A Recap of the World's Largest Health IT Conference
Two weeks ago, I attended the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) 2014 Conference and Exhibition at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando. The theme of the conference was “INNOVATION. IMPACT. OUTCOMES. ONWARD.” HIMSS is a global, cause-based, not-for-profit organization focused on better health through information technology.
The annual event is the world’s largest health IT conference, and this year’s was the largest yet with 39,000 attendees and 1,233 exhibiting companies. It was held in the massive West Building of the Orange County Convention Center. This tech-marvel offers every convenience you would expect from a world-class facility, including 1.1 million square feet of contiguous exhibition space, 49 meeting rooms, 141 breakouts, the 2,643-seat Chapin Theater, a 160-seat lecture hall. Walking back and forth all day gave me quite the workout; a nice activity to do in the middle of a health conference!
In addition to all of the sessions and keynote speakers, I visited each of our partners who were exhibiting at the conference to find out what’s happening in health IT. They were Oracle, Symantec, SolarWinds, Informatica, and NetApp.
Below are my highlights.
Oracle
My first stop was the Oracle booth. Oracle were talking about a wide range of integrated database, middleware, cloud, and application healthcare solutions. Their solutions are designed to help accelerate the adoption of more-efficient health delivery systems and cut costs using Oracle’s secure, performance driven platforms.
The Oracle-Connected Health Solutions highlighted at HIMSS were: discovery and big data for healthcare, enterprise healthcare analytics, translational research and genomics, and engineered solutions for accelerated healthcare content.
Symantec
Symantec’s booth emphasized health IT security. Their software and services are designed to protect health information wherever it’s used and stored.
Symantec were also talking about the fact that their solutions comply with federal policies and standards. It was interesting to learn that thousands of healthcare organizations trust Symantec (85% of the “Most Wired” hospitals) to deliver security solutions that protect them and their patients.
Informatica
Informatica’s booth highlighted the Informatica Healthcare Data Management solution, the core framework of their health IT technology. It enables data driven healthcare solutions to improve patient outcomes and improve efficiencies. They emphasized it’s scalability and how it’s performed in the most challenging health IT environements.
NetApp
NetApp spoke about streamlining health IT operations by creating a lean IT infrastructure using their technology. Their healthcare solutions turn data driven insight into better patient care and outcomes with flash-accelerated, cloud integrated storage and data management solutions. They even spoke about deployment to virtual desktop infrastructures. They also offer cloud solutions that reduce storage management and complexity, transform clinical workflows, and lower the total cost of ownership of data storage environment.
SolarWinds
SolarWinds highlighted that their information technology is an enabler of better patient care, stronger patient privacy, and continuous adherence to regulatory compliances. They provide critical care for health IT infrastructures, enables application and server health, helps to maintain the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability act of 1996 (HIPAA) compliance, Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) health, and database performance analysis to pinpoint root cause of slow response times in data-intensive healthcare applications.
I also had an opportunity to tour the Intelligent Hospital Pavilion. The pavilion was a very high quality demonstration of IT solutions in a simulated hospital environment that demonstrated improved patient care, safety, and operating efficiencies with:
- Auto-ID, Biometrics
- Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE)
- Machine to Machine (M2M)
- Near Field Communications (NFC)
- Radio Frequency Identification (RFID)
- Real-Time Locating System
The pavilion included an operating room, intensive care unit, labor and delivery room, pharmacy, step down unit, cardiology suite, supply chain, and emergency room as well as other hospital centric demos that leveraged the latest in IT to improve patient care and outcomes. I was impressed with the way that these technologies were seamlessly integrated to support healthcare professionals in making data-driven decisions in a timely and efficient manner to deliver the best care possible to their patients.
Hillary Clinton was the keynote speaker. The speech praised the assembled HIMSS attendees for their work in improving healthcare and healthcare delivery systems worldwide through the effective and innovative use of IT solutions. She discussed the necessity for improving the Affordable Care Act through evidence based IT solutions. Ms. Clinton talked about the need for quality data delivered to medical practitioners in a timely and efficient manner in order to improve the delivery of healthcare and the importance of HIMSS in leading the efforts in this area. It's through these two focuses (technology and data) in healthcare that we'll see the kind of changes needed to create a more efficient and smarter industry. A smarter industry saves more lives, and that's why we do what we do.
As DLT’s health IT business manager, my experience at HIMSS14 was very positive and motivating. We are supporting an extremely exciting and innovative industry with a very honorable mission of providing improved patient care and better medical outcomes. It is an industry that is constantly evolving and our partners exhibiting at the conference are at the forefront of delivering solutions to meet the IT requirements of the dynamic healthcare industry.
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