Health IT’s Largest Global Event – the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society’s annual conference & exhibit – will make interoperability and patient engagement two of the top priorities featured at HIMSS2020. During this year’s event in February, HIMMS says more than 43,000 attendees from 90 countries came to participate in nearly 500 education sessions on 24 education topics, many of which hinted of what healthcare is looking to embrace more intently next year and beyond.
Interoperability was a hot topic, with the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) and Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) each presenting far-reaching rules designed to reduce information blocking and give patients easier access to their health data. HIMSS Analytics also unveiled a new maturity model for enterprise imaging, a significant stage in the digitized imaging IT setting for creating standards and benchmarks. The HIMSS Interoperability Showcase, says the organization, featured demonstrations and use cases for the most current interoperability solutions and that it continues to be hot spot for traffic on the exhibition floor.
Patient engagement was another extremely popular theme. The HIMSS Patient Engagement & Experience Summit, a pre-conference specialty program, discussed patient-friendly technology and the positive effect it is having on the care experience. HIMMSS says more than 1,400 exhibitors shared their products and services, ranging from artificial intelligence solutions to precision medicine breakthroughs and more.
Keynote sessions featured public sector leaders from the Trump and Obama administrations emphasizing how digital health is growing and has more to offer to help empower patients to take greater charge of their health.
