I just returned from the HiMMS (Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society) Annual Conference & Exhibition in Las Vegas, NV. Since this was my first time attending the event, Segue’s growth in mobile application development shaped the subject matter for the events I sought out. I spent a majority of my time in sessions relating to mobile app development, app delivery, and Cloud-based security.
Although these sessions were informative and provided several great takeaways, I could not help but be enamored with the HiMMS Social Media Center. The Social Media Center provided an outlet for conference attendees to learn, share, and collaborate on Social Media usage within the Healthcare arena. Although I have seen similar setups at other conferences, HiMMS did a particularly good job of not only providing informative sessions, but also with providing real-time updates of various social media posts on a large vertical display (see picture taken with my iPhone). In particular, I really enjoyed the Healthcare Friending Social Media: (Recommendations from HIMSS Social Media Group) session that reviewed a thought paper produced to encourage Healthcare providers to use Social Media in creative ways. It was interesting to learn that less than 20% of hospitals use Social Media to reach out to their patients. New trends such as gamifcation for support groups are improving the overall services provided by hospitals and rapidly improving information dissemination. I hope to see other sponsors provide similar Social Media Centers at their conferences as it truly improved the overall experience of the event.