HIMSS acquires Health 2.0 conferences

The Health 2.0 conferences, which focused on start-up technologies in healthcare, will now be under the banner of the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS).

As part of the acquisition of Health 2.0’s conference components, HIMSS said it would establish a new Health 2.0 business unit within the enterprise that already includes HIMSS North America, HIMSS Analytics, HIMSS Media, HIMSS Europe, HIMSS AsiaPacific and the Personal Connected Health Alliance.

HIMSS President and CEO Stephen Lieber said the goal isn’t to change what Health 2.0 conferences present, but rather to expand HIMSS’s own educational offerings.

“Bringing Health 2.0 into the HIMSS enterprise is a major expansion of our available resources to achieve better health through technology,” Lieber said in a press release. “This approach will align the knowledge and expertise from the Health 2.0 global network of entrepreneurs, developers and end users engaged in the most leading-edge technologies with that of clinicians, IT professionals, executives, policy leaders and other health IT stakeholders to empower and enable people to live healthier lives.”

As part of the deal, Health 2.0 CEO and co-chairman Indu Subaiya, MD, MBA, will become executive vice president of the new business unit within HIMSS. He’ll also continue to co-host Health 2.0's annual fall and Wintertech conferences along with co-chairman Matthew Holt, who is staying on as host of the international conferences.

“Since the mid-2000s, Health 2.0 has gone from a fringe movement representing bleeding-edge technologists, patients and clinicians to being an ecosystem of thousands of companies working with all stakeholders to improve the healthcare experience for everyone,” Holt said. “We’re thrilled to be working with the largest and most influential organization in health IT—HIMSS—to take the movement mainstream.”

The press release noted the Catalyst@Health 2.0 division, which offers programs “such as codeathons, developer challenges and pilot programs” for clients, will continue to be independently operated.

The deal takes effect immediately. The first Health 2.0 conference under HIMSS will be its European conference in Barcelona on May 3-5. Its 11th annual fall conference will be held Oct. 1-4 in Santa Clara, Calif. A total of seven conferences have been scheduled over the next nine months.