They came, they saw, they tweeted. As more than 45,000 health IT geeks and wonks descended on Orlando, Fla., for HIMSS19, they took to social media to share what they saw and discovered at their big event.
One HIMSS novice found something lacking: “I'm a first timer at #HIMSS19. Where are the patients? Seriously, we don't have a monopoly on problem statements, let alone solutions…” tweeted @timblake1978. He also had a plea: “For the love of God, please stop calling your algorithms Artificial Intelligence just because you don't understand what they do.”
Some made confounding discoveries: @anitasamarth tweeted “So...THIS. In @Google booth at #HIMSS19. Found this 'HIMSS Fax Demo'. I know fax still exists but this pains me.” CMS Administrator Seema Verma offered: “We can sequence the entire human genome, but we still can't get much more than a print-out, fax or CD-ROM when we leave the doctor's office.”
Verma also tied health IT into the popular #healthpolicyvalentines hashtag: “Our love is on #FHIR, and the way to my heart is through an open API, so let's be interoperable. #healthpolicyvalentines”
She wasn't the only one: @HHSCTO tweeted: “Roses are red, Violets are blue, Standards-based APIs, Open data for you. #healthpolicyvalentines.”
But one attendee couldn't wait to show off his new apparel: FHIR socks from HL7. @mjg6288 tweeted: “If your feet aren't on FHIR at HIMSS19, you aren't waking (sic) enough.”