You are on page 1of 9

H.I.S.

-tory
Vince Ciotti

by

Episode # 43:

Before HIMSS!?
2011 H.I.S. Professionals, LLC

What Came Before HIMSS?


Since everyone is at HIMSS this week, it seems only fitting to interrupt our HIS-tory segment on micros one more time... Just what came before HIMSS? For some of today s younger CIOs today, the question may be Did anything come before HIMSS?? Well, hold on to your badges as we delve back into pre-HIStory to tell about what DP Managers went to before they became CIOs American Hospital Association (AHA) way back in the 60s & 70s, the place to be for HIS vendors was the AHA s Annual Convention, where mainframe makers like IBM and the BUNCH group competed with the likes of Hill-Rom and Baxter for floor space. I was in installations at SMS at the time, so I never got to go that privilege was for sales/marketing guys

Big Blue s Convention!


But even the AHA Convention paled in comparison to IBM s own user group (that name hadn t been invented yet!) known as: Electronic Computing Health Oriented, or ECHO. I hope you appreciate the photo on slide 1, which is of an actual ECHO souvenir I collected at the first one I attended over 30 years ago in 1980 at the beautiful Del Coronado Hotel in San Diego. I was working in marketing for McAuto by then and so earned the right to mingle with several hundred DP Directors there - We were trying to sell our Tandembased PCS (Patient Care System), or DECbased HDC mini system, but as you might imagine, they got little traction with the DP Directors back then who were eager to learn about the latest IBM offerings in their 43XX and 30XX mainframe lines.

And Don t Forget HFMA s ANI!


Back in the 70s & 80s, another powerhouse annual meeting place was the Healthcare Financial Management Association s ANI (Annual National Institute), the place to meet CFOs!
Remember, back then, DP/MIS departments generally reported to the Controller. Just like HIMSS gave credence to the title CIO in the 80s & 90s, HFMA had given meaning to the title CFO in the 60s & 70s.

When I was running marketing for HIS Inc. in Brooklyn in the early 80s, we exhibited at many regional conferences, long before any vendor ever heard of HIMSS, let alone sent a booth there:
NEHA the New England Health Association in Boston MAHC Mid-Atlantic Health Congress in Atlantic City WHA Western Hospital Association in San Francisco

Local HFMA Chapters


The place to be to meet prospect and client DP Managers and Controllers was your state s local HFMA chapter. They not only held frequent seminars that we tried to give our pitches at, but actually gave you a chance to work shoulder to shoulder with hospital professionals, like this hardworking group on the left from my days in NJ s HFMA chapter MIS committee in the late 80s (Don t worry Eileen, Paul & Gil, I won t give out your last names

HIMSS HIS-tory
There s a wonderful pdf file on HIMSS complete history at:
http://www.himss.org/content/files/HIMSS_HISTORY.pdf

HIMSS started as HMSS (Hospital Management Systems Society)


Comprised primarily of Management Engineers, HMSS actually sprung out of a group of pioneers who met at the annual Mid-Atlantic Health Congress, usually held in Sin City, er, that is, Atlantic City, New Joisey. The photo below shows HMSS founding management engineers in 1965: - The first HMSS national convention was held in Baltimore in 1962, when the entire membership was 54: - 26 Full Members - 8 Associate Members - 14 Affiliate Members - 6 Commercial Members - Some difference from last year s crowd of 20,000+!

Adding an I !
It was not until 1986 that HMSS renamed itself, adding the I to encompass both information systems and telecommunications professionals, officially changing its name to the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS). It was billed as HIMSS of the AHA, headquartered in Chicago. Ironically, in the very next year (1987) HIMSS held its annual convention in the sin city, Las Vegas, scene of this year s caper Check out these facts from this first annual convention officially entitled HIMSS (not HMSS, which had run 14 prior annual gigs, mostly in Atlantic City and Baltimore): 525 people in attendance Nearly filling the Riviera Hotel 36 vendors/consulting firm booths

Early Testimonials
The May 1987 issue of Bill Child s Healthcare Computing & Communications featured HIMSS as its feature story, and included these testimonials from HIS notables of the time: Mark Gross of E&Y Rich Sneider, consultant Jim Reep, founder of First Consulting Rick Adam of Baxter/Travenol Scot Waldrop, CyCare Jay Toole of AA

2012 Perspective
If you re lucky enough to have conned your CFO into approving travel to Las Vegas for this year s HIMSS, keep this fascinating perspective in mind as you walk among the 1,000+ booths:
That entire hall was empty a few days before HIMSS and will be empty again a few days later as it sets up for the next convention. Which is about as long as the sales claims & marketing hype you hear there will last, until you go back to your hospital s HIS and reality

You might also like