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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But let’s not forget that three years ago – just as then-President Trump was announced as the HIMSS keynote – COVID ripped across the world.  In 2020, at the 12^th hour, HIMSS decided to cancel the Davos of health information and digital health for the first time in more than half a century.  In the days preceding the decision, many of us were on pins and needles waiting for the shoe to drop finally – and it did after mega exhibitors pulled out to protect their staff and Florida shut down to the outside world.

How Three Years Changed Mindsets or Not?

Much has changed in those three years. The former president has been indicted; COVID has supposedly been tamed; big exhibitors with 40 by 40 space return to the rightful places at Chicago’s McCormick Convention Center; 30,000 people will be running to educational and continuing education sessions and networking events and, most importantly, conversations on how the health ecosystem will address the unfulfilled potential of digital health and aggregated intelligence (AI) and protect our precious, personal health data with cybersecurity technologies will be the talk of the hallways.

Salute to HIMSS Staff – The Backbone of a Great Conference

Behind the scenes, HIMSS staff work diligently to address the needs of this ever-growing professional community.  While most people rightfully run from speaker sessions throughout the day, far fewer realize that the program is mainly built through membership participation. HIMSS is more like a peer-review medical conference than a for-profit entity.  Countless abstracts are submitted for review by volunteer working groups, graded and debated and those accepted to make it into the program. 

Mentors are assigned to the speakers to check in on their progress and content development.  Little is left to chance and “winged on stage.”  The HIMSS staff are considering all the little details, including assigning program committee members to introduce speaker sessions – highlighting the 300+ speakers and their content.  If the Jackson Browne hit song “Stay” salutes the roadies that put together and pull down his road-tour stage, HIMSS staff deserve a song commemorating their exceptional work.

HIMSS differs from the many key conferences around health innovation – it’s geared to the grass tops, chief information, strategy and technology officers, and the grassroots experts in digital health information where the rubber meets the road in operations and transformation.  You will find folks from the Federal government who can advance policies that improve access to information and its security, along with hard-working staff from agencies tasked with getting the job done.

Embrace the Good – Put Aside Your Darts

People love throwing darts at industry gatherings that have made it, and HIMSS takes its fair share of pundit swipes.  That said, in August 2021 in Las Vegas, HIMSS pioneered the way back to industry conferences by putting in place protocols requiring a COVID inoculation confirmation, a negative COVID task and masks.  If it came late to the public health shut-down party in 2020, it more than made amends one year later, courageously paving the way for the community to reunite!  Other groups, such as CNS Summit, built on that model and added even more confidence-generating approaches to unite the community.

If, in 2019, HIMSS added patient engagement and experience to its conference theme, this year’s theme hints at something that can make our innovations workable and meaningful – collaboration.  We don’t lack good ideas – we lack encouragement and incentives to work well together and operationalize!  As much as we invent new ways to apply information, we fear change and prefer to stick with the known – even if it’s suboptimal patient care. 

Physicians claim that the time spent on “managing information systems” or depending on those systems for answers is burning them out and keeping them from their primary mission – caring for people seeking solutions.  If so, then information technology is not meeting its mission –fixing one thing and breaking the ties between physician and patient. 

Conversation Can Lead to Solutions

While the hundreds of sessions at HIMSS will offer new knowledge, don’t forget to spend time in the hallways – meeting people, sharing ideas (and problems) and “keeping it real.”  The magic of technology isn’t the organization of massive amounts of data – it’s making more time to be us and fulfill our life missions. In health, that is connecting healers with those people seeking to be healed.

See you in the Windy City of Chicago.  I will be masked!  My COVID shots – inoculations and booster are up-to-date, and I’ll test each day.  When it comes to people’s health – public health – we can all make an extra effort. I come for the people, conversations and belief that in speaking with each other, we will continually piece together puzzle pieces of the divided health information ecosystem.

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Surprised? You’re not alone! But the numbers are a tune you won’t forget.  The music industry is a significant contributor to the Nashville economy.  The Country Music Association reports that the music industry generates $10 billion in economic impact annually for the city.  That includes revenue from live music events, music tourism and recording studios.

