At the core of this transformation lies a new breed of companies—from patient engagement platforms and AI-powered diagnostics to cybersecurity solutions and social care integration—all focused on improving patient outcomes, enhancing institutional efficiency, and creating a more equitable health environment.

Over the past decade, many health provider systems have recognized that the key to improving health is not isolated solutions but integrating complementary technologies that enhance care delivery and operational performance. This shift in focus is evident in how providers and service companies are solving real-world problems, from improving workflows to using data analytics to enhance clinical decision-making and patient care.

Growth of the Health Innovation Pipeline

The health innovation pipeline has expanded significantly. The ecosystem has matured from focusing mainly on back-end technologies—such as EHR systems and clinical decision support tools—to encompassing forward-thinking solutions that put health professional effectiveness and patient experience at the center of the equation. Today, that pipeline includes:

1. Patient Experience Companies: These companies leverage digital health solutions such as smart hospital rooms, patient portals, and AI-powered scheduling tools to improve patient engagement and satisfaction. Companies like Vibe Health by eVideon demonstrate how patient experience can be enhanced with interactive technology, ensuring patients are informed and empowered to make decisions about their care.
2. Data-Driven Operational Improvements: Data analytics, artificial intelligence (AI), and machine learning enable health institutions to make informed decisions guided by curated information. Companies like CereCore and Tegria are at the forefront of transforming clinical operations and revenue cycle management through advanced data analytics, AI-driven insights, and cloud-based solutions. These tools help health systems optimize workflows, reduce administrative burdens, and enhance financial performance, all contributing to a more efficient system.
3. Patient Outcome-Focused Solutions: Improving patient outcomes must become the ultimate goal of health, and companies in this space are using innovative technologies to address social determinants of health (SDOH), chronic disease management, and real-time clinical decision support. Companies like Unite Us are addressing SDOH by connecting patients with community-based resources, ensuring that health providers can offer holistic care beyond medical treatment, including housing, food, and mental health services.

Health Innovation: From Reaction to Proactive

Historically, health systems often reacted to crises—whether a pandemic, financial strain, or workforce shortage—with patchwork solutions. Today, they are shifting from reactionary measures to proactive strategies. Companies seek transformational models and drive long-term sustainability through integration and automation.

For example, solutions from companies like Absolute Security and TigerConnect enable health institutions to proactively address cyber threats and disruptions in care and maintain system continuity despite unprecedented challenges. This level of preparedness and resilience enables health systems to focus on care delivery and data-driven patient management, ensuring that patient outcomes are improved and resources are optimally allocated.

Absolute Security: Ensuring Cyber Resilience in Health

As health systems become digitally interconnected, cybersecurity threats are escalating, particularly with the rise of ransomware and endpoint security breaches. Absolute Security addresses these vulnerabilities by embedding its patented Persistence Technology directly in the firmware of more than 600 million Windows devices, ensuring that security controls are maintained even when operating systems are compromised.

At HIMSS 2025, Absolute Security shared critical findings from telemetry data covering some million health PCs, highlighting a concerning 15 percent failure rate in security tests. These failures expose health organizations to increased risks and compliance issues. Absolute’s solutions offer unmatched resilience by enabling hospitals and clinics to recover devices to their original, fully operational state, regardless of whether cyber-attacks caused disruption, system crashes, or IT malfunctions.

Absolute can provide continuous protection and ensure quick recovery, which is particularly crucial for health organizations that rely on critical infrastructure. Their solutions keep security controls, applications, and operating systems up and running, providing secure access even in critical situations and ensuring that health teams can maintain focus on delivering patient care.

AvaSure: Revolutionizing Virtual Care with AI-Powered Technology

As hospitals and health systems continue to face mounting pressures to balance exceptional patient care with operational efficiency, AvaSure is stepping up with a game-changing solution.

 At HIMSS 2025, the company is launching its AI-powered Virtual Care Assistant, “Vicky,” developed in collaboration with Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) and NVIDIA. This cutting-edge technology bridges communication gaps, streamlines clinical workflows, and prioritizes urgent patient needs, improving patient care and operational efficiency. Vicky empowers healthcare teams to reduce response delays, alleviate clinician burdens, and improve patient outcomes. By integrating advanced AI into the care process, the AvaSure Virtual Care Assistant is a tool for streamlining tasks and a transformational solution reshaping how health providers operate and deliver care.

CereCore: Bridging Clinical and IT Divides

As health systems digitalize, improving clinicians’ EHR (Electronic Health Record) usability remains a central focus. CereCore, the IT arm of HCA Health, has been instrumental in bridging the gap between clinical and IT teams. At HIMSS 2025, CereCore showcased its approach to resolving long-standing EHR challenges by improving back-end IT support through peer-to-peer pairings and data analytics.

CereCore solutions streamline workflows, enhance system usability, and resolve real-time EHR issues, reducing downtime and increasing productivity. Their expertise spans some of the most prominent EHR systems, including Epic, Meditech, and Oracle Health (Cerner). CereCore provides comprehensive IT help desk services, cybersecurity, cloud transitions, and revenue cycle management support.

This company is helping health systems overcome some of the most pressing technology challenges by improving clinical and IT staff collaboration. For the people who are the frontline of healing, CereCore offers clinicians and patients a seamless and more efficient care experience.

TigerConnect: Streamlining Emergency Care Coordination

One of the most urgent needs in health today is improving information exchange between emergency medical services (EMS) and emergency departments (EDs). Traditional communication tools, such as radios and pagers, result in slow response. At HIMSS 2025, TigerConnect introduced its Pre-Hospital and Transfer solutions to streamline emergency care workflows and improve patient throughput.

