nurse in scrubs holding laptop displaying the words NURSING INFORMATICS Content free?

April 14, 2025 -- I've been attending HIMSS conferences, conventions, and trade shows for years (see 4/14/2025, 4/15/2015, 4/23/2015, 4/5/2016, 6/13/2019, etc.) and enjoy rubbing shoulders with the movers and shakers but frankly I always emerge baffled by the content-free nature of these events.

For example, today's was entitled, "Shaping Tomorrow's Care: The Essential Role of Nursing Informatics" and all the talks enthusiastically promoted this professional discipline, one that I, too, embrace.

But where's the beef?

None of the talks offered any technical details (tools and techniques; how we actually do the work) but rather offered platitudes such as, "...the pivotal role of nursing informatics in shaping the future of healthcare." We were exhorted to "...explore how data-driven insights and technology integration are revolutionizing patient care..." and so on.

On the other hand, among the expert panelists were a couple of my heroes, Karen Hunter and Kay Burke (CNIO at my alma mater UCSF), with both of whom I've served in our Bay Area Chapter of the American Nursing Informatics Association (ANIA).

I guess HIMS meetings are for networking and marketing, not skills growth. My bad.