But even if you add in the sales from hotel reservations and souvenirs, health wins hands down over music when it comes to economic impact. According to the Nashville Health Care Council, the city’s health industry contributes more than $67 billion annually to the region’s economy and employs 325,000 people. This includes health providers, medical device manufacturers, pharmaceutical companies, and healthcare IT firms. The health industry is also responsible for nearly 40% of all jobs in the Nashville region.

Nashville is a Given When it Comes to Hosting ViVE

Unsurprisingly, ViVE Events chose Nashville for its second gathering – a city quietly making its mark on the nation’s health system. Nashville is the perfect place for ViVE Events. It attracts change agents and digital health innovators known for their collaborative nature and seeking a friendly setting to exchange ideas and learn from each other.

“This is only the second year for ViVE and the conference is emerging as a big draw. Last year’s event attracted 5,000 people, and this year, ViVE is expected to draw around 7,500,” says Keith Fraidenburg, CHIME executive vice president and chief operating and innovation officer. CHIME is the main driver behind the ViVE gathering, centering around digital health and health information.

“Music City” is home to some of the most prestigious healthcare organizations in the United States, including HCA Healthcare, Meharry Medical College, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, and Community Health Systems. These institutions provide world-class medical care to patients from across the country and world and, much like Cambridge, MA, with its proximity to academic medical centers, universities and service supports, serve as engines of innovation for the health innovation sector.

In addition to leading healthcare providers, Nashville is home to a vibrant ecosystem of start-ups and entrepreneurs focused on health innovation. Many companies are spin-offs of HCA Healthcare, which long encouraged staff to pursue their entrepreneurial dreams.  Now, the community is supported by local incubators and accelerators like the Nashville Health Care Council, Lifepoint Health, and Frist Cressey Ventures, which all provide resources, connections, and mentorship to help start-ups grow and thrive.

The iconic Tommy Frist Sr., who co-founded HCA Healthcare, and was a longstanding investor in entrepreneurial ventures, helped fuel Nashville’s growth as a national health hub.  “Nashville’s healthcare industry is a critical economic driver for the region, employing tens of thousands of people and generating billions of dollars in economic activity,” said Frist Sr, who died in 1998 and created the foundation for Nashville to be a national health system force: “As a lifelong Nashvillian and founder of one of the region’s leading healthcare companies, I am proud of Nashville’s role in advancing healthcare innovation and improving patient care.”

The concentration of healthcare providers and innovators in Nashville has attracted significant investment, with venture capital firms, legal powerhouse firms such as Waller and private equity groups recognizing the region’s potential for growth and innovation. This investment has super-charged the development of innovative technologies, therapies, and patient care approaches, transforming the healthcare industry.

Nashville’s position as a center for health innovation and provider services is critical to the future of healthcare in the United States. With a collaborative ecosystem of healthcare providers, academic institutions, start-ups, and investors, Nashville is well-positioned to drive new advancements in patient care and access. Its unique combination of expertise, resources, and quality of life makes it an ideal destination for healthcare professionals and entrepreneurs looking to impact the healthcare industry positively.

Start-Up Health Kicks Off at ViVE 2023

Some 100 company leaders were on-hand for the Start Up Health Transformers Unite! 2023 Health Transformer Workshop hosted by Steven Krein, co-founder and managing partner, and Jamey Edwards, chief platform officer of Start-Up Health.  Start-Up Health is a unique model for entrepreneurs seeking the support of an accelerator. 

A community with the rigor of an academy, Start Up Health offers health IT, health tech and wellness entrepreneurs a structure and curriculum to help them navigate the unique challenges – addressing everything from mindset to positioning to raising money to navigate the fragmented health ecosystem.  Now Start Up Health is working to ensure companies accepted into its supportive hive succeed in their missions to build sustainable growth businesses. 

