Largest annual health IT event

HIMSS 2019 news, trends and analysis

Compiled by:Tayla Holman
Last updated:February 2019

Conference Coverage

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Editor's note

The HIMSS 2019 conference comes at a time of transition within the healthcare industry. The federal government continues to push forward with the idea that patients should have easier access to their health data regardless of which vendor's EHR system the medical records reside in.

Meanwhile, technology plays an increasingly important part in improving patient engagement, particularly as Apple, Amazon and other consumer tech giants edge into healthcare. Population health management's intersection with value-based care remains a growing interest for health IT professionals, and cybersecurity breaches continue to threaten hospitals.

Explore our pre-conference coverage of HIMSS 2019 here and follow our reporting as the event takes place.

1Long-term challenges for health IT professionals

Interoperability of patient data may monopolize attendee interest at HIMSS 2019. As federal healthcare officials put more emphasis on giving patients access to their health data, hospitals must confront the limits of EHR vendors to provide this access. Meanwhile, cybersecurity threats continue to burden healthcare defenses as organizations look for ways to stay ahead of hackers. And looking further into the future, value-based care looms, raising questions about how technology fits into this movement.

2Role of AI and analytics to fill healthcare gaps

The healthcare industry and its tech vendors have given much attention -- and hype -- to artificial intelligence and its potential to aggregate and pinpoint medical data for the benefit of patient treatments. While AI and data analytics have not replaced physicians in clinical decisions, many of these deliberations are aided by the technologies. Population health management and medical informatics can guide the use of data, and those disciplines will be on the minds of many at HIMSS 2019.

3The consumerization of healthcare

Healthcare has learned from the retail, banking and hotel industries about how to cultivate engagement and involvement with their customers -- in this case, patients. This theme will be prominent at HIMSS 2019 as healthcare organizations strive to provide better patient engagement in appointment scheduling, health data access, treatment options and other areas.

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