Brian Ahier

"Data is the currency of the next century," says Brian Ahier. And nowhere are health data and data management processes discussed, analyzed and examined more than at the HIMSS Annual Conference and Exhibition.

The healthcare industry is awash in data. But how can we best turn it into actionable information?

Conversations at HIMSS conferences in recent years have been largely dominated by meaningful use. This year, a great deal of talk was about going past MU and beginning to look at outcomes as opposed to process measures.

With most patient data now being recorded in a shareable form, we're poised to accelerate population health IT. Now it's on to the next set of major challenges, which will be front-and-center at HIMSS15: sharing data and putting it to beneficial use.

While the collection and sharing of health data has yet to significantly impact care cost or quality, it has laid the foundation for the move toward population health management. The future for health IT starts now.