April 6, 2009 - More than 70 clinical information systems from 72 different technology companies and organizations are demonstrating how their products communicate and interact with each other in the Interoperability Showcase at the 2009 Annual Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) Conference & Exhibition, April 4 – 8 in Chicago.
Conference attendees can visit several mock healthcare settings to experience how the high-tech, seamless and secure exchange of electronic health information could eliminate the need for patients to provide their medical history each time they visit a new doctor or hospital – with many of the systems already successfully operating in healthcare settings worldwide.
Interactive presentations show how the information exchange varies among:
- hospitals
- small ambulatory clinics
- worldwide military settings
- nationwide health information networks (NHIN)
- Integrated Delivery Networks (IDN)
In addition, the Interoperability Showcase will offer more than 40 different educational sessions on topics including federal and state agency initiatives, standards development programs, personal health records and electronic health records, as well as financial and administrative systems.
The Interoperability Showcase leverages the work of the Healthcare Information Technology Standards Panel (HITSP) and Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise (IHE), two organizations that develop standards-based frameworks and specifications for health information exchange.
“The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 includes more than $19 billion for health IT, and these funds will have the largest impact if they are invested in technologies that can communicate with each other,” said John Halamka, M.D., HITSP Chair and CIO, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical, a teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School. “The Interoperability Showcase proves that companies and organizations realize this and are working together toward a common goal of reducing costs and improving the U.S. healthcare system.”
More than 2,800 attendees visited the 2008 Interoperability Showcase. The next Interoperability Showcase in the U.S. will be held at the 2010 Annual HIMSS Conference & Exhibition, March 1 – 4 in Atlanta.
For more information: www.himss.org
March 14, 2024 
