As the saying goes, nothing worth doing is ever easy. Given the amount of effort health IT professionals have expended on various initiatives in recent years, the rewards promise to be extremely worthwhile.

The two big items on the radar for 2014 are Meaningful Use Stage 2 and the October 1 deadline to transition to the ICD-10 code set. Both offer opportunities to improve patient care, but both will require lots of work.

And not everybody will see eye-to-eye, either. The American Medical Association is lobbying U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to again delay adoption ICD-10 in light of new cost estimates, even taking to social media by introducing the #StopICD10 hashtag on Twitter.

Fortunately, events like HIMSS14 taking place Feb 23-27 in Orlando, Fla., offer a place for health IT leaders to share what they know with all the stakeholders working hard to achieve the goal of improved care.

“Achieving improved quality, safety, cost-effectiveness and access to care through the best use of IT is hard work over a long period of time,” said Carla Smith, MA, CNM, executive vice president of HIMSS, in an email to Health Imaging. “We know the goal is achievable, and we know that dedicated professionals working in thousands of care settings are the key.”

To help readers make the most of their time at the conference, we’ve identified a handful of can’t miss sessions at HIMSS14.

Smith also offered her own suggestions of exhibits to visit during the show, and they can be found in her full Q&A article.

We’d love to hear what’s caught your eye at HIMSS14. See you in Orlando!