According to Founder Unity Stoakes, “In a world full of limited-scope, short-form, quick-hit business advice, we’re building Health Transformer University with long-term transformation in mind. That means being stage agnostic, unbound by time, and globally connected.”

The ViVE 2023 gathering conversation centered around a clear development model by translating Maslow’s hierarchy of success into four steps for “Achieving Health Moonshots.”

1. Mission & Mindset
2. Rhythm & Progress
3. Relationships & Brand
4. Capital & Impact

The portfolio companies – all impressive – are hand-picked for receiving the time and attention of a leadership team that has graduated successfully from the Start-Up Health incubator community. The approach is working well for those accepted into its program.  Valera Health, offering mental health services, has also received support from Cigna. Another, Avanlee Care, has teamed up with Walmart to apply its technology to support millions of unpaid caregivers. Athelo Health, led by Jessica Thurmond, is pioneering long needed efforts in women’s health. Taking on long-neglected conversations around diagnosis, information access, treatment approaches, the company has launched a biometric-anchored virtual coach for women with breast and gynecologic cancers.

Start Up Health catalyzes long-awaited changes in the global health system.  Here are two profiles among the scores of companies participating in their incubator/accelerator community:

Vigilant Software is working to eliminate one billion common medication errors by digitizing hospital-based drug delivery. In a system still dominated by hand-written medical orders or patient charts – where faxes are still deployed to transmit vital medical information – there are bound to be mistakes – sometimes deadly.  Caring for patients on the floors is one thing.  But, when critical care is needed, analog data shouldn’t be considered a go-to system. Health information technology can be deployed to address urgent care speed.

This Start-Up Health-supported company seeks to help critical care nurses by eliminating workflow steps that often involve translating – or misinterpreting – handwritten instructions. Its automation platform –a proprietary barcode scanner and label printer – eliminates manual calculations so that IV infusions and injections are safer and, by reducing workflow, returns time to patient care.

Vigilant demonstrated that its digital health system could save some 4,000 hours of critical care nursing time annually in a typical American hospital. As hospitals shoulder the burden of nurse staffing shortages and nurse burnout, reducing drug-interaction risks, and automating tasks, have several clear benefits – from saving lives to strengthening staff retention.

equalityMD is changing how the LGBTQ+ community perceives and receives health services. The Start Up Health-guided company has evolved through the years.  First launched in January 2015 as an LGBTQ+ multimedia and marketing company called Q Media, it shifted into an LGBTQ+ consumer behavioral data analytics company. But the pandemic – the pressing need for health services within the LGBTQ+ community – pushed it into its current form as a life-sustaining and saving medical matchmaker. Its founder and CEO, Justin Ayars, JD, a former trial lawyer, recognized a long-standing health equity need and transformed the company into the first virtual LGBTQ+ inclusive healthcare platform.

Using a proprietary machine-learning matching algorithm, equalityMD connects the LGBTQ+ community with culturally competent primary care and mental health providers nationwide. The system seeks to create a safe space on what is likely the virtual first platform where this community can be their authentic selves and receive the care required. Providers complete LGBTQ+ cultural competency training through a third-party ACCME provider and are then invited to onto platform, enabling them to be matched with people seeking care. As an added benefit, providers can receive Continuing Medical Education (CME) credits by participating in these training programs.

equalityMD is certified both as a Benefit Corporation (B-Corp) and LGBT Business Enterprise (LGBTBE) – a National LGBT Chamber of Commerce supplier diversity status, is now strengthening ties with Blue Cross Blue Shield, CVS/Aetna, and Cedars-Sinai so that its business model is enduring, scalable and demonstrates outcomes.

Model for Health Innovation Collaboration in a Welcoming City

The CHIME ViVE 2023 model draws in collaborative partners such as Start Up Health. The InteropNow! and Cybersecurity Pavilions, as well as welcoming others such as UC Davis and Galen Growth to use the gathering to share breaking insights (watch for the following ViVE 2023 report), centered around a city of hospitality, fun and health innovation is the perfect medicine for health transformers looking to learn and apply.   

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