HIMSS13 Highlights

The Healthcare Information Management and Systems Society promised a big show this year in the Crescent City and they delivered. HIMSS13 included keynotes from powerhouses such as Mostashari, Topol and Clinton and well over 200 education sessions, e-sessions, symposia and more. More than 34,000 people attended the conference and 1,158 vendors exhibited in a hall that covered 17 football fields.

Patient engagement, big data and ICD-10 prep were some of the most talked about topics this year. Attendees could feel a sense of urgency but also a need to get it right. I think many found inspiration in New Orleans and the challenges the city has faced in recent years.

Representatives from hospitals across the country shared their past failures and ongoing efforts to achieve successful EHR implementation, achieve Meaningful Use and find ways to use predictive analysis to improve healthcare. They discussed documentation, privacy and security, health information exchange and so much more. The insights and information bouncing around that convention center was dizzying.

HIMSS, as always, put together a star-studded agenda of keynotes. Thousands of attendees drank from the well of inspiration. Consider:

• Eric J. Topol , MD, West Endowed Chair of Innovative Medicine at the Scripps Research Institute, forecasted the Medical Gutenberg era.
• Information technology gives millions of “little” people—those with little economic and political clout—huge collective clout to affect markets, former President Bill Clinton told the audience.
• Farzad Mostashari , MD, ScM, National Coordinator of Health IT, said “resistance is just uncertainty” when it comes to transitioning to electronic systems. He also pushed back on recent reports that physician satisfaction with their EHR systems is on the decline.
• Warner L. Thomas , president and CEO of Ochsner Health System in New Orleans, reminded attendees that the airline and banking industries have leveraged IT to navigate massive change. Healthcare can do the same.

Today we bring you our top 10 from HIMSS13. From Topol and Clinton to staffing and efficiency, you’ll find that these articles are a good representation of the conference’s highlights. Enjoy.

Beth Walsh

Clinical Innovation + Technology editor