Explore Interoperability At HIMSS15

By Katie Wike, contributing writer

If you’re attending HIMSS15 in Chicago, be sure to check out the conference’s biggest display - the interoperability showcase.

Live interoperability demonstrations will be among the highlights of the HIMSS15 Interoperability Showcase April 13-15 in Chicago. The showcase is the largest at the conference and plays host to vendors including Allscripts, CareFusion, EMC, Epic, GE, Hyland, Infor, InterSystems, McKesson, Merge, Optum, and Oracle.

According to Healthcare IT News, the showcase is held in collaboration with Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise (IHE), which even offers a webinar to prepare for HIMSS15. “Imagine entering a 40,000-square-foot space, almost the size of a ballroom,” says Sandra Vance, senior director of interoperability initiatives at HIMSS. Within that area will be more than 20 ‘rooms’ in which vendors have set up demonstrations of interoperability in multiple care settings.

“Some might represent an emergency department, an intensive care unit, an infusion clinic, primary care practices, an example of revenue cycle or front-office type of activity. You can actually walk into these rooms and see how the systems work together to improve physician workflow, patient care, patient outcomes and patient satisfaction.”

Don't forget to listen to Health IT Voices, broadcasting live from booth #6328 on the floor of HIMSS15 in Chicago. Simply click here April 13th and 14th to hear hosts Todd Schnick and Kelly Riggs as they discuss the latest in healthcare IT.

Vance says that often learning about interoperability is one-dimensional for patients. When attendees “are able to sit down in an infusion chair and be told, ‘Your doctor sent your stuff from here to here, and this is how the standards have enabled this information exchange,’ it will bring home how each care setting has impacted the patients.”

To check out the showcase in person, visit Interoperability Showcase in the South Building, Hall A, Booth 2084.