The annual gathering of the Health Information Management Systems Society (HIMSS) will take place March 5-9 in Las Vegas this year and promises to host its usual blend of leading healthcare thinkers, ground breaking technology and collaborative sessions.
Making sense of a HIMSS conference can be challenging if you don’t plan ahead. There’s plenty to be excited about, from education sessions, to symposiums, expos and networking opportunities. You’ll want to take a look at the schedule for yourself, but here is sample of the things we’re looking forward to at this year’s event.
VA Secretary Keynote
Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin’s address titled “It Takes a Community-Delivering 21st Century Coordinated Care for Those In and Out of Uniform” will discuss innovations occurring at the VA. This could be about the VA’s move from one EHR vendor to another, their growing and steadily improving telehealth efforts and other ongoing issues surrounding the medical care of veterans.
Schulkin will be joined by Vice Admiral Raquel Bono who will discuss advances the military has made in ensuring the speed and quality of data delivery as well as care coordination.
The Challenge of Precision Medicine
Health IT has an important role to play in the growth of precision medicine. A panel comprised of medical, legal and research experts and entrepreneurs will examine the tall task of implementing precision medicine efforts. They will look at plans to address issues surrounding new stakeholders, risk and liability, regulatory environments and new innovations.
Of particular interest, the panel is set to look at how artificial intelligence will impact precision medicine and patient engagement.
Cloud Computing Forum
Hosted by John Halamka, Chief Information Officer at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, this event falls into the pre-conference event category as it takes place on Mar. 5, prior to Schulkin’s opening keynote.
Halamka will get things started with a speech about the digital transformation facilitating better patient care, healthier populations, lower costs and clinician satisfaction. The event will run from 8 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. and includes an industry snapshot from HIMSS Analytics Senior Director of Market Insights, Janet King. In total, 15 speakers will look closer at the implementation of cloud computing in healthcare settings, having a cloud architecture that meets HIPAA requirements, security best practices, advanced analytics, cloud driven machine learning, data governance in the cloud and more.
USF Lightning Session
The Lightning Session is new to HIMSS18, offering a 20-minute fast paced session in an immersive 65 seat theater that includes presentations from experts across a variety of fields. After the sessions, participants are invited to stay and ask questions and spark invigorating discussions with the presenters.
USF has taken the opportunity to lead one such session on the topic of educating health analytics professionals. It will feature USF’s Dr. Athanasios Tsalatsanis discussing USF’s approach to educating the next generation of healthcare informatics and analytics professionals. This session will take place on Wednesday, March 7 from 5:30 p.m. – 5:50 p.m.
Machine Learning and AI for Healthcare
After 2017 presented the healthcare industry with a number of use cases for artificial intelligence and machine learning, there is still much to learn about how technology can improve patient care and outcomes.
Experts at this session will look closely at issues ranging from trust and transparency to how AI plugs into the idea of a learning health system. A series of case studies focusing on analysis of EMR data, patient centered care and reducing hospital readmissions will be followed by speakers looking at implementing AI into the clinical workflow, the differences between machine learning types and technology in precision medicine.
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