TigerConnect Pre-Hospital solution enables EMS teams to send patient information to the ED on the way to the hospital. This helps teams to rally and prepare to transition from ambulance to in-patient care coordination. Their Transfer solution digitizes the process of patient transfers, reducing the number of manual phone calls and minimizing delays.

By leveraging real-time communication and automation, TigerConnect improves emergency care efficiency, reduces time-to-treatment, and enhances clinical decision-making. As health continues to adopt digital tools, TigerConnect solutions will play an integral role in improving care delivery across the emergency spectrum.

Tegria: Guiding Digital Transformation

As health systems evolve, guidance is essential for implementing new technologies. Tegria, with its team of 1,500 professionals, is playing a key role in helping health organizations navigate digital transformation and operational improvements – providing sector-specific depth, operational experience across hundreds of health systems, and much-needed objective counsel and hospital networks to make critical IT infrastructure investment decisions.

Founded by Providence, one of the largest non-profit health systems in the U.S., Tegria offers expertise in IT optimization, revenue cycle management, and cloud-based solutions. The company supports 650 health organizations across North America and Europe, helping them adopt emerging technologies that drive efficiencies, reduce costs, and improve care quality.

Tegria partnership with health organizations empowers them to embrace digital tools while improving their financial sustainability and clinical outcomes. The company’s continued value and success are reflected in its #1 rank as a leading health IT Consulting Service and a top performer in Clinical Optimization and Application Hosting by KLAS Research, the noted health IT data and insights enterprise.

TruBridge: Enhancing Community Health

As the health system evolves, small and community-based hospitals are increasingly challenged to keep their heads above water while adopting new technologies. TruBridge, formerly CPSI, solves these challenges by offering integrated EHR technology and revenue cycle management (RCM) solutions for community hospitals and clinics.

At HIMSS 2025, TruBridge highlighted how its solutions help health providers optimize claims processing, improve reimbursement cycles, and reduce claim denials. Additionally, TruBridge supports Social Determinants of Health (SDOH) data integration, enabling health providers to address barriers to care like food insecurity and transportation issues, particularly common in rural and underserved populations.

“It’s critical that all Americans have access to high-quality healthcare. Sparta Community Hospital and Artesia General Hospital lead by example through strategic SDOH data collection to identify and address community needs. Their presentation at HIMSS ‘25 revealed lessons learned and best practices for other leaders on the path to improved healthcare access and outcomes. These facilities demonstrate strong community commitment, and we are honored to work alongside them to help solve SDOH challenges and keep care local,” said Wes Cronkite, Chief Technology and Innovation Officer at TruBridge.

TruBridge solutions help hospitals remain operationally efficient while improving the quality of care for their communities. This ensures that hospitals remain viable and continue serving their populations effectively.

Unite Us: Integrating Social Care into Health

In an increasingly connected world, health providers recognize the critical importance of addressing social determinants of health (SDOH), such as housing, food insecurity, and transportation. Unite Us is integrating social care into health systems, creating cross-sector partnerships to ensure that patients receive holistic care that includes both medical and social support.

Through its platform, Unite Us connects health organizations with community-based organizations, creating a seamless referral process that allows providers to track and manage patient progress across medical and social services. Their closed-loop referral system ensures that patients receive the care they need, whether it be housing support or mental health services.

By addressing the root causes of health disparities, Unite Us enables health systems to provide more comprehensive care, improving health outcomes and reducing costs.

Vibe Health by eVideon: Transforming Patient Engagement

Vibe Health by eVideon demonstrates how smart hospital rooms equipped with interactive technology transform patients’ experiences of care. Their solutions, such as smart TVs, digital whiteboards, and bedside tablets, empower patients to take a more active role in their care while reducing the burden on clinicians.

“At HIMSS, we shared how Nebraska Medicine uses Vibe Health by eVideon’s smart hospital room solutions to enhance patient engagement and improve clinical efficiency. Technologies like interactive Smart TVs, digital whiteboards, and digital door signs help us streamline communication and improve the patient experience. Our discussion explored how technology drives meaningful improvements in both efficiency and outcomes. HIMSS provides a valuable space to connect with peers, exchange ideas, and explore innovative solutions that drive meaningful change across the industry,” share colleagues Ron Carson, Executive Director of Enterprise Applications, and Calli Sibilia, Program Manager – Innovation Design Unit at Nebraska Medicine.

Hospitals like Nebraska Medicine have integrated Vibe Health solutions to streamline communication and care coordination. Their interactive platforms give patients real-time access to care plans, educational materials, and appointment reminders, ensuring they are always informed. This digital-first approach enhances patient satisfaction and improves clinical efficiency by reducing time spent on manual updates.

Vibe Health creates a more efficient and effective health system by providing hospitals with cutting-edge tools to enhance the patient and floor-staff experience.

Bringing It All Together: A Holistic Approach to Health Information

The most promising aspect of the current health innovation landscape is that companies are beginning to address not just one aspect of the health journey but the entire continuum—from pre-hospital to post-care.

Companies like TruBridge are improving care for underserved populations by addressing the administrative burden and ensuring that small and rural hospitals can thrive. Vibe Health by eVideon transforms the patient experience by integrating interactive digital platforms into hospital rooms. At the same time, Unite Us ensures that social determinants of health are addressed at the patient’s first point of contact. Tegria is helping hospitals optimize their operations to ensure these innovations can be scaled effectively.

