HIMSS or Bust

Two extremely short weeks from today will be the official start of that annual healthcare IT (HIT) confab called HIMSS. Tens of thousands will gather to hear the latest and greatest on how HIT will deliver unfathomable rewards to all who adopt. Of course there will also be those discussions that if you aren’t on the EHR, HIE, CDS, RCM or any other HIT acronym bandwagon then surely you will fail to meet the high goals and aspirations of the policy wonks in DC and State-houses across the country. Your days are surely numbered.

Don’t get us wrong. Chilmark Research is actually a strong proponent of HIT, if it is judiciously deployed, clinicians have a voice and training is truly training (A friend who is a nurse told me the horror story of sitting in two full days of training where the trainer from a very well-known ambulatory vendor refused to allow those in the class to actually use the EHR – they had to sit and watch endless demos). Problem is, as the training example points out, this is rarely done and the aggressive timelines of ARRA for EHR incentive payments sure doesn’t help.

But we digress. If nothing else, HIMSS affords one the opportunity to get a pulse on the industry if one just ignores most of the loud pronouncements plastered all over the front of the various booths and in those all too common theaters. Having been to countless events such as this in numerous market sectors, the pulse is found behind the scenes, behind the posters, in the hallways in casual conversations, in the questions that you overhear being asked, in private conversations with key people in the industry.

In my own case, I look to HIMSS as partly educational, partly business development. Over the last few weeks I have received countless invitations to meet with various companies of all shapes and sizes. I just wish those sending these invitations would actually take the time to get to know Chilmark Research first as the vast majority are of very little interest – I mean really, do I want to sit-down and learn about the latest COW?

I do a lot of planning upfront and select who I want to meet with and rarely entertain unsolicited invitations. At this point, my three days of HIMSS are completely packed and if I were wise I’d spend the next two weeks taking it easy and resting up for what will be a three day marathon that begins with breakfast meetings and ends sometime late after the last reception. The most exhausting part of it all, simply that as an analyst you are always “On”. In almost any conversation you are asked for an opinion, a forecast, a prediction and if they don’t like it, you then need to defend it with logic. I love the challenge, I love the intellectual stimulus but by the time I board that flight home I’m totally spent.

To help you prepare for HIMSS, here are a few suggestions:

Attend the mobihealthnews webinar this Thursday, February 10th at 2pm ET. I’ll be presenting alongside mobihealthnews editor Brian Dolan and Diversinet executive Mark Trigsted. We’ll be talking about mHealth Trends in 2011 and what to expect at HIMSS on the mHealth front. Registration is free and last I heard, they have nearly 800 registrants.

Register for the FierceHealthIT HIMSS Executive Breakfast which will be held Tuesday morning. I will be part of a great panel that includes Lynn Vogel from MD Anderson, Joe Kvedar of Partner’s Center for Connected Health and Capt. Robert Marshall, CMIO of the Navy.  Our topic: mHealth’s Evolving Role in Achieving Meaningful Use, should make for a lively conversation.

Keep your meetings with vendors short. There is so much going on for your typical vendor that it will be difficult for them to truly remember details of an in-depth discussion.  So much is happening at a big event like this that the best one can hope for is a meet n’greet type of meeting where one meets with some key executives of the vendor, gains a quick read on their direction, what the vendor sees as important. With this information, you can determine whether or not a more in-depth follow-up meeting is warranted.

Be sure to leave yourself a good 15-30 minutes of space between meetings. This time will prove invaluable for a number of reasons including:

• Gives you a breather to go over your notes and add any details you may not have written down during the meeting itself.
• Provides some cushion should a meeting be going very well allowing you to carry a conversation to a successful conclusion.
• Allows you time to get to your next meeting without being late. (Last year was a nightmare for me with the exhibit hall split in two – took forever for me to get from one side to the next. Thankfully I had some cushion time built into schedule.)

In closing, while I find HIMSS to be depressing at times and the hype of vendors far out-strips their ability to execute, this is a valuable conference to attend as it does bring all the key industry players in HIT under one roof. Despite all the wonderful communication tools we now have at our disposal from Facebook to Twitter to webcasts, emails and good old fashion phone calls, we are still social creatures and we do need face-time with one another to strengthen relationships, form new ones and assess ones we are unsure of. This can only be done in-person and HIMSS provides that opportunity.