The Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society plans to invest $1 million to open 25,000 square feet of exhibition, demonstration and interoperability testing space in the Global Center for Health Innovation in Cleveland, formerly the Cleveland Medical Mart.

Chicago-based HIMSS expects to spend another $1 million a year on operation of the facility.

Half of the space, 12,500-square feet, initially, will be devoted to the HIMSS Health IT Ecosystem, a “fully operational, multi-facility environment populated with simulated patient demographic, clinical and financial data,” creating both a physical and 24/7 virtual testing capability, the organization said in a news release and HIMSS officials said during a news conference Tuesday. “The health and healthcare communities will be able to plug into this environment and both test and demonstrate a specific product's interoperability capabilities,” according to the release.

The other half will house the HIMSS Healthcare Technology Showcase, a place where “the health and healthcare community will find opportunities to participate in long-lasting exhibits themed around harnessing the power of IT,” using mobile devices, consumer-driven healthcare, and evidence-based care, the news release said.

HIMSS President and CEO H. Stephen Lieber said his organization has been planning for participating in the launch of a permanent “medical mart” for the exhibition of health IT wares and capabilities “over the last four or five years.”

Meanwhile, medical marts planned for New York and Nashville “didn't get off the ground,” Lieber said, but the Cleveland center has received commitments from GE, Johnson Controls and the Cleveland Clinic, which in December announced its 11th Medical Innovation Summit would move from its campus to the new center.

“This is a dedicated facility for the purpose fostering health innovation,” Lieber said. “There is an audience that will naturally be going through this facility,” which is adjacent to the Cleveland convention center. Lieber said the showcase section could double, adding another 12,500 square feet by 2016.