The theme of HIMSS24, healthcare’s premier global conference and exhibition, is “Creating Tomorrow’s Health” and it couldn’t be more timely in today’s healthcare climate.

Taking place in Orlando, March 11-15, HIMSS will reflect both the challenges healthcare organizations face and the opportunities to address those challenges with the latest tech innovations.

This is exactly why it is one of the conferences I look forward to most each year. As someone whose team lives at the intersection of healthcare and technology, I see the outlines of this year’s theme emerging in many of the elements in the work we do.

Everything everywhere, all at once
Talk of generative AI will, of course, be pervasive. Now that we seem to be fully immersed into this shiny new technology, organizations are figuring out how to leverage its capabilities and move from pilots to deployment. How do we put it into action on the ground? How will it change the way doctors, nurses, patients, providers, researchers and the people behind the scenes do their jobs? What will they need to learn? What new skills will be required?

Our conversations and decisions about gen AI in healthcare must be grounded in three core fundamentals. When these are in place, people throughout our healthcare organizations feel free to take full advantage of the creative and operational efficiencies gen AI offers.

• Responsible AI. The principles of responsible AI ensure that we develop, assess and deploy AI systems in a safe, trustworthy and ethical way. As we go forward, accepting and adhering to the principles of responsible AI will differentiate companies that can be trusted from those that can’t.
• Human-centered AI. Human-centered focuses on creating AI systems that amplify and augment, rather than displace, human abilities. It ensures humans are in control and at the center of any development and deployment of gen AI. Gen AI becomes a copilot, an assistant that helps humans do their most productive and creative work.
• Governance and data security. Making sure clear, transparent and ethical rules of the road are firmly in place is step one in any consideration of gen AI. This could not apply more to healthcare data security systems and protocols, as patients entrust us with their most sensitive information.

So many choices, so little time
With so many opportunities to learn, connect and experience packed into just a few days, scheduling how to spend your time will be challenging. If I may, let me call your attention to three of the sessions my team and I will be hosting:

• World Health Data Hub: Breaking Down Barriers to Health Information
In this session, my Avanade colleagues and Jean-Francois Saint-Pierre, program manager with the World Health Organization (WHO) Data Exchange Team, will be discussing our work with Microsoft to create a secure data hub that is allowing WHO to identify countries and situations that may require additional assistance or resources to manage a healthcare challenge. The goal: to help make sure healthcare organizations are prepared with what they may need.

• Anticipating the Impacts and ROI of Generative AI
Along with the promises of gen AI must come accountability. Clara Lin, MD, CMIO and Associate Vice President with Seattle Children’s Hospital, and I will talk about how to measure and benchmark the return on investment of this new technology. The ROI on gen AI is more than financial. It must include patient outcomes, patient and employee experiences, the results of research and medical innovation and more. It must show how the technology impacts people.

• Decoding Healthcare Innovation: Building AI Products that Put Patients in Control
Key to unlocking the future of patient-centric care is the strategic commitment to create patient experiences that empower individuals to take control of their health outcomes. In this session, we'll delve into the art of strategically developing healthcare solutions for specific, measurable and beneficial results.

With the richness of this year’s agenda and definitively new content, I know we all will come away from HIMSS24 filled with new ideas. Before then, I invite you to see the great line up of sessions Avanade has planned for you. Register here.

See you in Orlando!