HIMSS Conference returns to Dallas

by David Orenstein free-lance writer

This month presents Dallas-area physicians with a huge opportunity to indulge their passion or curiosity about information technology in health care. The enormous annual conference and exhibition of the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society returns to the Dallas Convention Center Feb 13–17. The conference was last here in 2000.

Given how much the conference has grown, it may be more fitting to say the conference is squeezing into the convention center. “We are almost outgrowing it,” says Margaret Schulte, HIMSS vice president of education. “We have sold out the exhibition floor and have had to get creative about using the lobby.” The conference will feature more than 200 educational sessions and more than 700 exhibitors. HIMSS expects 18,000 people to attend.

Although the conference will cover most every aspect of healthcare IT, some hot topics will be especially helpful. One of these themes is electronic health record systems and the need for systems to work together. On the exhibit floor, for example, attendees can visit an Ambulatory Care Interoperability Showcase that demonstrates systems working together at a simulated freestanding diagnostic clinic, a large clinic, a small practice, and a patient’s home. Other prominent themes include clinical informatics, patient safety, data privacy, and evidence-based medicine.

Sunday, Feb 13, will feature a day-long physician IT symposium “designed by doctors for doctors,” Ms Schulte says. The symposium covers a variety of issues surrounding selecting, implementing, and effectively using technology. It is divided into two tracks that tailor presentations to practice-based or hospital-based physicians. Physicians must register for this symposium separate from standard conference registration.

Monday’s calendar, which is part of the standard registration, is also rich in sessions for physicians based in ambulatory care settings. A series of three educational sessions between 10 AM and 1:30 PM will cover broad trends in ambulatory healthcare IT and then zoom in on electronic health records in practices.

Attendees should not zoom in on specific themes so much, however, that they miss the broader picture. The keynote speakers, for example, have a broad appeal. The lineup starts on the technical side with Sun Microsystems CEO Scott McNealy speaking on Monday morning and Cisco Systems CEO John Chambers on Tuesday morning. Then the keynotes take a political turn as former first lady Barbara Bush takes the podium Wednesday afternoon. Thursday morning brings David Brailer, MD, PhD, National Health Information Technology Coordinator, Department of Health and Human Services. Comic relief comes on Thursday afternoon when Dilbert comic-strip creator Scott Adams closes the conference.

For some attendees (especially hands-on types), the exhibition hall rather than the lectures and speeches will be the most appealing. Amid the sprawling city of booths will be five product pavilions which will cover products concerning the business of health care, security, wireless and mobility, patient safety, and a catch-all of clinical software. Physicians will have opportunities in those pavilions for concentrated looks at specific kinds of technologies.

Major conferences aren’t cheap, but options are available. On-site registration for the full conference is $1045. The full conference plus the physician’s symposium costs $1270. To attend the symposium only is $225. There also is the option to attend just one day of the conference.

All conference details can be found at http://conference.himss.org/ASP

The author of this monthly column, David Orenstein, is a technology and business writer in Silicon Valley. To learn more about a technology topic in Computing Care, email him at davealli@comcast.net.