An Exhausting Week

And exasperating, and exhilarating. I am so ready to get home and get some sleep. I spent the last four days getting up at 5:30, only to be frustrated 15 minutes later when the regs weren't there. This was exasperating. Having 2 hours of unsused time, it was too late to go back to sleep. Following that was an exhausting day running from one hotel to another, then to the booth, then upstairs, downstairs, and all around the square. There were as many or more important hallway (or ailse-way) conversations as there were pre-planned meetings, and the former were often the most important. My last customer contact of the day promised to call me later with her MU questions, and the one just before that had some excellent questions about whether you had to use the required certification criteria [direct], or could use the optional method [exchange] to support transfers of summary data. I'll talk about that next week after I've had a chance to read the Standards and Certification rule (the short answer is either).

We (ONC S&I Query Health Implementation workgroup members) presented on our current progress implementing the Query Health specifications, and drew very large crowds at both the ONC and Interoperability Showcase booths. I also presented along with colleages and partners on important work moving forward on Clinical Decision support using the HL7 InfoButton standards. I spend hours meeting with policy makers and influencers at numerous opportunities presented by the EHRA and through other opportunities just because it was HIMSS12.

As I sit now, recovering from the show in DC, waiting to get to Boston, I'm missing all the people that I got to spend time with last week. HIMSS is, as I've said previously, the culmination of one year, and the start of the next. As with any such marker, I am relieved by what is behind me (e.g., the Query Health demo), and anticipating the future (e.g., Stage 2 standards).