This approach helps break down the silos that have traditionally existed in health—where care delivery, operational management, and patient engagement are often managed separately. By unifying these elements, health innovators provide solutions that enhance patient outcomes, streamline operations, and improve the health experience.

A Future-Focused System

The health landscape is becoming ever more digital- and data-driven; expect an increasing number of companies that can create synergies across various technologies, pushing boundaries in areas like personalized medicine, predictive analytics, and patient-centered care. The focus will continue to shift toward providing patients with proper care at the right time—whether through real-time monitoring, telehealth consultations, or personalized digital health experiences.

The strength of the health innovation system today is rooted in its collaborative nature, where varied technologies come together to create an efficient, patient-centric, and resilient health environment. The companies speaking, presenting, and networking at HIMSS are improving the quality of care and patient outcomes and addressing clinical and social factors. As this ecosystem evolves, it paves the way for a connected, proactive, and equitable health system where innovation opens the path to positive change for patients and providers.

The post Strength of the Health Innovation System: Growth, Evolution, and the Path Forward appeared first on Medika Life.

In this exclusive conversation, I join Hal Wolf, President and CEO of HIMSS, to explore HIMSS’s evolving role in fostering collaboration between hospitals, startups, and policymakers. With the health-ecosystem landscape tracking the early days of a new administration, uncertainties remain—ranging from regulatory shifts to funding allocations. Yet, as Wolf underscores, HIMSS remains steadfast in advancing health equity, supporting digital transformation, and offering actionable strategies that improve care delivery.

This conversation occurs between ViVE in Nashville and HIMSS in Las Vegas—two health gatherings that bring innovators, policymakers, and industry leaders together. While ViVE spotlights digital health startups, investment trends, and edgy sparks, HIMSS serves as the broader convening ground for professionals shaping the future of health information and technology. HIMSS is where the work happens—the “Davos” of health information.

Wolf outlines key issues such as integrating artificial intelligence in hospital systems, the role of primary care in driving better patient outcomes, and how organizations must balance innovation with financial realities. At HIMSS, essential dialogue between established institutions and emerging disruptors has never been more crucial.

Join us as we delve into the forces shaping the health system’s future—where technology, policy, and leadership converge to improve patient outcomes and system-wide efficiency.

Medika Life Editor Gil Bashe: In examining hospital systems, we focus on how information flows within our industry and who has access to it. We still have a lot to learn. These are the first few weeks of the new administration, and we don’t know how things will unfold, how the Senate Committees will approach these discussions, or how actions will be implemented. Will we rely on Executive Orders? If that’s the case, we know where to focus our attention. You’re a remarkable ambassador for the discipline and the sector, and certainly for HIMSS, a professional association, trade association, and global NGO.

People come to HIMSS with tremendous optimism, hoping to gain insights that will make them more effective. I prefer to focus on current developments and HIMSS priorities rather than just reacting to them; that’s a different conversation. I’ll also note that the administration’s conversation around health access, cost, and priorities is still in motion.

HIMSS CEO Hal Wolf: We don’t know enough to discuss new policies and their potential outcomes. One challenge will be securing funding. While we know things will be different, we don’t know where the policies will land. Still, we know that HIMSS is dedicated to its vision and mission statements as they fundamentally relate to realizing the full health potential of every human everywhere.

We are dedicated to health equity and will stay dedicated to it. Our collaboration with governments and NGOs worldwide and our fundamental principles will not change, nor should they! We’ll work with our principles within the context of whatever comes out of the White House.

We worked well with the previous Trump administration and collaborated effectively with ONC and HHS on various initiatives. We look forward to advancing the HIMSS mission within the established parameters.

Bashe: HIMSS is far more than an annual mammoth gathering; it’s a professional society that covers the full spectrum of health information and technology – from cybersecurity to economics to professional development and government policies. Unlike other popular meetings that primarily focus on networking, HIMSS is where professionals from around the globe come to set objectives, strategies, and operational priorities. It’s 30,000 feet and 3,000 in scope.

Wolf: This morning at 6:00 a.m., I had an interesting conversation with the CEO of a successful start-up that is getting distribution now and beginning to roll. At HIMSS, we see the merging of different worlds.

We have our core population, core members of the health ecosystem– hospitals, clinics, health operations, nurse practitioners, CMIOS, CIOS, physician leaders, and administrators. This group represents a significant portion of the HIMSS membership, which includes over 120,000 members.  

On the other hand, we have the entire global app ecosystem that drives innovation and introduces new ideas. As you know, many of these ideas and innovations are driven by personal experiences. A family member encountered a situation, and they tried to solve it. Or have worked in the industry, identified a gap, and pursued it.

They often have a long list of improvements to address, and, often, they aren’t performing well financially. Their reimbursement processes are a little murky, and this uncertainty might increase in 2025.

How much time do they have to integrate innovations that don’t directly impact their outcomes, quality, access or bottom line? Because everything’s being looked at in that piece.

We need to understand that the situation changes as the market evolves. What is the critical point where innovation intersects with standard operating procedures, and what does it look like? How can information from one area influence the other? We must determine how to identify the good and the bad and how to present them to the market.

What happens at the global conference? What happens in chapter meetings? What happens in the papers that are submitted? What happens in the insights? Much of this depends on how these elements connect.

Bashe: Many diverse health information communities come together yearly at HIMSS. You have consistently made this gathering relevant. This year, a new startup section called Emerge addresses a critical need within the HIMSS community. You just started with the story about a startup enterprise. Could you share some important and innovative aspects that will be highlighted at this year’s gathering?

