HIMSS10: More clarity on ARRA means more specific sessions

Health IT changed forever on Feb. 17, 2009. It was on that day that President Obama signed into law the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the $787 economic stimulus bill that includes an estimated $25.8 billion for health IT.

"A year ago, the HIMSS conference was only five or six weeks after the signing of the ARRA legislation, and it was a time of anticipation," HIMSS CEO H. Stephen Lieber tells FierceHealthIT. "This year, the world is a little more settled....We've got a significantly stronger idea of what it's going to take [to achieve meaningful use]." And thus there is more certainty about ARRA at the 2010 HIMSS conference.

National health IT coordinator Dr. David Blumenthal likely will address meaningful use during his keynote on Wednesday, March 3, but there are plenty of other sessions related to the federal EMR incentive program. On Tuesday at 8:30 a.m., Dr. John Halamka hosts a Healthcare Information Technology Standards Panel town-hall meeting on harmonized standards in the era of meaningful use. Later that day, at 2:15 p.m., there's an Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology town hall, which likely will feature Blumenthal and his deputies for an hour and a half of Q&A.

We also are looking forward to "Implications of ARRA for Clinical Decision Support" with Dr. Scott Weingarten of Zynx Health and Dr. Loran Hauck of Adventist Health System in Lake Mary, Fla., on Monday, March 1 at 11 a.m., and a session on EMR usability, Monday at 12:15 p.m.