Building on the combined themes of Innovation, Impact and Outcomes, ONWARD, the HIMSS14 Annual Conference & Exhibition at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Fla., Feb. 23-27, will offer innovations designed for maximum impact and improved attendee outcomes, show organizers say.
JoAnn Klinedinst, HIMSS vice president of professional development, said that based on attendee feedback, various changes have been made to the show schedule, seminar lineup and presentation formats. One of the more prominent suggestions, she said, is to allow more time between sessions and to visit exhibits.
"We realized that more time was needed to move between general educational session offerings," she said. "As a result, we doubled the time between sessions to 30 minutes."
In an effort to incorporate attendee input into the conference, Klinedinst said HIMSS is providing the opportunity for attendees to suggest topics for discussion.
"Our guidelines are simple: anyone can suggest a topic for discussion," she said. "The Annual Conference Education Committee will select those topics for discussion during any one of six 45-minute sessions allocated to YourTurn at HIMSS14. All we ask is that no slide presentations be used in these commercial-free sessions."
Session interactivity is another new feature for HIMSS14. Designed to facilitate interactive learning, show organizers are extending live polling of attendees for various sessions.
"Through this technology, speakers can better gauge attendee experiences that will contribute to enhanced learning," Klinedinst said.
Learning & training
With an emphasis on learning and training, HIMSS14 is showcasing Beacon Nation and Hero’s Welcome at this year’s conference.
Based on work developed through a federal grant, Beacon Nation presenters will discuss components of various learning guides that were developed through implementation efforts designed around transforming health IT. With four sessions devoted to discussing various learning guides, the goal is to give attendees strategies that can be adapted for a variety of healthcare settings.
Hero’s Welcome stems from a substantial grant awarded to Bellevue (Wash.) College by the U.S. Department of Labor, Education and Training Administration. Aimed at helping veterans and their spouses, HIMSS has forged a partnership with Bellevue through the Health e-Workforce Consortium to provide training for careers in the growing field of health IT.
Program diversity
Overall, the Annual Conference Education Committee and its reviewers contend that HIMSS14 program topics will be more diverse than ever. Examples include how an organization developed a program to address both healthcare and health IT workforce development with veterans, a session focusing on establishing health information exchange between healthcare settings and local school districts to provide information on medically underserved students, and a presentation on how predictive analytics is improving the cost and quality of patient care.
"By focusing on the people, the processes and the technologies, there is definitely something for every health IT professional in our educational line-up," Klinedinst said.