Wolf: That’s a pressing question, so I’ll divide it into multiple parts because it’s challenging.

We’re part of the industry, so let’s return to your original premises to find the answer. You mentioned “competing,” which refers to people competing against each other. However, you also have specific points of interest to consider.

The benefit engine can determine how much money you’ll receive in reimbursement for a particular service. However, if you’re on the insurance or payer side, the configuration may depend on whether it’s for North America or a Ministry of Health. Here, the goal is to anticipate the costs incurred in treating a patient. This perspective aligns with an actuarial professional trying to understand and guide the process forward.

I’ve observed hospital systems are starting to integrate AI functionalities, but currently, only 5 to 7% are using it effectively, from an operational standpoint,

For example, when someone walks to the front desk and says their right arm is hurting, the staff collects the information by typing it into a form. They ask a couple of questions, such as “Who’s your primary care doctor? Who’s your insurance company? Are you on managed care? Is this new? What other ailments do you have? What other prescriptions do you have?” They must ask those questions if they don’t have that information readily available. That data feeds into new algorithms on the AI side.

In the background, AI analyzes the information and makes predictive models about how long this person would be in the hospital, what resources they will consume, and how much revenue it will generate. It’s occurring in the background, without the front desk staff being aware of AI’s calculations; meanwhile, the administrator is beginning to recognize the impact of these advancements. The inbound process begins with appropriate testing, questioning, and, if necessary, into a bed.

Meanwhile, the hospital administrator or the system managing the situation assesses the resources the patient will need, whether they will need a specialist and whether the specialist will be available when needed. By the time an exam takes place, they can inform the patient about what to expect in the next 24 to 48 hours, whether they will be staying at the hospital or going home. This preparation and communication represent the positive aspects of the process.  

The dark side is that the hospital engine in the background might say, “We’re not going to get a lot of money out of this. This is not a good use of our beds/time. If we maximize profits, we should send this person on and see what the next person will bring because our algorithm told us that five people would come in with congestive heart failure, and we do make money on that.”

The person writing this down may never realize what is happening; they won’t know that the system will indicate that the hospital is full, even though there might be capacity. Instead, they will tell the person to go down the street to Acme Community Hospital, which can take care of them, explaining that their system lacks resources. That is a dark coin flip to what could happen.

Bashe: Many hospital networks are acquiring primary care practices as feeder systems in their facilities. For example, if a patient is told, “You need to do a cardiac stress test. Do you have a cardiologist?” and they respond with “No?” the primary care provider can then say, “Why don’t you let me arrange that for you.” The primary care satellite site is closing the loop on a fragmented system. While the hospital system benefits economically from the service, patients benefit, and the primary care satellite site serves as a conduit for care.

I’m always thinking about the benefits of technology in enhancing the hospital and primary care systems. Imagine a doctor saying, “You know, you’ll have many questions. I will be here to help you frame your thinking around those questions. Our system has an LLM model. Let’s call it Dr. Hal. You can ask Dr. Hal every question regarding your congestive heart failure or prostate cancer. Dr. Hal is the composite wisdom of all the experts in our system and is here to address your questions.”

The creative aspect of our discipline, combined with information, is becoming a superpower. We use data to guide our supply chain resourcing and leverage information to promptly provide patients with confidence and comfort. We ensure greater access to accurate information vetted by the system, so patients do not depend solely on Dr. Google.

Wolf: The actual value of AI is knowledge management. It allows a very broad and capable synthesis of vast amounts of data and information that no human can keep up with. For example, in the 1970s, clinicians had access to three to four journals, where editors picked what was important enough to be published. These journals had to be printed and mailed out, resulting in about 400 peer-reviewed articles per year reaching healthcare professionals. If you read one a day, you could keep up. Today, more than 10,000 articles will be published this year alone. All that information, knowledge management, and sharing will occur collaboratively, and there is no way for anyone to synthesize all that.

AI plays a crucial role in operational and clinical decision support by turning information into knowledge, with recommendations that lead to changes in operations, suggestions, and care.

In clinical care, pharmacy, or whatever path you’re on, these recommendations are communicated back to physicians with an explanation of why they are a recommendation and the source of that information.

I think part of the maturity that we’re seeing, and you’ll see at HIMSS 2025, is the evolution of AI since our session three years ago. Back then, we held a session titled, “What is AI, and what does it mean?” The panel discussed its potential application in healthcare, and at that time, chat had just been introduced, and people were starting to look at it. Some people were on stage calling for a six-month hiatus before we allowed anything to go forward.

Last year, we saw glimpses of initial uses of AI being deployed operationally, albeit only in a few hospital systems. But it was beginning to happen, and we knew that AI was in the background of devices or operational considerations. Where would the benefit engines come from? The algorithms were starting to be built, and we had a particular point of looking out for biases. We started talking about biases within AI and realized that no matter what you do, there will always be some biases. It’s unavoidable. What was the source information for AI, and how do I ensure I utilize it to the best of my ability?

You’ll see the presentation of how people are using it on a scale. What are examples of its success, and what are some of its limitations? Numerous applications are set to emerge. You’re going to see them on the floor, where people are using components of AI in the background to produce better products that are more efficient and can guide operations as well as at-home care, and all those pieces are being brought forward. The common link between it and your point is on the information side of the house. How good is the starting information, and how broad does it go? Where is the opportunity from a linking standpoint?

To achieve this, a private-public partnership is essential. If you’re looking at algorithms and information that utilize global data that gets turned into global information, it has an impact. Most healthcare systems around the globe are publicly held. They’re not privately held. The United States is an aberration due to its vast amounts of privately held institutions versus publicly held ones.

