Last week I was in Las Vegas attending what's basically the most important show of the year for health IT types: the 2012 annual meeting of the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society.

It was held at the Venetian Sands Expo Center, one of those places that I think can only exist in Vegas. If you haven't been, it's a sprawling complex made to look like Venice, complete with indoor gondola rides.

HIMSS says more than 37,032 people showed up, almost 18 percent more than came last year. You could tell. On the first day and last day there were so many people you could hardly move.

This was my first time at HIMSS. I've been going to conferences and meetings for years, and I can honestly say HIMSS had the most engaged attendees I've ever met. Everywhere you went people were talking about nothing but health IT: its challenges, opportunities, products, problems. I had dozens of conversations and overheard hundreds more.

The complete engagement of everyone around me made it really obvious: This industry is on fire.

I'm off now to the (real) Vienna for the European Congress of Radiology's annual show, the biggest event in the year for Europe's diagnostic imaging community. Check back later in the week to find out my impressions.



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