I’m sure that some of you might have seen me complaining on Twitter about the challenge of trying to sift through the 300+ educational sessions at HIMSS. I even tried to convince the HIMSS expert Neil Versel to offer up some suggestions on which HIMSS 2012 sessions to attend. He suggested just leaving all of the education times open and decide later. It’s a good idea, but I think I prefer meeting with people more than some of the available sessions. Neil enjoys the sessions a bit more than I do.

One of my favorite old Neil Versel posts was when he basically said, “HIMSS is more than just the exhibit hall.” With 300+ sessions at HIMSS 2012 there should be something you will find interesting, so HIMSS should be more than just the exhibit hall.

Today I started ripping through the HIMSS sessions to try and identify those I found interesting and worth putting on my schedule. While they might make it on the schedule, that doesn’t mean I’ll necessarily attend. I debate attending based on the flow of the conference, people I’m with at the time, and if I’d already heard enough on that subject for one HIMSS. Plus, I often put multiple sessions that are at the same time on my schedule. In those cases, I use the above criteria to decide which ones I should attend.

The other X Factor with this all is that I still have to schedule my meetings with vendors I find interesting during HIMSS as well. I’ll start doing that now that I know which HIMSS sessions are happening when. At least now I won’t schedule a meeting with a vendor during the Biz Stone keynote. That would be a travesty.

Below you’ll find my HIMSS 2012 schedule of sessions (which will likely continue to change), but for those interested here’s the process I did to find interesting sessions. First, I added the exhibit hall hours and keynotes. Next, I went through the HIMSS Specialty Programs and HIMSS Social Media Center schedule (My HIMSS Panel on Wed, 2/24 from 4-5 made it on my schedule from this list). Then, the HIMSS Education section has the sessions broken out into “Core Education” areas. I found the Federal Participation at HIMSS 12, Senior Executive sessions and EHR Best Practices sections quite interesting.

There you have it. I’m sure I missed some sessions I should attend, so if you know of some that you think are worthwhile do let me know and I’ll check them out. Now without further ado, my current schedule for HIMSS 2012:

As you can see it’s going to be a full and crazy week for me at HIMSS 2012, but as I said before HIMSS is great for me. Everyone goes there with a little different plan on what they want to accomplish and learn, but hopefully my list of sessions will be helpful to someone else navigating the HIMSS 2012 gauntlet.

Let me know if you have any questions about particular sessions and I’m happy to tell you why they made the list as well.

It seems like everyone I talk to or interact with in the Health IT world is in full on HIMSS 12 preparation mode. I only attended my first HIMSS 2 years ago in Atlanta. So, I’m mostly a newbie at HIMSS. I sometimes long for the days when I just went to HIMSS with little real planning. I just went and enjoyed myself.

As you can imagine, HIMSS is a perfect place for me and my business. I’ve often told people that the core of my business is great content and advertisers. Turns out that every booth and every person at HIMSS is possibly both. For me, it’s like being a kid in a candy store. So, many exciting things to try (and you might even say you get sick after “eating” too many as the flavors all run together). To be quite honest, I love the entire experience. I was meant for the system overload that happens at HIMSS. I love large crowds of people and being overstimulated. I guess that’s why I love living in Las Vegas (which is also convenient for this year’s HIMSS).

HIMSS Attendee and Exhibitor Count
Enough about me. What can we expect at this fantastic affair called HIMSS 2012? Last year there were 30,000 attendees and I wouldn’t be surprised if this year it’s somewhere in the neighborhood of 35,000 people attending HIMSS. During an #HITsm twitter chat about HIMSS, I said that there would be at least 1000 vendors exhibiting at HIMSS. If I remember right (I can’t find the tweet), one of the HIMSS staff corrected me and said there would be 1100 companies exhibiting at HIMSS this year.

What does all this mean? Well, as my mother always told me: You can’t do everything. I’d always look at her shaking my head saying, “You’re right….but I’m sure going to try.” I think this describes my approach to HIMSS as well. Although, each year I am getting more selective on what I spend my time doing.

Press at HIMSS
I’m sure that many reading this are wondering how they can get some coverage on the Healthcare Scene blog network at HIMSS. Considering the 40 or so emails from PR people that I have filed away already, I’m going to have to apply a pretty strict filter.