Bashe:  Are you seeing more of that regarding the technology being used proactively?

Wolf: Yes, and that’s a good thing. We’ve always wanted to see that proper reimbursement takes place and proper services rendered. Many things in a system can get missed, but not an overwhelming amount.  If hospital systems perform well, they typically operate on a 2 percent to three percent margin, but many run at a loss, making proper reimbursements difficult. Large actuarial departments played a key role in the past, with various organizations providing revenue support, which was a huge thing even 15 years ago. However, over time, those efforts began to converge.

The real opportunity lies beneath the surface. It must coincide with an understanding of the care that was delivered. Right next to that benefit realization is the value proposition. What was the quality of what was rendered? Was the care appropriately given? Did we miss something in the diagnosis?

Bashe: One of the things that I worry about is not New York City or Los Angeles. Medical centers such as Mount Sinai, NYU Langone, Weil-Cornell, Columbia Presbyterian, and Memorial Sloan Kettering, much like their counterparts in Boston, Chicago, and the Bay area, provide excellent care. However, in rural America, someone can live three hours from a tertiary care center.

Your approach of using information to improve the care of almost 29 percent of the US population applies, I think, to other nations where people live far from centers of excellence. What are your thoughts about devices, wearables, remote patient monitoring and information, and protecting the information from your standpoint?

Wolf:  Wearables and home monitoring have transformed patient engagement, making health data more immediate and actionable. It’s fascinating. My wife and I compare our Oura daily. How did you sleep? How’s your heart rhythm? We’re finding the features and working through them. She lives anonymously. We are very engaged in our health. How far did we walk? What was our heart rate? Let’s do the 6-minute walk today and see. Were you snoring last night?

All of that is going on, and that’s an engagement level. The information flows from me to my ring, and then my ring says, do you want to share it with Apple? I said yes, and my wife said no; she didn’t want it to flow to another company. Apple will know how well I sleep – I don’t worry about it. If they want to dive into it, there is a profile about me and my general health. They could also derive that from the stuff I buy and the credit card information. That’s always been the case.

If you remember, back in the 1980s, we were already using demographic data with Donnelly overlays. I worked for Time Warner in the early 1990s when Time magazines were delivered to your door. The Time magazine that arrived at your next-door neighbor was different from yours—not the content, but the cover and the ads in the back. You may have gotten an ad for a sports car, and your neighbor may have gotten one for a minivan.

It was specifically designed based on the Donnelly reports, which provided insights about the household. We’re starting to shape recommendations at the personal level of the care an individual should receive.

Why wouldn’t a physician or a clinician want every piece of information on this Oura ring to be included in a patient’s profile? This information would help complete the picture needed to utilize sophisticated knowledge management systems, tapping into tens of thousands of research papers and combining that data with the person’s unique health details. The richer that information becomes, the more accurate it becomes, the more mistakes it makes, the more positively it helps the next person.

Bashe: Often, when I speak to doctors and nurses in the health system, we talk about the Electronic Medical Record (EMR). They’re candid: “We have an EMR system—it’s not perfect, we know that, and it’s getting better and better.” Yet, they often say, “Did you read that patient’s EMR data?” and then they’ll say, “I don’t have time to read the EMR.” While best practices come from committees, you play a unique role as an advisor to corporations. You’re the sounding board for major corporations, whether AWS, Epic, Microsoft, or Oracle. I’m sure they will listen to you because you’re the voice of the global community.

Wolf: We don’t have a dog in the race against them as a competitor.

Bashe: As a not-for-profit society that operates at a global NGO level, when you look at your role and the challenges you face, how does HIMSS address constant sector transformation? HIMSS and its members are constantly evolving because you represent applied information. The system is getting more interesting and more creative.

Look at the challenges that HIMSS owns and represents and your mission, which is obviously to improve access to care. As the organization’s leader, you’re clear and committed to this role, but you’ve seen difficulties implementing cultural or systemic changes.

What’s your guidance for the community? Please don’t take out a ruler and slap people on their hands. You’re obviously about supporting the system’s evolution, making it better. Can you share insights on how you’re filtering down best practices within this evolving landscape? How do you reflect on these challenges that arise and guide systems to understand that care is delivered to the front lines and is not always in hospitals? It’s specialists or primary care—physicians in their little offices worldwide.

Wolf: This is precisely what we discuss daily at HIMSS, and it’s central to our global work. Let’s walk through our view of the ecosystem and how we influence what you just related to because it’s our core.

Hospital systems – or, more importantly, governments worldwide – including our own, recognize their fundamental responsibility to care for their populations. Let’s set the United States aside for a second.

Ministries of Health in countries around the world are accountable for the well-being of their citizens. We’ll talk about citizens for a minute. The people living within their country want a healthy population, which improves the economy. They’re smart enough to know that a healthier population, or one cared for, efficiently reduces the constant increase in costs within healthcare systems. No one is looking to save money; instead, the goal is to slow the escalating costs of healthcare systems, which seem to rise every year.  

Information is the driver behind everything, but to your point, the combination of people, processes, and technology shapes the outcome. Technology is rarely an issue here; the challenge lies in implementing and changing culture. The pandemic forced a significant global cultural change, and while it may seem that it’s deeply in our rear-view mirror, its impact is still felt. Telemedicine, the idea of using information, and the idea of remote care to alleviate the pressures on the front line became a standard feature, and people recognize that.

