IT Boom in Health Care Is Boon for Tradeshows

Advances in technology for growing sector mean steady ascent for events

By Jillian Dauer -- Tradeshow Week, 6/26/2006

What if you didn't have to fill out a medical history form every time you visited a new doctor? Or could access your medical records anywhere anytime?

The health care information technology industry and the government are working to make things like this possible, and tradeshows are reaping the benefits.

One innovation is the implementation of electronic health records, which would prevent medical records from being lost or destroyed. President George W. Bush has an initiative for all U.S. citizens to have electronic health records by 2014.

Naturally, where there's an initiative like that, there's also an economic opportunity. And when there is, there is likely a tradeshow — or two or three or 20 — to help it along.

"Many Hurricane Katrina victims lost their medical records because they were on paper," said Karen Malone, vice president of meeting services for the Health Information & Management Systems Society, which each year mounts HIMSS Annual Conference & Exhibition, No. 64 on the most recent Tradeshow Week 200. "If they'd been electronic, people could have had access anywhere they went."

HIMSS may be one of the biggest, most established shows devoted to the world of health care IT, but it's not the only one.

"One in every $7 is spent on health care in one way or another," said Bill Tobey, director of business development for the Medical Records Institute.

The Medical Records Institute manages Toward the Electronic Patient Record Conference & Exhibition, which brings together users and vendors of electronics medical records systems. The organization also puts on about 60 electronic medical records road shows throughout the United States.

The records, however, cannot just be available electronically; they must also be accessible in general. Thus, health care IT systems need to be interoperable, or able to communicate with each other whether it's from one hospital to another or one department to another.

"Meetings for the health care professional have become the forum for making this happen," said Chris Carr, director of informatics for the Radiological Society of North America. The government's efforts add vitality, while the stated goal helped energize the community and bring together stakeholders to make it happen and have a say in how it happens, Carr said.

RSNA is working together with HIMSS and the American College of Cardiology to demonstrate interoperability to the industry. To engage and educate the user community, each organization has at its event an interoperability booth devoted to illustrating how health care IT systems communicate with each other. This year, Carr said, exhibitors will be linked and able to participate in the same demonstration at the centralized location, as well as from their own booths.

RSNA has also allocated a classroom where all educational sessions are focused on implementing health care IT in radiology.

Last year, net square footage at the Radiological Society of North America Scientific Assembly & Annual Meeting was up 7.5 percent, and the number of exhibiting companies increased 3.9 percent. Tom Shimala, director of technical exhibits for the group, said the event has 10 percent more companies signed up to exhibit now than at the same time last year. He predicts double-digit growth for this year's event, scheduled Nov. 26–Dec. 1 at Chicago's McCormick Place.

In one way or another, Shimala said, IT is responsible for the projected growth. But he added that the number of new and international companies and companies buying more space due to acquisitions are also having an impact. The show ranked No. 36 on this year's TSW 200.

HIMSS has also seen dramatic growth at its annual event, with a 22.5-percent increase in exhibitors this year. Currently, organizers reported, more than 86 percent of exhibit space has been sold for next year's show.

Because the event has been landlocked for the past two years in Dallas and San Diego, exhibitors were not able to expand their booth space. Next year, when it is held at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center in New Orleans, they were told to go as big as they want, said Elli Miller, exhibits manager for HIMSS.

"They want the space to do private demonstrations in meeting rooms or at free-standing computers," she said.

HIMSS has also decided to expand overseas. Malone said the organization is launching an event in Geneva, Switzerland, in October, as well as one in Singapore in May.

"Internationally, they don't have one place people can go to get health care IT information," Miller said. "We're taking what's best in the U.S. and combining it with the European Union and WHO's (World Health Organization) knowledge and taking it global."

Scott Goldman, president of Eaton Hall Exhibitions, is investigating the potential of launching a health care IT event in the United States.

"There are some very large changes going on in how technology is deployed in health care," he said. "We're trying to find out if there are underserved portions."

Currently, an independent research firm Eaton hired is exploring the industry's needs and how they're being met.

"If we find that everyone's getting what they need, then we won't be bringing anything special," Goldman said.

Jonathan Weiner, president of Prepaid Media, has already found an underserved niche. He's launching the CDHC Expo Feb. 26–28 at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas. The event is designed to cater to professionals in the consumer-driven health care industry. It will collocate with Prepaid Card Expo, which the company launched last year.

Because prepaid cards are being used by more institutions and across markets, Weiner said it made sense to have a show with all of the markets and financial institutions together.

The Prepaid Card Expo "included a highly successful track focused exclusively on CDHC," Weiner said. "With ... the overwhelming response to the health care track, we are launching the CDHC Expo as a standalone, collocated show to provide more content, deeper insight and better networking opportunities for CDHC insiders and the employers making key decisions on the future of their corporate benefits programs."