The 2017 HIMSS Conference & Exhibition held last week in Orlando, Florida drew an official 42,287 attendees. With almost 500 educational sessions and nearly 1300 vendors of all sorts of technology products and services, it wasn’t hard to feel overwhelmed and leave the conference thinking that you somehow missed something important and of potential value to your organization.
Thankfully, there’s no shortage of recaps, summaries and post-conference analyses and opinion pieces that can serve to fill in any blanks. It’s just a matter of filtering out the thinly veiled marketing pieces and clearly biased opinion posts. And, as is a growing feature of more and more conferences, a large amount of content like slide decks, video and audio recordings are available.
This post provides a cross-section of articles recapping and summarizing the 2017 HIMSS Conference & Exhibition. These articles are from healthcare advisory firms, industry media, individuals and vendors of healthcare IT products and services. Also included are instructions on how to access any presentation materials that may be available from the HIMSS educational sessions.
Major Themes Align w/ HCEG’s Top Ten List
A quick review of the 20 or so “HIMSS conference summaries” listed below reveals that the major themes of the 2017 HIMSS conference are closely aligned with the 2017 HCEG Top Ten list developed by HCEG members. In fact, with the exception of “uncertainty,” the first four items on HCEG’s top 10 list are among the top five themes at the 2017 HIMSS Conference. And, considering that the HCEG Top 10 List was derived in September of last year prior to the U.S. Presidential election, HCEG members are batting 1000 with their assessment of the top challenges facing the healthcare system in the United States.
Top Themes at 2017 HIMSS Conference
- Value-based Care & Reimbursement
- Artificial intelligence/Analytics/Machine Learning
- Cybersecurity
- Consumerism & Patient Engagement
- Uncertainty
In regards to the ‘uncertainty’ surrounding healthcare in the United States, Rachel Arndt and Joseph Conn of Modern Healthcare have an interesting article titled “Questions and uncertainty cloud normally sunny HIMSS” that offers the idea that current levels of uncertainty aren’t just due to the presidential election but also exacerbated by vagaries in the 21st Century Cures Act and complexities associated with precision medicine, genomics and the demands for interoperability.
HIMSS Conference Summaries & Recaps
Industry Advisory Firms
“HIMSS17: Little Less Hype, More Focus on Value” – Chilmark Research
“Heard at HIMSS 2017” – Oliver Wyman
“Insights from HIMSS 2017” – Greyhealth Group
Industry Media Outlets
“What issues dominated HIMSS17? We asked, you answered” – Becker’s Health IT & CIO Review
“Emerging trends at HIMSS—focusing on practical uses of IT” – Health Data Management
“HIMSS 2017 buzz ranges from patient engagement to AI, machine learning” – Search HealthIT
“HIMSS17: How tech tools can aim for better patient experience” – HealthcareDIVE
“12 top technology trends from HIMSS17” – Health Data Management
“HIMSS 2017: Telehealth, remote monitoring and home care help providers meet patients where they are” – FierceHealthcare
“A look back at HIMSS17: Most impactful insights from thought leaders in Orlando” – Healthcare IT News
Individuals
“Machine learning is the new ‘plastics’ and four more HIMSS17 observations” – Dr. John Halamka
“HIMSS17 Recap: AI Disruption in Patient Experience and Beyond” – Senem Guney
“Things I learned at HIMSS17” – Neil Versel
Vendors (Who aren’t being too ‘salesy’)
“Reflections on HIMSS 2017: Same Same, but Different” – Datica
“The Hottest Topics at HIMSS17” – Spok
“3 Takeaways from HIMSS17” – Dimensional Insight
“HIMSS 2017 Top 10 Themes and Highlights” – Kinvey
Interesting Video & Audio Clips from HIMSS17
Ginni Rometty Keynote at HIMSS 2017 – From IBM
HIMSS17: Full Event Highlights – HIMSS Media
“Episode 12: Bonus – HIMSS 2017 Insights and Recap, Part 1” – HealthBox
Accessing Conference Presentation Materials
If a specific educational session had any handouts available and if the presenter(s) gave permission, then HIMSS has made the handouts available for download – whether you attended the conference or not. To access handouts from a specific session, use this link to search for a specific session. Then click on the title of the session to display details about the session. If any materials are available, click on ‘Download Session Handout.”
But wait! There’s more!
Two additional interesting and potentially use artifacts associated with the 2017 HIMSS Conference & Exhibition include the following:
“2017 HIMSS Leadership and Workforce Survey”
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