From HIMSS 3/6/13–Inga’s Update

I started my Tuesday morning at the keynote session with Eric Topol, who I found to be a great speaker. He discussed the potential of new technologies, many of which are available directly to consumers, and which have the potential to transform healthcare and save money.  I’ve been a little skeptical in the past that consumers will actually embrace technology to monitor their own health, but Topol showed some options that are extremely simple to use and allow patients to track and monitor their health in the comfort of their homes instead of the doctor’s office, the hospital, or a sleep lab.

I think that by the third day of HIMSS, flip flops are totally acceptable.

I hit the exhibit floor next and began looking for caffeine. Thank you Perceptive for the coffee and the beignet.

HIMSS has a number of theaters and kiosks set up in different areas of the exhibit floor. The Meaningful Use Experience section was at the far end of the hall and didn’t seem to be getting too much traffic.

Many, many sponsors, including Access, were displaying their HIStalk signs, which we appreciate.

I noticed that Caradigm, which was displaying a sponsor sign, was strategically located across from GE and next to Microsoft.

GE was attracting a crowd by giving attendees a chance to simulate a flight over New York City. It’s fun to watch.

I know I mentioned this last year but I like the Caretech booth, which uses black and white photos on its outer walls. Definitely stands out amongst the flash and colors of almost every other booth.

I have tried to limit the number of trinkets I’ve picked up this year but I figured I had enough room for this key ring with dangling clogs from Forcare, a Dutch company that offers interoperability solutions.

Kudos to Matt with Yseop, who stepped in the aisle to draw me into his small booth and delivered a nice pitch. Pronounced, “easy-op,” the company has rules engines that take data from a variety of formats and converts it into a narrative. They are just entering healthcare so they couldn’t show me much clinical content, but I liked what I saw.

Thank you to Level 3, who handed me the cookie I am now eating for breakfast and gave me a chance to register for an iPad Mini.

The Meditech booth is somewhat off to the side, but was reasonably busy as I passed by.

One of the ladies from Siemens stopped me long enough to take a swipe of my badge as part of their effort to raise money for Hope for the Warriors. Siemens will be donating up to $10,000 to the charity, whose mission is to enhance the quality of life for post 9/11 service members and their families.

The caramelized pecans from Novell are worth stopping for.

I found the outside wall of the InterSystems booth pretty eye-catching.

I was unable to get a good picture, but Suzanne in the Orion booth was sporting some pretty hot patent leather pumps.

I enjoyed chatting with Ken Harvey of TerraWi, which helps organization secure their mobile devices. Ken is a former professional football player who spent time with the Redskins and Cardinals and delivered a great elevator pitch on the company and its services.

I loved these fun ribbons that Liason Technologies was offering.

I think the ladies at Onyx are vying for the Hottest Booth Babe award.

I checked out PatientSafe Solutions, which has an all-in-one mobile platform that supports communication, med administration, care interventions, alerts and more. It uses either an iPhone 5 or iPod Touch and works with a hospital’s existing EHR.  I thought it was so slick that I made Dr. Jayne check it out as well. She, too, gave it a thumbs up.

This display at the Panasonic booth tells a great story in a simple way.

Both Allscripts and dbMotion were displaying signs saying they were pleased to have joined the Allscripts family.

I may need to make time for the Bantec booth today, which is offering chair massages.

In general there seem to be fewer gimmicks this year to draw in crowds. While there are a few magicians, I haven’t noticed any famous chefs whipping up fabulous appetizers or people dressed in ridiculous costumes. I definitely don’t miss that creepy knight from years past. That being said, there were a few roulette wheels and I won half a pound of chocolate playing Wheel of Fortune at the Pepid booth. Seth at Pepid did a good job asking my friend and me our backgrounds prior to delivering his succinct elevator pitch.

I saw several Regina Holliday jackets, including this one that Amy Gleason was wearing. I love the individualized messages.

I strolled through the very busy Epic booth, primarily to check out the art. It was heavy on animal themes this year.

The crowd at the CommonWell Health Alliance booth was deep with people trying to get a handle on what the new organization is all about.

Philips was hosting a crowd of folks, presumably all from the same country, who required an interpreter during the demonstration. It’s fascinating to walk through the exhibit hall and hear so many different languages.

Today’s agenda includes Bill Clinton (!), more exhibits (I don’t think I got past the 6000’s yesterday), the Interoperability Showcase, and possibly one other session. Off to seize the day!

E-mail Inga.