What then are my filters?

First, if you’re an EHR company, then I’m probably interested in connecting with you in some form. Although, if you’re an EHR company that’s just seen me and has nothing new to say, then I’ll probably pass at this HIMSS. To be honest, I could probably fill my entire schedule with just EHR companies considering how many EHR companies there are out there. Plus, I think I’m going to bring around my flip video and do an EHR series called “5 Questions with EHR Companies.” I’ll see how many EHR companies I can get to answer the same 5 questions.

However, an entire week of just EHR talk would be a little rough. Plus, I asked on Twitter if I should look at things outside of EHR and they all said I should. I’m a man for the people, so I must listen. How then could another healthcare IT company get me interested in meeting with them at HIMSS?

The best way to get me interested in talking with your company is to provide something that will be interesting, unique and insightful to my readers. Remember that my main goals are great content and advertising. If you provide me with great content that my readers will love, then I’ll love you and likely write about that content.

I didn’t realize this when I started blogging, but I’m not like a lot of journalists. I don’t go to any conference with stories in mind. I’m not digging around HIMSS to try and find an ACO story for example. Instead, every person that I talk to I’m trying to discover what stories are being told at HIMSS that are worth telling. I’m always happy when people help me find interesting stories.

Social Media at HIMSS 12
Speaking of finding stories. One of the most interesting ways I use to find stories and connect with people is through social media and in particular Twitter (see this post I did on EMR and HIPAA about Twitter). I guarantee you that Twitter usage at HIMSS 12 is going to be off the charts. There is going to literally be no way to keep up. I love the idea that Cari McLean had of the HIMSS Social Media Center summarizing the most important tweets during HIMSS. Granted, that’s an almost impossible task to ask anyone to do.

Of course, the HIMSS related hashtags will be another great way to filter through the various HIMSS related tweets that are happening. Here are some of the ones I’m sure I’ll be using:
#HIMSS12 — official hashtag for the event
#HSMC — HIMSS Social Media Center
#HITX0 — HIT X.0: Beyond the Edge specialty program
#LFTF12 — Leading from the Future specialty program
#eCollab12 — eCollaborative Forum
Here’s a bunch more HIMSS related social media hashtags you might want to consider:

HIMSS Social Media Center
If you love social media like I do, then you’re also going to love the HIMSS Social Media Center. They’re doing a number of Meet the Bloggers sessions again and I’ve been invited to participate in the Health IT Edition of Meet the Bloggers at HIMSS. I’m on the panel along with: Brian Ahier (Moderator) Health IT Evangelist, Mid-Columbia Medical Center, Jennifer Dennard, Social Marketing Director at Billian’s HealthDATA/Porter Research/HITR.com, Neil Versel, Freelance Journalist and Blogger, Carissa Caramanis O’Brien, Social Media Community and Content Director, Aetna. Should make for a pretty interesting conversation. Plus, you know I always like to mix it up a bit.

New Media Meetup at HIMSS
More details coming soon. We’ll have to work on Neil Versel’s idea of starting a Twitter storm to get Biz Stone to come to the HIMSS meetup.

Dates of HIMSS
Be sure to check the dates of HIMSS. As Neil Versel noted, it’s a little different days than it’s been in the past. I personally like these dates better than the other ones.

There you have it. I thought I’d do a short post on HIMSS and I guess I had a lot more to say. I’d love to hear if you’re going to HIMSS. If you know of any events, sessions, parties, announcements, technologies etc. that I should know about at HIMSS, let me know.

And the most exciting part of HIMSS…seeing old friends and making new friends. I can’t wait.

As most of you realize, I’m a huge fan of social media. Certainly social media isn’t without its risks, but that’s true about almost everything in life. I’ve found if you stick to doing and saying things that you would do in public, then you don’t have to fear social media. Instead, you can embrace all the benefits.

One of the biggest challenges we know face with social media is which social media you should use. There are far too many social media sites. In fact, it seems like almost any site that comes out today has some element of social in it. On that note, which social media websites should you use? The answer is different for everyone, but here’s how I use social media.

