The Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) is the healthcare industry’s membership organization exclusively focused on providing global leadership for the optimal use of healthcare information technology (IT) and management systems for the betterment of healthcare. Founded in 1961 with offices in Chicago, Washington, D.C., Brussels, and other locations across the United States, Europe and Asia, HIMSS represents more than 20,000 individual members and over 350 corporate members that collectively represent organizations employing millions of people. HIMSS frames and leads healthcare public policy and industry practices through its advocacy, educational and professional development initiatives designed to promote information and management systems contributions to ensuring quality patient care.
Through its quality educational programming, HIMSS keeps it members and the industry informed through conferences, webinars, and print and CD-ROM resources. The Society provides numerous forums for exploring current and emerging trends, and solutions to critical healthcare IT issues in the United States and across the globe. These include the Annual HIMSS Conference & Exhibition, HIMSS Summit, HIMSS Advocacy Day, World of Health IT Conference & Exhibition, HIMSS AsiaPac Conference & Exhibition and HIMSS Virtual Conference & Expo. HIMSS frames and leads national healthcare legislation, regulations, policies, standards and practices on key issues including patient safety, patient care, privacy and security, and national preparedness and response through advocacy and public policy initiatives. The Society focuses on equipping federal and state officials with the knowledge they need to implement appropriate policy and works with all interested stakeholders including individual members, corporations, and collaborating organizations to coordinate and advance healthcare IT and management systems. Additionally, HIMSS empowers healthcare IT and management systems professionals to chart their own course by giving them the tools they need to stay focused and move forward in their professional development. The Society offers a professional certification program, the Certified Professional in Healthcare Information and Management Systems certification, which measures and demonstrates a professionals industry expertise; connects healthcare IT and management systems professionals and companies through JobMine®, the HIMSS comprehensive online job bank; and reaches out to future leaders by providing scholarships to students in the healthcare IT and management systems field. As a member-focused organization, the Society enhances industry knowledge through committee, task force and work group participation. Member communities bring industry peers together as individual, corporate and organizational members of the Society who can join Chapters, Users Groups and Special Interest Groups to learn and share experiences. Primary topic areas include EHRs in ambulatory, acute and public healthcare settings; patient safety; auto identification and bar coding; privacy and security; and interoperability and integration related to nursing informatics, global standards initiatives, the U.S. standards agenda, regional health information organizations (RHIOs) and Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise (IHE). HIMSS also publishes a variety of publications in both print and electronic formats. This includes the Journal of Healthcare Information Management (JHIM), the only peer-reviewed journal specifically for healthcare information and management systems professionals, and e-newsletters, books and CDs targeted to the healthcare IT industry. The Society also provides credible research in healthcare IT and management systems through leadership, compensation and issue-oriented surveys. In the market research area, HIMSS Analytics is a wholly owned not-for-profit subsidiary of the Society. The company collects and analyzes healthcare information related to IT processes and environments, products, IS department composition and costs, IS department management metrics, healthcare trends and purchase-related decisions. HIMSS Analytics delivers high quality products, services and analytical expertise to healthcare delivery organizations, healthcare IT companies, state governments, financial companies, pharmaceutical companies, and consulting firms. Visit www.himssanalytics.org for more information. Committed to improving healthcare through the realization of the full potential of technology, HIMSS invites interested individuals and organizations within the industry to join the Society in this important objective.
