Improving Patient Care with Health IT Drives Attendees to HIMSS10

Improving Patient Care with Health IT Drives Attendees to HIMSS10

HIMSS Sees 9 Percent Increase in Professional Registration, Compared to HIMSS09, at the Largest Annual Healthcare IT Event in the U.S.

CHICAGO (March 12, 2010) — The Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) today announced preliminary registration figures for its 2010 Annual HIMSS Conference & Exhibition in Atlanta, Ga. from March 1-4.  As the largest healthcare information technology conference in the U.S., HIMSS10 brought together health IT professionals, clinicians and exhibiting companies who are striving to improve the delivery of patient care with health information technology.  Following is an updated registration report as of March 4, 2010, the final day of the conference.   

·                     Registration:  27,855, compared to 27,627 at HIMSS09, healthcare industry experts learning about

        the latest solutions for improving healthcare through IT.

• Professional registration outpaced 2009 by 8.5% with 13,846, compared to 12,766 in 2009, registrants in this category
• Nearly 30% of those registering come from healthcare provider settings
• 11% of registrants are CIO and CTOs; nearly 10% are CEOs
• Almost 8% are from countries outside of the United States

·         Education sessions: More than 300 education sessions on hot topics, such as Meaningful Use standards, certification  and criteria, American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and government contributions to advancing health IT, and the need for nationwide electronic health records, and health IT privacy and security practices.

·         Exhibitors: 934, compared to 907 at HIMSS09, exhibiting companies – from Fortune 500 to start-ups – showcasing their latest healthcare innovations and new product launches in over 391,560 sq. ft. of occupied exhibit space.

·         Interoperability Showcase:  At 25,000 sq. ft. and the largest ever, the HIMSS10 Interoperability Showcase had 84 different participants that demonstrated 96 unique systems. The more than 50 clinical scenarios highlighted a proposed metric for achieving Meaningful Use. New this year was the collaboration between the HIMSS Interoperability Showcase and the Federal Health Architecture, featuring “A Path to Improved Care: Communities CONNECTing to the NHIN,” demonstrating advanced technology that allows the exchange of information between government entities and the private sector.  

HIMSS10	HIMSS10	HIMSS09
Total registration	27,855	27,627
Professional registration	13,846	12,766
Exhibiting companies	934	907
Number of new exhibitors	289	256
Square feet for exhibits	391,560	375,840
HIMSS10 Interoperability Showcase	HIMSS10	HIMSS09
Total Participants	84	72
Number of unique systems	96	60

Certification Process: At HIMSS10, Dr. David Blumenthal, MD, MPP, National Coordinator for Health IT, announced the release of the Notice of Proposed Rule Making (NPRM) for the HHS Certification Process.  As outlined in ARRA, the NPRM establishes steps for: a) organizations to be authorized by ONC as certifying bodies, and b) EHR technology companies to get their products certified against Meaningful Use criteria.

In addition to Dr. Blumenthal’s keynote address, other keynote sessions featured presentations by: Dan Hesse, Chief Executive Officer of Sprint Nextel Corporation; Sanjay Gupta, MD, Senior Medical Correspondent at CNN; Harry Markopolos, the Certified Fraud Investigator who spoke about Medicare fraud; and Chesley B. “Sully” Sullenberger, III, the pilot who landed US Airways Flight 1549 on the Hudson River and founded Safety Reliability Methods.

The next HIMSS Conference & Exhibition will be Feb. 21 – 24, 2011 in Orlando, Fla. Visit www.himssconference.org for more information. 

About HIMSS

The Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) is a comprehensive healthcare-stakeholder membership organization exclusively focused on providing global leadership for the optimal use of information technology (IT) and management systems for the betterment of healthcare. Founded in 1961 with offices in Chicago, Washington D.C., Brussels, Singapore, and other locations across the United States, HIMSS represents more than 23,000 individual members, of which 73% work in patient care delivery settings. HIMSS also includes over 380 corporate members and nearly 30 not-for-profit organizations that share our mission of transforming healthcare through the effective use of information technology and management systems. HIMSS frames and leads healthcare public policy and industry practices through its educational, professional development, and advocacy initiatives designed to promote information and management systems’ contributions to ensuring quality patient care.  Visit www.himss.org for more information.