HIMSS11: health IT’s moment has come

HIMSS11, the giant US health IT conference and exhibition, opened today with a record 31,000 attendees and 1,000 exhibitors gathered in Orlando, Florida.

With $20 billion of national investment in pump-priming Electronic Medical Records starting to be delivered under ‘meaningful use’ initiatives, attendees were told their opportunity had come to use technology to transform healthcare.

In his opening address, Dr C Martin Harris, the chair of the HIMSS board, said: “We have the opportunity to lead healthcare’s transformation. Our moment has come. It is right here, now.”

But he added: “Meaningful use is just the beginning; a spark that will kickstart a revolution. We will move in a few short years to [a situation in which] accurate information is instantly available whenever it is needed, enabling doctors to make the best treatment decisions for and with their patients.”

The changes now in train, he said, will “impact the entire medical practice model.” He added: “We are going to see this transformation in our lifetime.”

He also predicted that interoperable healthcare data would have profound benefits for patient care and medical research. “Interoperable health IT infrastructure will support research and help determine what treatments are most effective.”

The US Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society – or HIMSS – was a key lobbyist for investment in EMRs in the USA.

In 2008, it lobbied president Barack Obama to invest a minimum of $25 billion in health IT to boost the adoption of EMRs, which it argued would help to modernise the US healthcare system and support the struggling US economy.

It also called for the appointment of a national IT czar and the creation of local ‘health IT action zones.’

Obama subsequently pledged that all Americans would have EMRs within five years, and channelled up to $36 billion of America Reinvestment and Recovery Act (ARRA) money towards meeting the pledge. This includes up to $19 billion to incentivise providers to make ‘meaningful use’ of records.

Dr Harris said that 2010 had been the year of preparation of meaningful use, while 2011 was about delivery. “You and I are privileged to live in a moment of history where health IT will be central catalyst in a transformation of healthcare,” he told this year’s HIMSS event. “That is unprecedented.”