Readers Write: HIMSS23 Recap

HIMSS23 Recap
By Mike Silverstein

Mike Silverstein is managing partner of the healthcare IT and life sciences practice of Direct Recruiters, Inc. of Solon, OH.

The HIMSS Global Health Conference & Exhibition was held April 17-21 in Chicago, where over 40,000 professionals gathered for educational sessions, visited vendor booths, and networked. Our company was excited to get back to HIMSS as a larger group and share these observations.

Trends

AI and tools such as ChatGPT are getting adopted into healthcare quickly. There were a few innovative companies already showing off their new ChatGPT features, which was extremely cool. We anticipate this trend continuing, with ChatGPT having strong use cases in many areas of healthcare tech. We’re just at the tip of the iceberg.

We noticed a pivot towards partnerships. With hospitals struggling, tech companies are putting a big focus on partnerships. Fundraising remains in a slowdown. However, we continue to hear about investments being made for companies going from seed to Series A or to A to B, not in later stages. Series B/C companies are conducting more inside rounds to sustain cash needs.

Direct-to-provider meetings seemed to be relatively slow. We saw a continued trend of companies who sell direct to providers that were looking at ways to break into the health plan space. As hospitals are taking a long time to buy and are very ROI-driven, RCM services are staying strong.

Interoperability has been a theme for over a decade now in healthcare and remains today. Conversation has shifted from inside the four walls of the hospital to how technology receives data and information from what is available globally. A “Designated Record Set” is pushing for provider compliance to ensure their technology integrates with all systems (HIE extender).

Hiring seems to be ramping back up, especially looking into Q3 and Q4. The emphasis remains mostly in revenue-generating roles at the moment. There is also a need for senior finance and accounting. Product and operations roles are hardest to come by.

General Observations

From an overall size and attendee standpoint, the conference seemed to be back to pre-COVID levels. It was key to have pre-booked meetings, but even then, some companies were no-shows. Microsoft’s booth (and Nuance), and surrounding areas were always packed with people. It was great to see a renewed energy at HIMSS despite the ups and downs of the industry over the past few years.

Constructive Feedback

The main hall was split into two sides. The north side felt a bit forgotten, and some did not venture out much to the booths on the fringes. In addition, there seemed to be a lack of places to sit, grab a good coffee, and most importantly, charge your phone.

The last piece of feedback is to bring back the carpet. We noticed one person trip and fall (luckily, they were OK) because of the lack of carpet-to-carpet transition at one of the booths.

Overall, our team is excited about the connections made and the new technologies we saw at HIMSS. We are energized by the passion and innovation of the industry as a whole and look forward to what’s to come.