Last week, members of our leadership team joined thousands of healthcare industry experts and innovators in Las Vegas for HIMSS 2025. Attendees convened from across the country, representing all sectors, with a common objective: to collaboratively transform healthcare. And collaborate we did!

Kathryn Ayers Wickenhauser, Chief Strategy Officer, and Susan Clark, Senior Director of Community and Advocacy, took to LinkedIn throughout the week to share highlights, soundbites, and key learnings from their time in Vegas, including the Interoperability Pre-Conference Forum and show floor session with our new Chief Technical Officer, Lisa Nelson. While it is difficult to narrow down, here are several of their top takeaways:

  • Industry relationships are the not-so-secret sauce to driving meaningful change, and fostering those relationships will always be time well spent. Not only did we have the pleasure of connecting with valued members, accredited organizations, and partners, but a common theme among conference sessions was the necessity of collaboration.
  • While federal representation at the event was notably sparse, there was a pervasive feeling of apprehension related to the current flurry of federal activity. Whether individuals or their organizations have been impacted directly, indirectly, or are expecting future trickle-down consequences, many are wary of what’s to come.
  • As an industry we’ve made significant strides toward interoperability. Still, there is plenty to improve, especially when it comes to eliciting widespread trust of technical infrastructure, including better directories that stimulate the careful sharing of information. Interoperability will never stop evolving, but we need to continue to drive stakeholder buy-in through identity assurance and accountability. According to Nancy Beavin, Director of Provider Connectivity at Medica, no one owns the education, marketing, and engagement that is needed to help make this exchange of data work, and this is a huge issue. There’s a gap in knowledge and understanding, especially around patients’ right to access their health information and how it can be accessed and exchanged.

  • A continuous theme of, “technology is not the problem,” was weaved throughout sessions. The barriers to technology adoption primarily exist at the true user level are awareness, implementation gaps, funding, workforce, legal interpretation, and politics. Areas where technology still has room to advance are in consent, granular segmentation, and identity. Implementation of AI is identifying opportunities for enhancement and governance across the industry. Specifically, privacy and security risk management need to be addressed foundationally and comprehensively, and not as separate activities. AI also demands that we solve data quality issues as soon as possible, working toward cleaner data that can better take advantage of technological innovation. AI is only going to get better with time, but will also create more challenges to solve.

At the risk of oversimplifying, we can tie a bow on our takeaways with a clear call to action. To quote Aneesh Chopra, “it’s on us.” Technology – the good, the bad and the ugly – is only part of the conversation. Human connection completes the puzzle. Our work will never truly be complete, but It’s our collective responsibility to assemble, collaborate, and innovate toward better systems and optimal outcomes for all.