Recently, I attended the 2024 HIMSS, the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society’s annual conference, which was held at the Orlando Florida Convention Center.

The conference brought together close to 40,000 health professionals from around the world to learn, discuss, and understand how we, as an industry, can use health information technology to address the challenges we face in healthcare. Thirteen Hundred and Fifty (1350) exhibitors were on hand to explain, demonstrate, and showcase products and services in this industry.

For three days, there were education sessions, networking opportunities, and experts on hand to discuss aspects of health information technology in individual areas. The 2024 theme of “Innovations for Better Healthcare,” HIMSS 2024, focused on addressing the healthcare industry’s pressing challenges while leveraging technological innovations to enhance patient care, streamline operations, and drive efficiency.

Health Information Technology is changing how we work, communicate, and practice our profession. Being part of the revolution is important for each of us to ensure that new systems are used for the good of the patient and our systems.

Here are my takeaways:

1. Health Information Technology is a force that will touch every healthcare organization and professional.
2. Health systems, payers, and providers must include patients and their families as health information technologies are introduced. Their impact and voices will be one way to determine which systems are right and whether they are making the expected difference.
3. We will need to continue to use data better to address issues and identify areas of improvement.
4. We are in the infant stages of health information technology implementation, but the industry is racing to understand what is needed to survive. Everyone in healthcare will see substantial disruption over the next few years.
5. All sectors must start now to identify areas that could benefit from HIT, such as workflow inefficiencies, data silos, and areas where technology can improve patient care.
6. Set up teams to define goals and objectives so you can clearly outline the specific goals and objectives the organization wants to achieve.
7. Identify problems and areas for improvement, and then find what technologies are available to address the issue.
8. Get the buy-in of different professional stakeholder groups, such as doctors, nurses, clinical and administrative staff, managers, senior management, and other strategic leaders.
9. Plan to attend webinars and conferences, read articles, and listen to podcasts about various types of health information technologies so you can start to get a feel for the impact of the industry.
10. Think about going back to school for formal education in the field.

Everyone I heard speak at the conference says that the human aspect of healthcare will never be replaced by artificial intelligence or machine learning. Still, it will change what we do and how we do it and require retraining and relearning.

Get involved now—volunteer to be on a committee as your organization moves forward with implementing health information technologies. All our voices and insights will be critical to the process.

I highly recommend that you follow HIMSS Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society to keep up to date on this industry at https://www.himss.org

Anne Llewellyn, MS, BHSA, RN, CRRN, CMGT-BC, BCPA, FCM is a registered nurse with 50 + years of clinical experience. She is a digital journalist writing for various e-newsletters focused on digital health, workers’ compensation, case management, and educating people to be their best healthcare advocates.

Anne has a substantial following from healthcare professionals who follow her for information, events, and trends impacting health and healthcare. You can learn more about Anne at www.nursesadvocates.com. You can reach Anne by email at allewellyn48@gmail.com.