We see the impact in our relationships with organizations like the WHO in Europe. Take Romania, for example, where we just signed an agreement to help them develop a strategic plan to deliver digital health transformation. HIMSS is focused on four major points.

1. First is digital health transformation.
2. Second is the deployment and utilization of AI as a tool.
3. Third is cyber security to protect that information and ensure that it works for the betterment of their ecosystem with less hassle.
4. Fourth is workforce development, which trains people to understand these tools before they can utilize them to their fullest extent.

Those are our four main areas. When we think about digital health transformation, we start with the HIMSS maturity models from five to seven years ago.

Back then, our maturity models were a checklist of technology. Do you have that technology? Are you wired? That used to be the baseline, what we now consider table stakes. It’s not table stakes anymore.

We’ve transformed our maturity models to reflect quality, access, correctness, and fundamental value. How are you using the information? How does it improve the flow?

From an IT standpoint, we began looking at our maturity models like a stack. It starts with the information layer. What does the infrastructure look like? How is it laid out? How does your data need to be laid out? Where does the electronic medical record go on top of that? How do those two pieces feed into each other? How do you utilize the radiology and the pictures that are in there? How does that flow? What’s your analytical layer? How does this work?

Where are you getting your information, and how are you handling your analytics? How does that tie itself back into the infrastructure? How does that information flow from your reporting back into your EMR and the data layer? How does that data layer tie in when discussing the imaging ecosystem? What’s your continuity of care, the CCMM? How does it flow across the board to ensure you’re not dropping a patient?

We’ve created a stack of maturity models that form the foundation of how information flows from the patient across hospitals, clinics, and homes, wherever the case is provided, to ensure you can keep up with them. And we present these maturity models not just as a technology checklist. Anyone can do that—it’s not meaningless—but anyone can do that. The true focus is on how you use these technologies.

How do you ensure that the relationship between the patient and pharmacy utilization, as well as the benefit realization, is maintained? And how does all this tie together?

Whether it’s community service, a hospital system, or a home, what we’ve created in those stacks is a blueprint that any hospital system, country, or large-scale region can use to identify the technology needed and deploy it for its maximum benefit. 

People do assessments in hospital systems. For HIMSS members in the United States, these assessments are part of the membership, allowing them unlimited access to evaluate their systems. They can conduct these assessments online, check their status, and aim for levels 6 and 7, which is when all those benefits kick in. That’s when we do our validations.

We also do white papers, thought leadership, and HIMSS events, panels and educational programs. More than 300 academic programs are coming up at HIMSS in 2025, with more than 150 offering CE credits.

But these experiences are all based on the output, what worked, and what didn’t work. As you know, learning from others’ mistakes is just as valuable as learning from their successes. Some of the most impactful lessons come from those who try something, fail, and then fix it.

That’s where HIMSS and advisory services come in. We’re presenting the aggregated global knowledge of what’s working and what isn’t.

Most ecosystems don’t work the same way the United States does because most don’t have the same amount of money invested in it. We draw from many healthcare systems- from the U.S., to Romania, Italy, Germany, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia and Australia. We learn from all these countries, bring it together in our membership, and figure out what we have learned. How does it impact the models? We do these reviews in a constant session. That’s how we make the society work.

Bashe: It’s a brilliant use of human capital and composite wisdom. As we’re gearing toward the end of our conversation, I wanted to ask you about the Emerge Innovation Experience– this is a first-time gathering, but the concept of start-ups at HIMSS is nothing new. What’s different now is that you’ve recognized that start-ups are a unique culture with unique needs. You’ve assembled a cohort of leaders dedicated to helping these start-ups succeed. What are your expectations from Emerge?

Wolf: First, I’m very interested in the outcome of Emerge. This is the first time that we’re going to try to bring that mesh point I mentioned earlier, where innovations meet operations. They’ve chosen some excellent examples of what can come forward. I think it’s got the right practicality and innovative forethought. From what I’ve heard from people involved in it and talking to people on the committee, I’ve listened to everything from “Wow! This is fantastic and very innovative!” to “It could have been stronger.”

If I talk to heavy innovator startups, they reply that it doesn’t go far enough and could be really “wow.” Meanwhile, those focused on operations often reply that it’s “really pushing the edge.” What that tells me is that it’s in the right mesh point.

What I’m curious to see is how it is received. Many smart people have been working on it, focusing on what will have the biggest impact on operations and be ready for prime time tomorrow, especially in areas like AI utilization and operational impact. What is one step beyond? We also have an incubator ecosystem there.

The Emerge Innovation Experience will be unique, and I look forward to that outcome.

Bashe: I always value your candor.

Wolf: Sometimes, I can get criticized for it, but I believe in absolute transparency. The beautiful part about thought leadership is that we share these thoughts, which makes HIMSS thrive. Transparency is a strength in a positive society. If we’re not transparent with each other, we can’t advance. My grandfather taught me a long time ago that the three most essential phrases in business are “I don’t know, I’ll find out, and I’ll get back to you.” “I don’t know” is critically important.

What’s beautiful about healthcare is that you learn something new every day. It’s impossible to be in the health sector without learning something new every day unless you don’t ask a single question, read nothing, or stay in a room and shut the door.  

Just today, I learned something about HIMSS. I didn’t know because I was asking about a process. A question was raised, and I followed the thread through the organization and found one I’d never seen before, which was exciting.

I appreciate the philosophical and real questions you’re asking. We’re excited about HIMSS 2025 and the learning opportunities it will offer. It’s also about the big picture of what’s happening globally. We call it the Global Conference because it brings together Ministries of Health and NGOs worldwide. It all comes together. This is our largest membership meeting, and we’re thrilled that there’s at least a 35% increase in people signing up for HIMSS membership compared to last year.

