In addition to vendor booths, this year's HIMSS Conference & Exhibition offers several opportunities on the showroom floor for learning and networking including new destinations and old favorites.

HIMSS HX360

This new initiative which was developed with AVIA, a provider-led innovation accelerator. The program involves CEOs from hospitals and systems talking peer-to-peer about the challenges they face running their organizations. The initiative includes programming for attendees interested in next generation technology as well as exhibit floor components such as start-up companies and areas devoted to specific challenges including patient retention and engagement.

Cybersecurity Command Center:

This also is new this year. “We realized we had to do something about security with everything going on right now in the news regarding data security breaches,” said Karen Malone, HIMSS vice president of meeting services. Attendees can listen to experts in the field that have faced a threat, compete in challenges on phishing, identity fraud, and intellectual property theft, test their cybersecurity IQ, and learn about products and services available as well as education and advocacy efforts.

Disaster Preparedness Knowledge Center

Given the recent Ebola situation and weather-related challenges, “we felt it was important to call that out,” Malone said. Visitors can learn how to prepare to manage external and internal emergencies by ensuring that adequate contingency plans are in place. They also can explore tools to apply before, during and after a disaster.

Health IT Value Suite

This landmark will showcase success stories in the areas of clinical decision support, remote monitoring, clinical analytics, information exchange for care coordination, patient safety and accountable care. Attendees can meet value realization experts and learn about organizations that have seen value across each of the five HIMSS Health IT Value STEPS categories: satisfaction, treatment/clinical, electronic information/data, prevention and patient education, and savings. “It’s all about what’s been done to really illustrate the value of health IT,” said Malone. Visitors can watch success stories and learn how organizations achieved their goals.

Interoperability Showcase

This popular feature allows attendees to “see the reality of interoperability,” said Joyce Sensmeier, RN-BC, MS, HIMSS vice president of informatics. The showcase has gotten bigger every year, she noted. “The exciting part is that it’s not just vendors and agencies but really a live demonstration environment.”

In collaboration with Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise (IHE), the showcase offers visitors the opportunity to tour one of four health journeys to experience a clinically accurate continuum of care that explores multiple use cases for standards-based health information exchange. There will be more than 100 live clinical information systems simulating health collaboratively demonstrating a wide breadth of care settings, including acute and ambulatory workflows and the systems used therein. Visitors can see firsthand how IHE Profiles, built around standards-based transactions, bring clinical information to the right person at the right time.