Twitter – I put this one first, because I think it’s the one that I use most. You can find my healthcare IT tweets on @techguy and @ehrandhit. I’m very active on both accounts. I use @techguy for lots of things that are not EMR or health IT related. The way I look at it is that @techguy is me and @ehrandhit is my EMR and Healthcare IT Twitter profile. Although, many of my EMR and healthcare IT friends/colleagues know me as @techguy. That’s fine with me as well.

The thing I like most about Twitter is the people you connect with on it. Sure, if you look through my stream you’ll see me interacting with a lot of people. Turns out I interact with even more through the private messages. Plus, Twitter is where I start a lot of relationships which then get taken to other means of communication that go beyond 140 characters.

Before I leave Twitter, just remember that Twitter is what you make it. If you want it to be about every time you eat something, then it will be that. If you want it to be something more, it can be that too. I see Twitter as a long term investment in networking. I can’t tell you how valuable it is.

LinkedIn – You can find my profile on LinkedIn here. However, if you think that LinkedIn is about those profiles, then you’re missing out on the best part of LinkedIn. Those profiles are an important feature of LinkedIn, but far from the meat of what’s great. In fact, when LinkedIn was just profiles you could barely consider it a social network. Back then it really was all about finding a job, hiring people and other recruiting related tasks. If it was still that way, I’d almost never visit LinkedIn.

Turns out, LinkedIn has done an amazing job at leveraging these trusted profiles into a really interesting professional social network. I know that many of you are part of the Healthcare Scene group on LinkedIn. My only wish was that I started it sooner. The thing I love most about the groups on LinkedIn is that any comments you add are tied to your profile. So, when you say something I can take a quick look at your background to gain a better understanding of your point of view. We’re all influenced by our background and experience and so it’s great to have a LinkedIn profile tied to what you say so people can understand some of what’s influenced you.

Facebook – I actually love Facebook and use it quite extensively. Although, I don’t use it that much for business. Sure we have an EMR and HIPAA facebook group that does quite well. In fact, it indicates that I might be in the minority as far as not really using Facebook for business since so many people use that group. I do love Facebook for connecting with friends and family that are now all over the world. That’s why I stick with it for personal instead of business, but business does creep on there sometimes.

Google+ – I’m still debating my use of Google Plus. If you look at my profile you’ll see that I tested it out a lot out of the gate and then have slowed more recently in my use of it. I still think it has potential. I also love the deep conversations you can have on Google Plus. My challenge with Google Plus has been trying to figure out what it does that I can’t do just as well or better with Twitter, LinkedIn and/or Facebook. I’ll keep playing around with it, but I’m not sure it will ever make it into my daily routine.

There you go. As I think about other social network sites I use, I don’t have any others that I really use regularly. Are there any others that you use regularly? I’m always interested in trying out new websites, but I have a feeling it will be hard for any other websites to take down these in my routine. I guess that’s why I think it’s a challenge for any new healthcare related website to crack into someone’s schedule. The one that does will take something special.

I’m currently attending the AHIMA conference. It’s my first time here and I’ve been quite pleased with the vendors that I’ve had a chance to meet. It’s been a really great event for me from that end. I have gotten a lot of interesting ideas and content about where the EHR and healthcare IT industry is moving.

Outside of other meetings that I have, I dropped into a social media session that they were having today. While the presenter spoke about a rather broad definition of social media, I was really taken back when he made the following comment about Twitter (which I had to tweet):

Twitter is nonsense and a 5 second ego boost. -social media presentation at #AHIMA11 #HITsm man this guy has no idea of how twitter works.

October 4, 2011 11:33 am via Twitter for AndroidReplyRetweetFavorite

@techguy

John Lynn

You can imagine the reaction from those that are part of #HITsm. I followed up with this tweet which better clarifies my view of what was said:

I’m all about covering the challenges and risks of social media, but you have to cover the benefits and navigating the risks #HITsm #AHIMA11

October 4, 2011 11:46 am via Twitter for AndroidReplyRetweetFavorite

@techguy

John Lynn

What a disservice to AHIMA to basically scare them out of using social media as opposed to talking about the benefits and how to manage the risks.

