HIMSS Preview

Get Supercharged at HIMSS19

By Heather Hogstrom

HIMSS19 challenges champions of health to unite, with the hope that attendees will get supercharged at the conference, set for February 11–15 in Orlando. Attendees won’t want to miss the opening reception on Monday evening, during which they are encouraged to wear their favorite superhero costume, in keeping with the superhero theme.

In the opening keynote, a panel of internationally recognized leaders will discuss the question “Will Consumer-Directed Exchange Disrupt the Healthcare Marketplace?” The panelists include Aneesh Chopra, president of CareJourney, who served as the first US chief technology officer; Karen DeSalvo, MD, MPH, MSc, who served as national coordinator for health information technology; Michael Leavitt, founder of Leavitt Partners, who served as secretary of Health and Human Services; and Seema Verma, administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Additionally, Alex Azar, secretary of Health and Human Services, will join Verma for Tuesday’s keynote on “Interoperability and Patient Engagement.” In the closing keynote session, “Not Impossible: Pushing the Bar on Innovation,” Mick Ebeling will inspire attendees to accomplish seemingly impossible tasks.

The conference will comprise two dozen hot topics and trends, including the following new categories: clinically integrated supply chain, consumerization of health, disruptive care models, grand societal challenges, health care applications and technologies enabling care delivery, healthy aging and technology, and safe information and technology practices for patient care. The grand societal challenges track will cover issues such as “A Quality and Analytics-Based Approach to the Opioid Epidemic,” “Deploying a Disaster Response HIE Platform: PULSE California,” and “Humanity and Technology in Medicine: Antithetic or Symbiotic?”

Other topics of interest to HIM professionals include the telehealth track, which will have educational sessions such as “Exploring Critical Success Factors for Telehealth Implementation” and “The Real Challenges of Telehealth Adoption,” and the health information exchange, interoperability, data integration, and standards track, which will feature content such as “Improving Provider Data Accuracy With Blockchain” and “FHIR Interoperability: Point-of-Care Healthcare Apps in the Real World.”

In addition to educational sessions, attendees can explore exhibits that cater to their interests; specialty pavilions include the Cybersecurity Command Center, HIMSS Interoperability Showcase, HIMSS Analytics, Healthcare of the Future, and more.

Download the HIMSS19 app from Google Play or the App Store for assistance with navigating the conference.

For more information or to register, visit www.himssconference.org.

— Heather Hogstrom is an editorial assistant at For The Record.