how to improve patient care, patient safety and workflow using auto-ID, RFID, RTLS, mobile devices, sensor and wireless technologies in a patient care environment.
From an educational perspective, Virtual HIMSS12 is new this year as an option for attendees who can't travel to Las Vegas. For the first time, we are live-streaming the keynote sessions so that those at the virtual event can hear these presentations at the same time as people who are onsite. This conference also includes its own on-demand education sessions.
4. Clinical and Business Analytics -- Measuring Patient Outcomes
Implementation of health IT has come full circle at the juncture of clinical and business analytics because once the technology is in place, the real work begins. While one of the Knowledge Centers covers this content area, evaluating success, return on investment and overall improvement in patient care comes back to the use of clinical and business analytics. Of course, the HIMSS Analytics Booth ( 7106) gives those who stop by a complimentary Electronic Medical Record Adoption Model, or EMRAM, score and other data insights. So no matter what phase an organization might be in for health IT implementation, pay attention to how often speakers reference some aspect of analytics in their presentations because at HIMSS, we believe accessing data to improve patient and public health represents a truly vital step in improving health care delivery.
5. Innovation and Social Media
HIMSS offers innovation on many fronts, but this year familiar programs appear in this category, such as HIT X.O, Beyond the Edge. Yet, the annual conference and exhibition continue to go beyond the norm each year. For example, Leading from the Future looks at connecting consumers with their health care, an educational perspective HIMSS put on the agenda for a first-time and in-depth review.
This year, social media becomes even more a part of the conference with the first keynote presentation by Biz Stone, co-founder of Twitter. Throughout the conference, attendees can connect using LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook. The Social Media Center page on the HIMSS12 website offers a list of presentations at this location in the Hall C lobby.
At any conference, attendees want actionable information they can take back to their workplace and use. I know you will find that opportunity at HIMSS12 as you meet and talk with many people you know and some new friends as well.
We expect to surpass last year's attendance record of more than 31,000 with registration about 15% ahead of this same time last year. The show floor includes 1,123 exhibitors, which is an 11% increase in the number of exhibiting companies and a 7% increase in space (now at 471,000 square feet) from 2011.
I hope to see you at HIMSS12 ... and if I do, let me know what five things you are watching.