OBSERVATIONS FROM HIMSS19

OBSERVATIONS FROM HIMSS19

The Parnin Group attended the recent HIMSS 2019 conference in Orlando, Florida. It was a very exciting event – it reinforced emerging trends and practices in healthcare IT.

One of the biggest news from the conference was the notice of proposed rulemaking, announced by Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC). Among many other things, the proposed rules puts the patient at the center of the healthcare data – the patient owns his/her data. In addition, the rules identify a standards-based approach, based on Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR) and a promise to penalize information blocking.

Some of our observations from the conference are provided below (note: this is a subset, based on the sessions/keynotes we attended):

  • Growing recognition of the importance of cybersecurity in the healthcare setting – in particular, as information sharing increases
  • Practical examples and demonstrations of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning in the healthcare setting – some thought-provoking questions it raises were raised by Dr. Halamkain his session: What’s Next for Healthcare IT?
  • Consumerization of healthcare, empowering patients
  • Expanding definition and evolution of telehealth and remote monitoring

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