Hi,
HIMSS09 is a little over a week away. Held at the same ol' location where RSNA has been held for many years, the McCormick Place in Chicago, Illinois starting Sunday, April 4th and ending Wednesday, April 8th.
I hope it isn't as cold in Chicago as it was when I travelled there to attend the RSNA event last year. Anyways, Chicago is a nice city and I enjoyed the whole event. I stayed at the Chicago Marriott Downtown Magnificent Mile which is nearby everything. I even had dinner at President Obama's favorite italian restaurant and I won't say which it is since I'll leave that to your own discovery.
This year will be slightly different than others since two major vendors: MEDITECH and Cerner, have both cancelled their attendance. This is unfortunate because MEDITECH is a cornerstone of healthcare IS and albeit they are a very conservative company they do tend to continuosly bring innovations and improve their product line. Cerner having been a major industry player for many years will also be missed. I am unaware of other cancellations but from what I have gathered from other colleagues, most companies, at least the ones they work for, are sending the minimum amount of people as they can.
But there will definitely be other big companies showing off their new products, technologies, ongoing projects, and ideas. Microsoft is one of them. Microsoft is really gaining momentum with their 2 primary healthcare focuses: Microsoft Amalga and Microsoft HealthVault. I am more interested in their UIS (Unified Intelligence System) at this moment since I believe it will revolutionize how healthcare information systems will be developed in the future. The UIS, although I don't know too much about it, I understand that it is a platform. A platform says many things and I'll wait for details that I'll gather when I'm at their booth. I'll flip my tag so that they can't recognize me and I'll carry my stethoscope around my neck (by the way I'm not a physician!) that way they'll spill it all out. Since I used to be a sales engineer I know how to treat that breed. You can find more information about Microsoft's HIMSS 2009 Conference at the following site: http://www.mshimss2009.com/. Microsoft has been exceptionally good to me so I will give them free advertisement. :)
Google, although not being as lavish as its rival, may have some surprises as well. They have only mentioned their free consumer-oriented personal health record (PHR).
I am sure there will be a lot of enthusiasm among attendees since healthcare IT is one of the hottest topics in the current political agenda. We'll see a lot of folks promoting themselves as the solution to the healthcare interoperability challenge.
On Tuesday I will be attending the roundtable discussion tentatively titled, "Meet the Bloggers". I was invited by HIMSS so I guess my blog site is achieving its intended effect. This round table is taking place as part of a new exhibit called "HIMSS Tech Lab", accordingly. Other bloggers are invited as well according to their invitation and I'm just spreading the word.
I hope to see you in Chicago!
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