HIMSS was organized in 1961 as the Hospital Management Systems Society, an independent, unincorporated, nonprofit association of individuals. The society was co-founded by Edward J. Gerner and Harold E. Smalley. In late 1961, the constitution of the HIMSS was drafted and approved, and in 1962, the first national convention was held in Baltimore. In 1963, the second national HIMSS convention was held in Chicago, and the following year the HIMSS national headquarters were moved there. In 1967, the Bylaws, Rules and Regulations of HIMSS were written and approved. By 1982, HIMSS had 15 affiliated chapters. In 1986, the HIMSS was renamed to include "Information" in the title. By 1996, membership had grown to 7,500., HIMSS has more than 80,000 individual members. Its annual conference was attended by more than 42,000 in Orlando, Florida.
Governance
Elected by the membership, the HIMSS Board of Directors serve a three-year term. "Hal" Wolf III was named president and CEO on July 26, 2017. He succeeded H. Stephen Lieber, who had served in those positions since 2000.
HIMSS' Electronic Medical Record Adoption Model is the most widely used assessment of digital excellence in healthcare internationally. The model goes from Stage 0 to Stage 7 and describes the adoption and use of electronic health records by hospitals. Stage 7 includes no use of paper charts and computerized provider order entry and clinical decision support systems are used in over 90% of the hospital. HIMSS Stage 7 remains an uncommon achievement. In 2018, 6% of hospitals in the US had achieved HIMSS Stage 7. There are various related frameworks.
Industry collaboration
Along with the Radiological Society of North America, HIMSS is a sponsor of the Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise initiative. HIMSS is also home to the Electronic Health Records Association. Supported by both the American Medical Informatics Association and HIMSS, the Alliance for Nursing Informatics represents more than 2,000 nurses and brings together 18 distinct nursing informatics groups that function independently. With 76 partnering organizations, HIMSS sponsors National Health IT Week, a collaborative forum during which key healthcare constituents - vendors, provider organizations, payors, pharmaceutical/biotech companies, governmental agencies, industry/professional associations, research foundations, and consumer protection groups - work together to elevate national attention to the necessity of greater health IT adoption. On January 16, 2019, the company announced the sale of its HIMSS Analytics platform to Definitive Healthcare.
Events
March 9 - 13, 2020: HIMSS Global Health Conference and Exhibition, Orlando, Florida. The conference has been canceled due to the coronavirus outbreak.
February 11, 2019 - February 15, 2019: Global Conference and Exhibition, Orlando, Florida
February 19, 2017 - February 23, 2017: Annual HIMSS Conference 2017, Orlando, FL