UPDATE: I was just reading this headline again and I’m still a bit shocked that he used these words. The “5 Second ego boost” part was particularly interesting for me. Anyone that’s put themselves out there on Twitter realizes that Twitter does little for your ego. It’s much better at tearing down egos than boosting them up. At least in many cases. It’s like readers of a blog. They are sure to keep you honest.

Over the last year or two, a growing number of healthcare providers and organizations have gotten involved with social media. There’s a great deal of discussion underway in social media networks on how these new new tools can improve patient care, foster better communication between clinicians and even help patients manage their own care more effectively. (If these topics interest you, do a search on the Twitter hashtag #hcsm, and you’ll find lots of interesting content.)

As this discussion grows richer, a small number of healthcare social media innovators are beginning to discuss how to blend the strengths of social media with the power of EMRs.  At first blush, the two might seem worlds apart — one a database with with a nifty UI (we hope!) and the other a set of disarticulated, freewheeling communication channels.

One of the neatest visions I’ve seen of how this might work comes from pediatric gastroenterologist Dr. Bryan Vartabedian, who blogs on social media and medicine at 33 Charts.

Late last year, Dr. Vartabedian offered a detailed vision of an EMR-based “digital dashboard” which would allow doctors to slip easily between social discussion, content and clinical data. The key seems to be that the EMR would handle everything: it would incorporate social media tools, securely log communications, trigger related content and more.

But how long will it be until EMRs include functions like these?  Well, the general consensus seems to be “I wouldn’t hold my breath.”  Consider these comments from Josh Herigon, MPH, writing for the social media/medical blog KevinMD.com.

Although I dream of the day when we have a system like Dr. Vartabedian’s vision, I am not very optimistic such a system will come to fruition anytime soon…I would be satisfied with truly interconnected EMR systems (i.e.–I can pull up any patient’s chart from any hospital or clinic and see their entire recorded medical history), the elimination of pagers and subsequent replacement with secure smartphone communication systems, widespread use of tablets at the bedside that update the record in real-time so I can finish notes at a workstation, and some level of integration of Facebook/Twitter-like communication within care teams.

I’m not surprised that people are skeptical about linking EMRs and social media together.  While creating the interfaces Dr. Vartabedian describes in his article wouldn’t be a big deal technically, it would represent a big change in how vendors thought about their product. After all, a comprehensive system which juggles both social media and patient data is a much different deal than a patient database with some templates and analytical tools layered on top. The idea of making this kind of shift could give both programmers and vendors a bad case of the vapors.

On the other hand, Dr. Vartabedian is far from the only physician who’s passionate about making better use of social media. If healthcare social media fans can bring more colleagues on board — and slowly but surely, they’re clearly succeeding — EMR vendors will be forced to respond.  Having sat in on many “health 2.0″ chats, I can tell you first-hand that there’s a lot of excitement about social media in medicine out there. I wouldn’t be surprised if evangelists defy critics’ expectations and turn social media into an everyday clinical tool.

It’s not secret that social media continues to play an increasingly powerful role in connecting folks within the healthcare IT community. Sites such as LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter offer easy-to-navigate platforms that enable communication with peers on any continent, in any time zone. Twitter has become a personal favorite – both for its brevity and its simplicity. (Yes, I’ve heard promising things about Google+, but haven’t yet checked it out.)

The healthcare IT community has also embraced Twitter. Follow a variety of hashtags, including personal favorite #HITsm, and you’ll encounter a variety of opinionated, educated, and often humorous industry folk who, through their activity in the social space, are either emerging as thought leaders or bolstering their credibility as one.

The hashtag #HIT100 has been popular of late thanks to the crowdsourcing efforts of Michael Planchart, aka @theEHRguy. According to his Twitter profile, he is a “Healthcare Interoperability Consultant, Enterprise Architect for Healthcare IT and Standards Specialist.” According to his LinkedIn profile, he is a chief software architect at ProKSys. One thing is for sure – he is passionate about the healthcare IT community on Twitter. So much so that just a few weeks ago he began compiling nominations from his peers on Twitter of the top 100 tweeters (personal or company accounts) in the healthcare IT space.