Bashe: I’ll be attending this year. As always, thank you for the in-depth exchange. *****

In this insightful conversation, Hal Wolf, President and CEO of HIMSS, explores the critical forces shaping the sector’s future. As industry and governments navigate a rapidly evolving policy landscape under a new administration’s eyes, hospital systems, startups and policymakers must adapt to changing regulations, funding challenges, and digital transformation. Wolf highlights HIMSS’ role as a global leader in uniting a diverse ecosystem to advance health equity, interoperability, and patient-centered care.

A key theme of the discussion is how data and AI are transforming payer, provider and product innovation operations – how information can improve people’s lives. Wolf explains how AI-driven predictive models are integrated to optimize patient care and resource allocation. However, he also warns of ethical concerns—such as the potential for financial-driven decision-making that could prioritize revenue over patient needs. HIMSS plays a vital role in ensuring there is a balance between digital health innovation aligns with quality care and equitable access.

As digital tools, AI, and large language models (LLMs) become more integrated into healthcare, Wolf and Bashe discuss how these advancements can empower providers and patient-enhancing decision-making, improving operational efficiency and offering trusted, system-vetted health information.

As HIMSS prepares for its annual global conference, Wolf emphasizes its role in shaping industry priorities. HIMSS is not just an event; it’s a society that defines strategies, policies, and innovations that drive the future of health. With an expanding ecosystem of startups and industry veterans, HIMSS remains a pivotal force in bridging technology, policy and patient care.

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We may be spending too much time singing the praises of the tech and less time exploring how to deploy these channels and resolve long-tolerated problems. We may be overly impressed by their engineering marvel and less centered on democratizing information to tackle health equity disparities. Some health payers and provider systems are using AI to pump the breaks on authorizations when the bigger issue is whether those that need preventive and engaged care gain prompt access. Efficiency without effectiveness limits AI’s great possibilities.

HIMSS leaders are asking these questions. They are tapping into global experts in information management, cybersecurity, patient engagement, upskilling health provider system IT teams, discussing policies with government leaders worldwide and much, much more. If you thought HIMSS was a colossus annual meeting – a party for health IT pros, think again! HIMSS CEO Hal Wolf and his staff are passionate about how information creates informed (and accurate) decisions. Their roles within this global society hold great influence and they understand that with responsibility comes accountability.

I had the opportunity to meet with the HIMSS leadership team for an upcoming feature and conduct a special radio interview for Healthcare Now Radio network on Health Unabashed with the HIMSS CEO. Here’s the preview. My full and candid conversation with Hal and Executive Producer Gregg Masters will air starting Monday, March 11th starting 10AM, three times daily for two weeks.

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The McCormick Conference Center has enthusiastic attendees, filling session rooms and the exhibit hall.  But the meeting’s focus and content – along with the recognition that the pandemic and economy require new thinking and approaches to health information and health-tech innovation.  What HIMSS lacks in meeting SWAG, it more than makes up for in nuts-and-bolts content on integrating bold ideas and new inventions into the healthcare system.  That’s its differentiator in a sector that seems to be adding more and more gatherings.

SESSION ROOMS ARE FILLED – WHY? ATTENDEES SEEK TO LEARN AND APPLY!

How does HIMSS plan its content sessions – which are peer-review selected – through the tireless work of its staff and volunteers who pour over countless (and largely excellent) submissions to drill down to the hundreds that reach the program.  Despite the number of concurrent sessions, the rooms are packed, reinforcing why people come to HIMSS23 – to listen and learn!

PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS!

For years, people in the health sector have talked about its growing fragmentation.  As fast as companies invent new information systems and technologies, new problems arise with integration and security.  The puzzle pieces are proliferating but have yet to bring the ecosystem closer. Health professional burnout has been the constant refrain from physicians and the COVID staff drop-out rate has been as alarming as the alert bells pinging at nursing stations.

The tone and content at HIMSS23 reflected the need to stop concentrating on the problems and new ideas and center around solutions.  Keynotes such as Tom Lawry, a long-time Microsoft AI leader and now a “recovering alum,” and John Whyte, MD, chief medical officer of WebMD, led and moderated sessions that shifted to the practical use of information in the care setting. Not new ideas but how to better leverage and apply tools to improve workflow and patient care.

The meeting was also more global in perspective.  For example, Whyte’s session on the Quest for the Perfect Healthcare System – How Do We Get There? Wisely compared the UK’s favored National Health System to the “highly remunerated USA system and everything in between.” There is a hunger to use HIMSS as a pathway to better (best is far off) practices. At the same time, Lawry brought leading minds in AI together from health systems that employ the tool to reach patients most at risk and shift their attention from sick care to deploying preventive health care.

THE HIMSS EXHIBIT FLOOR FOCUSES ON PRACTICAL SOLUTIONS

The exhibit floor has been packed wall-to-wall with booths that are as educational as the sessions themselves.  Many of the breaking ideas in the news – some that justifiably frighten society, such as AI and ChatGPT – showed their more practical, life-saving side.  While health and home and wearables that collect and transmit personal information become the new doctor’s black bag, some companies exhibiting are seeking to resolve problems that should keep us up at night, such as cybersecurity and data protection.

Here are some of the hundreds of companies exhibiting that caught my eye. Others should explore what others in the sectors are doing to make new ideas and inventions into practical (and necessary) tools to leverage current systems.

