RHetoric

Every HIMSS produces a thread - last year it was PHR’s; this year it is the stimulus.  Everyone - and I mean EVERYONE - has a marketing message related to the stimulus.  “We are the only company that can get you ready for incentive payments by Jan 2011.”

One context for all of this marketing is the HIMSS Analytics staging - a Stage 7 hospital is the nirvana of IT adoption; only a few have accomplished it and are being celebrated at the show.

From a marketing perspective, it is as usual a very noisy show.  The booths with flair are the ones getting the traffic.  OnBase’s stadium pub is a classic and right at the entrance.  Hard not to get pulled in when an account exec tosses a company-branded baseball at you while walking by.

My favorite so far is the Iatric Systems booth.  These guys hired a pool trick shot champion to show off his best moves at a pool table in the booth - and his script includes all kinds of clever messaging about the value of Iatric’s solutions.  It’s a bit of a stretch but this is HIMSS - you HAVE to stretch to break through.  I have captured this bit of marketing genius on video so as soon as my PC cooperates I will upload it to this post.

On the media front, the press room is very quiet.  It is located far off the show floor, so it may not be being used much.  I’ve spent time at the press room and a reporter will dart in and out every once and a while.  However it does appear that there are far fewer reporters here this year than in the past.  One of our favorite industry reporters, Patty Enrado of Healthcare IT News, was one of those spotted darting in and out of the press room several times - and no wonder - she filed six stories that day!  Way to go Patty!

And finally, a nod to the weather gods who greeted us with snow upon arrival on Chicago.  Today it is sunny and 40’s.  We’ll take it.

Having just arrived, I can already sense a difference this HIMSS. I evaluated the conference guide and peered onto the exhibition floor. To me, it seems that HIMSS 2009 is really HIMSS 2.0.

The industry has defined its building blocks - EMR, CPOE, PACS, etc. Now it seems the focus is split between using dollars to increase adoption and how to take all the digital data and make good use of it.

More to come.

The annual convergence of all things tech in healthcare is upon us.  This year HIMSS is being hosted in Chicago.  I guess Orlando, New Orleans, and San Diego weren’t exotic enough.

I filled me symposium dance card with sessions ranging from clinical decision support trends to HIEs and stimulus spending.  Each year the conference seems to have an overarching trend - PACS, EMR, HL7, CPOE.  This year I am going out on a limb with my pre-conference analysis, predicting meaningful EMRs and stimulus funding is front-and-center.

Updates to follow from the floor.