HIMSS11 is coming to a close and there is a lot to report. For those who aren’t aware, HIMSS is THE healthcare technology event of the year. This year’s event broke all previous attendance records with almost 31,000 participants and hundreds of vendors. This shouldn’t have come as much of a surprise to anyone as our healthcare system undergoes unprecedented scrutiny and evaluation leading to the inevitable conclusion that IT is the most important tool for improving care and getting a handle on costs.
HIMSS is designed primarily for technology decision makers and not necessarily end-users. That said, there was plenty of product information and trending topics that deserve the attention of physicians and hospital executives…whether you are in a small private practice or in a large multi-specialty clinic or even hospital. We saw interesting announcements and products from industry leaders such as HP, IBM, GE, Emdeon, Thomson-Reuters and Intel. We also spent time with interesting early stage companies like LifeImage, eMix and Vioguard.
Over the coming weeks we’ll distill some of the more compelling stories and announcements into smaller posts. We’ll also share insights from leaders throughout the industry on topics that will have a direct impact on providers including: meaningful use, cloud computing, security, mobility and social media. If you were at HIMSS and have insights to share, please let us know.
tjarthur 