Almost a month after HIMSS, things are beginning to settle and clear ground for the year ahead. Since the conference, I’ve had the opportunity to chat with a number of health IT professionals who attended HIMSS11. The conversations have been tremendously helpful in digesting the mass influx of information I seemed to be bombarded with in Orlando.
There was a key topic that seemed to emerge as noteworthy in almost every conversation. For HIMSS attendees, it seems that one of the biggest “take-aways” from the event was the impact social media at the conference.
I decided to ask the readers who attended HIMSS11, and those who followed along via Twitter, what their impression was of the use of social media at HIMSS. Is social media in health IT worth the hype, or is it a wasted effort?
It is important to note the dynamics in sentiment between responders. More than three quarters of participants expressed a positive sentiment towards health IT social media. These individuals believe that social media in the healthcare IT space is a strategic and valuable part of the future of the health IT industry. Meanwhile, the remaining 21 percent expressed some doubt in its tangible value in the industry. These individuals suggest that social media in health IT will be short lived or lacking value completely.
What was your impression of social media at HIMSS, whether you were an attendee or spectator via the Internet? If you attended, did you notice it used by vendors?