The resultant list, published earlier this week, can be downloaded here: Final HIT100 Nominees. It is a great resource of folks to keep up with. (Be sure to check out @billians at #78!) Anne Zieger at EHROutlook.com (@ehroutlook at #86) has helpfully distilled the list into the top EMR/EHR tweeters.

I’ve met many in person at industry events, and know even more through Twitter. Hopefully I’ll run into Michael Planchart himself at some point. In the meantime, I chatted with him via email about why he wanted to take on this project, and why the healthcare IT community has embraced social media, particularly Twitter.

Why did you decide to embark on this project?

I wanted the healthcare IT community to vote for their most valued peers. Many well-intended folks would come up with their personal list and publish it. I wanted everyone to participate to create a more objective and transparent selection. This one may not yet be perfect, but it is open and publicly created. Hopefully, for 2012 we will have greater participation from many more folks. But for now, we have this to evangelize from.

Do you think there are more influencers in the #HIT space this year than last?

I know many of the folks that I follow and those that follow me. I’ve personally met many at RSNA, HIMSS and other healthcare events. But I’ve noticed a lot of newcomers to the social media space. Many of them I know as excellent contributors to healthcare IT, since I belong to the same standards committees that they do, although many times we work on different projects. What’s new is not them being in healthcare IT, but being in social media representing healthcare IT.

But answering your question more directly, yes there are many more participants this year. To be an influencer like John Halamka, Brian Ahier, Keith Boone, Matthew Holt and Dave deBronkart, just to name a few, most have some miles to go.

And why do you think there has been such an increase?

Twitter has been an open platform to create networks from the beginning. Linkedin and Facebook are too closed to create peer-to-peer networks. So Twitter has been highly influential in creating these peer-to-peer specialized networks like our #hcsm or #HIT groups.

I encourage you to take a look at the list and start connecting, communicating and educating. Be sure to follow this blog – @ehrandhit, and myself – @SmyrnaGirl, while you’re at it!

I found this recent post by Howard J. Luks, MD very intellectually stimulating. It’s a great read. Particularly if you’re a doctor or someone who tries to understand some of the various physician perspectives.

Here’s one section that sounded all too familiar to me:

Discussions about physician dissatisfaction occur at every water cooler, in every operating room lounge, and that every dinner many of us attend. But I often wonder if any of my colleagues are actively pursuing workflow changes, office efficiencies, or changes to their daily habits which may improve their level of job satisfaction. Interestingly, when I pose that question to my colleagues… the answer always seems to focus on finding another job… hmmm.

I can’t tell you how many doctors I’ve had come up to me with some hair brained website/internet idea and they want to build it. The story is so often the same. They make good money as a doctor, but they have to do it forever to make that money. They see the internet as this font of wealth. I try to let them down easy when I describe what it really takes to do what they’ve described. Ok, maybe I’m not that gentle in my description. I don’t want to crush dreams, but I do want them to understand what it really takes to do what they want to do. I digress…

Here’s another powerful part of Dr. Luk’s post:

Last week in my office, I received 5 emails germane to this topic. Three simply mentioned how satisfied they were with their encounter in the office in terms of the time they were given, the time I took to listen to their complaints, and the time I took to explain the natural history of their disease. Two of the e-mails came from long-term patients who are many years out from surgery — yet ventured onto my website and decided that they would touch base.
…
That simply makes my day.
From a work perspective, there’s no greater level of satisfaction that I could ask for.

The whole post is great since he covers the challenges of medicine as well and has a great golf analogy about how the perfect shot makes up for all the bad shots kind of like the grateful patient makes up for the bad ones.

Of course, all this discussion of patient and doctor satisfaction makes me wonder what role things like social media, PHR and patient portals can play in a doctor’s satisfaction. Many doctors fear the idea of being connected to their patients in some sort of social media. I’m not saying there aren’t reasonable precautions that need to be taken in our litigious society. However, I wonder if many doctors are missing out on some of the satisfaction they could get by using social media.

I have first hand knowledge of the job satisfaction you get when someone sends you a kind email in response to your blog post, tweet, or other communication. I know I can recount many such experiences because they were so satisfying that I’ll never forget them. I’m sure many doctors are missing out on similar experiences, because their afraid to open a channel up for that communication.