HealthManagement, Volume 2 / Issue 1 Spring 2007

The recent HIMSS07 Annual Conference & Exhibition, held February 25 -March 1, 2007 opened its doors to participants from all over the world in New Orleans, US. This year, the conference’s theme was “Where ideas become solutions”. The number of participants registered by February 18 was 25,000, comfortably exceeding last year’s figures. Steve Lieber, CEO of HIMSS, said that there was about 11% more exhibition space and more than 220 first-time exhibitor companies this year.

 

In spite of the enthusiasm among participants, the large number of companies attending and the innovative technologies which were showcased, the Conference revealed that the future of health IT in the United States will continue to depend on federal government actions. This was the subject of a Town Hall meeting at HIMSS07, which discussed perspectives on government health IT programs, policies and initiatives.

 

With respect to new products, electronic medical record systems remained hot items, and representatives from the medical sector said they would be doing some serious comparison shopping while at HIMSS07. Identity management, RFID, biometrics and network security were among other areas of interest.

 

A HIMSS07 Health IT Venture Fair was held to expose potential investors to young companies seeking $500,000 to $10 million in investments. The Venture Fair was part of new HIMSS platforms. Others included:

î Interoperability Showcase

î Quality Symposium

î Supply Chain Technology Symposium

î Speaking the Language of Healthcare Decision Makers

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For more information on HIMSS07, please visit www.himss07.org

Phot credit: HIMSS

 

 

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