The College of Healthcare Information Management Executives won't host an event at the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society's annual trade show in 2021.
"CHIME and HIMSS have enjoyed years of a beneficial partnership, but we have decided to explore different directions in how we serve and grow our memberships," a CHIME spokesperson said in an emailed statement. "While there are always opportunities for future collaborations, we do not have any formal arrangements in place at this time."
In years past, the two groups had hosted a CHIME-HIMSS CIO Forum, a one-day forum that takes place at the HIMSS event and where they honor a jointly selected "CIO of the Year." That joint forum won't take place this year.
"Like any good partner and as a best practice, we have chosen to not publicly discuss reasons why the partnership has concluded," a HIMSS spokesperson wrote in an email to Modern Healthcare. "We all look forward to delivering the world-class education, cutting-edge products and solutions, and unique networking opportunities the health ecosystems needs and expects."
The HIMSS21 event is slated for Aug. 9-13 in Las Vegas. The conference and exhibition has traditionally been one of the largest gatherings of health IT professionals, drawing in tens of thousands of attendees.
HIMSS on Tuesday emailed exhibitors to say that 11,000 registrants can transfer their registration from last year to this. "Our historical data shows that we are on pace: At five months out from a global health conference only 3% of attendees register, so we remain confident in our registration rollout timing, which will be comparable to prior years," according to the message, sent to Modern Healthcare by HIMSS spokesperson Karen Groppe.
CHIME CEO Russ Branzell in an email to members Tuesday announced a three-part CHIME21 forum series, with a mix of planned virtual and in-person events in April, June and October. A two-day virtual event in April—which Branzell described as an "independent forum"—will replace the group's previous one-day HIMSS event.
HIMSS21 in August will be a "completely reimagined hybrid event" with options for attendees to participate in-person or virtually, HIMSS said in a message to exhibitors Tuesday.
HIMSS21's attendee registration so far is tracking comparable to previous years, according to HIMSS.
Registration among exhibitors has lagged. While more than 400 exhibitors have committed to attending HIMSS21, that's almost two-thirds the number compared to the same timeframe in previous years. HIMSS has received more than 700 proposals to speak at sessions and more than 300 applications for reviewers, comparable to years past.
HIMSS in July rescheduled the 2021 conference from March to August. HIMSS has faced pushback over its decision to not refund exhibitors and sponsors after canceling the 2020 event just days before it was slated to start as COVID-19 related shutdowns began in March. HIMSS has offered partial credit on 2021 and 2022 conference participation.