FORGET THE AI AND CHATGPT BUZZ – COMPANIES ARE DELIVERING SOLUTIONS NOW

Health at home is less expensive and preferred.  But can it work with people with more serious medical needs?  ATLASense provides ICU-level monitoring in the home; it is wireless and simulates the predictive capabilities of an attentive onsite nurse. Using 15 sensors and measuring 50 biomarkers, it’s a small, wearable medical device that is reusable. The data flow to health professionals overseeing care offers a pathway to send people from acute care to a place that supports healing.  

Patients must be part of the care conversation.  That has long been the mantra of the patent community and has recently been acknowledged by drug development and payer systems.  Belong Life is among the world’s more extensive patient navigation and social networks for cancer and multiple sclerosis (MS) patients. The platform is used by nearly 1 in 10 cancer patients and 1 in 5 MS patients.

What’s new is its AI Mentor and ChatGPT patient system. The company – driven by compassion and confidentiality – has a model that makes a virtual community practical for people with these serious health concerns. With this new AI effort, Contract Research Organizations and their pharma sponsors should take note of a pathway to better understand what people need and want.

The Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) describes the network of physical objects — “medical things”— embedded with sensors, software and other technologies.  Today, devices are found within 75% of connected assets in hospital systems.  These technologies are a boost to patient convenience and provider care.  And they pose a great cybersecurity danger – a real medical risk to patients.  Hospitals are notoriously vulnerable to hacking. 

IoMT is an easy target for cyber attackers and is among the more worrisome unaddressed cybersecurity risks to medical networks.  Cylera is becoming a global go-to partner to guard against these clear and present dangers using forms of AI and to create a digital twin that assesses IoMT devices to remediate discovered risks.

Health systems are experiencing a challenging financial year – even shuttering doors in remote areas where care is desperately needed. Predictions are that only “must-have” technologies will be considered going forward. Given this backdrop, HIMSS23 conversations focused on technologies that automate existing manual processes to reduce costs.  

This is especially important in revenue cycle management, where providers experience staff shortages and shrinking margins. FinThrive shows health system CIOs the pathways to invest in intelligent, integrated technologies that automate revenue cycle operations. The company connects the revenue cycle teams through a SaaS platform to make collaborative decisions.

Hospital at home is the fastest-growing US care pathway. Keeping people at home after discharge is the desired outcome.  Putting that into practice is the challenge.  Honeywell is taking a practical approach to how AI can move health systems from patient vitals data collection to smarter, faster clinical decision-making. Here is a real-time monitoring system that captures patients’ vital signs within a hospital and remotely. The “Real-Time Health System” (RTHS) uses a wireless QR code skin patch for real-time monitoring. The patch connects to an intelligent app and caregivers receive real-time alerts of significant patient status changes.  Along with propping up pillows and tracking med times, home caregivers become partners in care delivery and people can heal at home safely.

Among the more challenging health intersections is between providers and payers. The tussle for reimbursement requests is friction, repetitive work and outdated workflow. MRO is improving the complex relationship between providers and payers through more thoughtful patient information and clinical data exchange.  Streamlining back-end workflows between providers and payers is a data handshake between financial decision-makers to improve interoperability and intelligent solutions to reduce provider-payer friction.

The real-time sharing of patient insights is a constant HIMSS23 call to action.  The system collects volumes of information.  But “after the fact” analysis means the barn gate on a patient’s care closes by the time the data are assessed.  Effective data-driven care coordination is mission-critical for providers and health plans as they shift to value-based programs. PointClickCare seeks to facilitate better care by tapping one of the most underutilized and required assets – collaboration. 

In connecting data from more than 27,000 long-term and post-acute care providers, more than 2,800 hospitals and 2,000 ambulatory clinics, every major health plan across the US, and some 75 state and government agencies, this is an example of how information can piece together the fragmented health ecosystem.

Interoperability remains a distant desire. SEQSTER, a pioneer in patient-centric healthcare data technology and patient management, announced its partnership with CLEAR, the secure identity platform to provide patients with Individual Access Services.  Announced during HIMSS23, the platform enables consumers to confirm their identities, access medical records and safely share them with various clinical trial research organizations within the SEQSTER Operating System for healthcare.

Health information for consumers and providers remains key to people’s health and wellbeing. Front and center on the exhibit floor is WebMD. The company used HIMSS23 to launch WebMD Ignite offering a comprehensive suite of healthcare solutions to kickstart healthcare organizations’ efforts to improve engagement and fuel growth through every stage of the healthcare journey, from discovery to recovery.  The solutions are the culmination of curated acquisitions from leading healthcare companies within the WebMD Health Network – including WebMD Provider Services, Krames, Mercury Healthcare, and The Wellness Network. 

THE POWER OF NOW

The combination of COVID, recognizing that the system is awash in data and spiraling health costs, and looming cyber risks that make health data vulnerable, is shifting business and medical leaders to advocate for immediate solutions.

HIMSS23 continues to be the meeting ground for government officials, mega-companies, and start-ups to see each other more as collaborative partners than competitors in the system’s improvement.  What was historically the playground of ideas and inventions has transformed into the roll-up-the-sleeves community. The conversations have been less about the system’s shortfalls and more about fixes that improve access, reimbursement and keeping people out of the hospital or getting them home faster. 

One thing that hasn’t changed is the refrain that the consumer is the customer.  That’s not the case.  The system itself remains the primary focus of the industry.  The outcome of a viable, more accessible health system that uses the information to perform cost-effectively will benefit the ecosystem – including the people that seek healing.

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