Summits, showcases, and celebrities mark HIMSS 2009

The Obama Administration has singled out healthcare IT as a catalyst for the remaking of U.S. medical practice. Hundreds of healthcare IT companies are converging on Chicago, bent on explaining how they and their technologies can make it happen quickly, efficiently, cost effectively.

Some will do so exclusively at their booths on the HIMSS 2009 exhibit floor. The better connected will leverage symposia, summits and workshops; hold luncheons; host media briefings.

The ongoing Interoperability Showcase, which begins April 4, will demonstrate the Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise’s (IHE) framework for bridging the gaps between local, regional, and national health information exchanges. Its interactive environment will use clinical scenarios to simulate how health information can be passed among care providers.

Companies that want to build connections of another kind, particularly emerging companies looking for investors, will congregate at the HIMSS09 Health IT Venture Fair. HIMSS is framing the all-day fair April 4 as providing investors a first look at 25 to 30 of the most promising growth companies.

Cisco will host April 5 8am - noon its annual Community for Connected Health Summit, a hybrid collection of homegrown experts and ones drawn from Cisco partners. In this forum they will discuss present-day and near term advances, as well as some on the horizon.

Pioneers willing to explore on their own will find plenty of nuggets. Healthcare robots and other futuristic  technologies will take root 9:45-10:45 am April 6 in An Economic Model for the Next Big Thing: Healthcare Robots and Other Emerging HealthTechnologies. A moment later, from 9:45 - 10:45 am pundits from inside the Washington Beltway will explain healthcare reform proposals and how these proposals may impact healthcare and IT industries  in The Intersection of Healthcare Reform and Health IT. The senior director of Applied Clinical Informatics at Tenet Healthcare Corporation in Dallas will present her experience with an electronic health record April 7 from 9:45-10:45 am in the aptly named You’ve Bought It, But Will They Use It? (If you like this one, don’t miss We’re Electronic! Now What? from 2:15-3:15pm later that day.)

The conference will feature an eclectic program of keynote speakers. Dr. Jerry M. Linenger rode to fame atop a rocket. The Naval Flight Surgeon spent five months on the Russian space station Mir in 1997. On April 8 from 1:00– 2:30 pm, he will tell how the Mir crew handled an onboard fire, a rogue spacecraft that nearly collided with the station, and multiple computer failures that sent Mir tumbling out of control. Former chairman of the Federal Reserve Alan Greenspan will offer his thoughts April 8 from 8:30– 9:30 am on the current economic environment and healthcare system. Hollywood actor Dennis Quaid will drive home the need for healthcare IT, speaking April 5 from 12:30 – 2:00 pm about the effect an overdose of the blood thinner Heparin had on his young twins while they were in the hospital recovering from infection.