Social Media at HIMSS14

At HIMSS 2014: How Important is Social Media?

In preparation for HIMSS 2014 (February 24-27), Schwartz MSL surveyed healthcare IT influencers attending the conference to learn more about how they will use social media to track vendors and news before and during the event. We asked how they plan to use social media tools, what tools they will use and on what topics they will focus. While the results weren’t surprising, it is important to note that social media continues to grow in importance for health IT influencers and vendors as the years progress.

We learned that 73 percent of attending influencers will check social media to gather information about the show before it even starts, and 79 percent will be logging on to social channels throughout the event. One hundred percent of social media-touting influencers marked Twitter as their social media tool of choice. Sixty percent will use LinkedIn, followed by 40 percent who will use Facebook and Google+ respectively.

One interesting point is that social media is even more important than ever as a majority of vendors, journalists and even patients are chatting up a storm about the importance of health IT on the various channels. Sixty percent of the influencers surveyed stated that they have used social media more at trade shows this year than they have in past years.

What will be the hot topics at HIMSS14?

1. Meaningful use:  As hospitals begin to think more and more about meaningful use incentives, it is no surprise that health IT vendors and influencers will have their eyes peeled for news surrounding health policy and this topic. Eighty-four percent of our influencers are looking to cover meaningful use at the show.
2. ICD-10: With the ICD-10 deadline extended to October 1, 2014, a healthy 79 percent of influencers are tracking the ways in which hospitals and health systems are preparing for the transition, and what vendors are doing to help ease them into it.
3. Health Information Exchange, data analytics and mHealth: A strong 74 percent of our influencers noted that they are looking to cover these three hot topics.

In addition to these topics more than half of these influencers plan to focus on patient engagement, EHRs, privacy/security, interoperability, healthcare reform and population health management.

Are you prepared for the social media challenges at HIMSS14? Contact Jordon Goulder at HCSMG@schwartzmsl.com or 415-512-0770 to discuss conference social media strategy and any other conference planning.

This article was originally published on SCHWARTZ MSL and is republished here with permission.