So this was my first HIMSS conference. I've attended many AMIA conferences. The major difference from the more academic-oriented AMIA is that HIMSS is a vendor shin dig with booth babes, unbelievably gaudy and enormous vendor booths, the smell of big money and major speakers like Steve Ballmer, Colin Powell, Michael Leavitt and Steven Covey.

The good news is that there is a Free and Open Source presence! The VistA Software Alliance, Medsphere had booths as well as the Tolven group giving an amazing presentation. OpenEMR has come back to life as well after several years of dormancy.

The bad news is that I attended a disappointing talk by Paul Tibbits, VA deputy CIO for enterprise development and judging by the presentation, the VA is in for a long dry spell of centralization and in my opinion is not likely to have substantial innovation for sometime.

As well, there was the big Medsphere open sourcing announcement. But the lawsuits continue, making the ability of Medsphere to lead in the future in doubt.

Secretary of Health and Human Services Michael Leavitt's talk indicated that CCHIT certification is being pushed hard and according to him, 55 vendors have qualified.

Colin Powell talk was great. His connection with Health IT is that he is a limited partner in revolution health which is in a space that is starting to have a surprising amount of competitors (incluing a company I'm involved in called Your Doctor Program) but with the usual fragmentation and lack of consensus.

All in all, it was great to see a FOSS presence at an overwhelmingly and historically proprietary show. Freedom appears to be on the march.

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