In an article posted to Revenue Cycle Advisor, Rita Bowen, MA, RHIA, CHPS, CHPC, SSGB, Vice President of Privacy, Compliance and HIM Policy, discusses her attendance at the HIMSS18 conference and summarizes three takeaways for healthcare privacy professionals.
The 2018 Healthcare Information Management Systems Society Health IT Conference (HIMSS18) hosted
more than 43,000 attendees. Swarms of healthcare industry professionals Òlled educational sessions and
convention hall aisles on March 5–9 in Las Vegas.
With over half of attendees representing provider, payer, and governmental agencies, HIMSS reaÕrmed its
position as the top event for everyone involved in the health information technology (HIT) industry.
Throughout the week, three core trends were identified:
- Non-healthcare technology companies continue to seek inroads into hospitals and health systems
as they attempt to solve common healthcare consumer and provider challenges. - Postacute care providers joined the HIMSS ranks through higher numbers of educational sessions
and vendor exhibits exploring business needs and technology solutions beyond the traditional acute
care setting. - The importance of properly managing patient data remains front and center in the HIT industry.
Discussion of data integrity, actionable data, data interoperability, cybersecurity, and patient
ownership of data was a common thread across all 124 sessions covering privacy, security, or
cybersecurity.
