strategic Planning
HIMSS26 kicked off Tuesday in Las Vegas with informative keynotes and discussions on healthcare's hottest topics. Hear from HIMSS CEO Hal Wolf and catch some of the insights that leaders shared at the HIMSS TV Insider news booth.
Kaiser Permanente's Surya Shenoy and Jerri Westphal say that intelligent AI agents can help provide patient education and post-discharge support, but stress that nurses must guide content creation to avoid misinformation.
Anne Snowdon, HIMSS' chief scientific research officer, cautions that AI tools won't improve operations or care delivery unless the technology fits into existing workflows; clinicians and staff must also be trained in their use.
When a small practice suffers a cyberattack, recovery costs may force closures that leave communities without local care options, according to All Covered's Danielle Morrison.
Abhinav Shashank, Innovaccer CEO and cofounder, highlights the company's recently published manifesto, Autonomous Healthcare, and previews his upcoming HIMSS26 panel with other unicorn founders on tackling challenges in health tech.
Emerging Technologies
Esther Kim, head of emerging technologies at Mass General Brigham, shares how the health system evaluates new technologies and decides which innovations to explore while considering clinical need, operational feasibility and scalability.
Intermountain Health CISO Erik Decker talks about the SMART toolkit, which identifies critical healthcare functions so leaders can plan ways to keep their organizations running in case of cyberattacks.
According to Clearwater's Jackie Mattingly, sustainable cybersecurity funding for rural hospitals remains elusive, with many states allocating little to no Rural Health Transformation Program money to security.
Lakewood Health System's Jim Roeder says building regional alliances enables rural hospitals to share expertise, strengthen defenses and keep care available when cyber incidents happen.
While HIMSS Media editors anticipate that AI will be used in every layer of healthcare's tech stack in 2026, they stress that governance and human oversight are essential to ensure AI works safely at scale.