An estimated 41,000+ healthcare enthusiasts packed the Orlando Convention Center the week of February 20th for the largest healthcare conference in the nation, HIMSS. If you haven’t been to a conference this size before, trust me – it’s beyond massive!
This was RoundTrip’s first major conference to attend, and we had a blast! Our booth was located in the sweet spot of the Innovation Zone, a group of healthcare startups and innovators, and we had some great discussions about how healthcare is transforming in the United States and beyond.
Here are some things we learned:
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- Cybersecurity is the number one concern across the board. Approximately 1 billion records were compromised in 2016, spanning the government, retail industry, and technology. Although healthcare systems weren’t among the top 3 industries, experts believe that will change. During the closing keynote at HIMSS this year, Shark Tank’s Robert Herjavec mentioned hackers are starting to target the healthcare industry more than any other because “it’s where the money is. The fundamental difference in healthcare, it’s not just about the money. It’s about lives.” Look to see a strong focus on IT security, encryption, audits, and an enterprise-wide culture shift around security.
- Interoperability continues to transform healthcare. Integrated healthcare is still top of mind for healthcare executives. The HIMSS Interoperability Showcase displayed how EMRs and vendors are rushing to provide a holistic picture of patient data. APIs continue to lead the discussion, which ultimately means third-party developers can start integrating innovative applications into the clinical workflow.
- A.I. and Blockchain were emerging topics. IBM Watson took home the prize for artificial intelligence. Graduating from Jeopardy, Watson is now leading artificial intelligence in healthcare to help battle cancer and other diseases. Blockchain is an easily verifiable, secure, de-centralized digital ledger of virtually any transaction of value. The blockchain topic was still relatively new to many attendees but look for both of these topics to start taking over the conversation in the healthcare space.
- Roundtrip is truly a disrupter. The most welcome news we walked away with from HIMSS is that Roundtrip has a very bright future. We can’t count how many people were so excited by how we are fixing patient transportation. It was great talking to hospital and health insurance executives, healthcare professionals, and vendors about how we simplify and modernize on-demand and scheduled patient transportation. We proudly showed off our software serving all types of patients, whether in a wheelchair or stretcher van, ambulance, or medical sedan. We also talked about how we work with any payer source, whether it’s Medicaid, Medicare, private/commercial Insurance, the patient, or the healthcare facility.
We left HIMSS energized and ready to be a part of an incredibly innovative healthcare community. We’d love to hear from you! Reach out to us here.