[Slideshow] HIMSS 2014 in photos: Hillary Clinton, Aetna's Bertolini give keynotes

Photo courtesy of HIMSS

“The hyper-politicized debate about Affordable Care Act (ACA) has been often more about ideology than data,” says former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton during a Feb. 26 keynote presentation to thousands of attendees at the 2014 Health Information Management Systems Society (HIMSS) in Orlando, Florida. Clinton called for a return to an evidence-based policy debate to fix the healthcare system to benefit Americans. Healthcare faces major obstacles as policymakers look to open access to healthcare, simultaneously reduce costs, and improve quality and outcomes, Clinton says.

Photo courtesy of Aetna

During his keynote address at the 2014 Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society conference, Aetna’s CEO Mark T. Bertolini calls for transformative healthcare change focused on wellness, aligned incentives, and a crackdown on wasteful spending.

Photo courtesy of HIMSS

The current National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, Karen DeSalvo, spoke with the past three national coordinators, Dr. David Brailer, Dr. Robert Kolodner and Dr. Farzad Mostashari during the CCHIT Summit: A Decade of Health IT. The session was moderated by Chris Weaver, reporter for the Wall Street Journal.

In a keynote presentation on Feb. 27, DeSalvo outlined some key challenges facing healthcare information technology. “We know that widespread adoption has shown that we have challenges to overcome with the usability of EHR products and user interface. We need to better understand safety, and we need to make sure we can electronically measure care and outcomes so we can engage in value-based purchasing and quality improvements. We need to train our workforce-healthcare professionals and the rest of the team. And we need to learn to balance the promise of HIT and the burden on providers.”

Photo courtesy of HIMSS

HIMSS Board Chair Scott MacLean, MBA, CPHIMS, FHIMSS, Deputy CIO and Director of IS Operations for Partners Healthcare, welcomed HIMSS14 attendees, and kicked off the opening keynote session. The event drew more than 38,000 healthcare professionals and 1,200 exhibitors.

Photo courtesy of HIMSS

The Intelligent Hospital™ Pavilion Featuring the Intelligent Medical Home is new to HIMSS Annual Conference & Exhibition. Attendees can see the flow of real-time data from the patient recovering at home back to the primary caregiver at the local hospital at HIMSS14.

Photo courtesy of HIMSS

The Interoperability Showcase is reimagined at HIMSS14 Feb. 23-27, in Orlando, Fla. The showcase features Meaningful Use certified systems alongside IHE profile demonstrations to emphasize how collaborative technology is vital to the realization of connected health and patient empowerment.