Participate in HIMSS 2024 — Building the Future of Health IT I brought a practical summary of what is already being implemented in the most advanced ecosystems of Health IT. The visit took place with the entourage of Brazilian Association of Health CIOs (ABCIS), with the objective of identifying trends applicable to the Brazilian context, with a direct impact on operations, compliance, and the experience of patients and beneficiaries.
Why HIMSS 2024 is relevant to Brazil
The event delved into how health organizations are reorganizing clinical and administrative processes based on three operational pillars:
- decisions supported by data in closer to real time
- reduction of friction in service and backoffice flows
- integration and security governance, given the increase in cyber risk in the sector
These pillars guide investments in solutions that connect journeys (patient, beneficiary, and provider) with less fragmentation of information between systems.
Main trends observed at HIMSS 2024
1) Artificial Intelligence applied to diagnosis and clinical decision support
AI appears as an accelerator of productivity and quality on fronts such as:
- support for identifying patterns in clinical tests and signs
- decision support based on patient history and contextual data
- prioritization of cases and more efficient screenings in environments with high demand
For IT and innovation teams, the practical implication is the need to define data governance (sources, quality, traceability, and auditing) before expanding the use of scaled models.
2) Automation of administrative tasks
The most recurring operational gain is the automation of routines that put pressure on cost and SLA, including:
- opening, classification, and forwarding of demands
- status update and proactive communication with the patient
- consolidation of histories and records to reduce rework
In practice, well-implemented automation depends on process design, integration with legacy systems, and clear metrics (average time, abandonment, recontact, and resolution).
3) Personalized care and treatment plans
Personalization is accompanied by a focus on resource efficiency and outcomes. The observed movement involves:
- patient stratification by risk and need profile
- adaptable protocols that combine clinical guidelines and individual context
- continuous monitoring with interaction and telemonitoring data
This approach increases the requirement for integration of clinical and relationship data, preventing preferences and history from being scattered across multiple tools.
4) Interoperability and data security in health
Interoperability was treated as a condition for continuity of care, reduction of history gaps, and better coordination between areas and organizations.
Patrícia Hatae summarized the expected effect: “This will allow the professionals involved to have a complete view of the patient's medical history, which may lead to better care.”
From an execution point of view, the topic advances with security for a direct reason: the greater the flow of data between systems, the greater the risk surface. The event reinforced practical priorities:
- access policies and identities with the least possible privilege
- controls to reduce incident impact (segmentation, backup, response)
- recurring training to reduce human vulnerabilities (phishing and social engineering)
5) TeleHealth and Virtual Health with a focus on scale and continuity
Telehealth growth remains strong, with emphasis on:
- expanded use of video calls in appointments and follow-ups
- applications with operational utility (scheduling, reminders, guidelines)
- telemonitoring to reduce the cost of care and expand coverage
The most relevant operational point observed in HIMSS 2024 is the need to integrate telehealth with the rest of the journey, avoiding an “isolated channel” with no history and no connection with internal processes.
Practical Implications for Health, IT, and CX Leaders
Based on the trends, some decisions are more objective for 2024—2026 in Brazilian organizations:
- Map the journey and critical data: where the history is lost, where there is recontact and where the patient leaves the flow.
- Prioritize integrations with governance: interoperability with clear rules, logs, and audit trails.
- Automate with operation goals: define which SLAs and costs should fall, before choosing technology.
- Plan safety as a product requirement: incorporate controls from the design, especially in initiatives with AI and sensitive data.
- Connect digital channels to human service: unified history to reduce repetition, noise, and unnecessary transfer.
Application in the Brazilian context: technology to support service
The return of HIMSS 2024 reinforced a practical direction for health transformation projects: investing in technology that increases human care capacity, reduces friction in processes, and produces actionable data at scale.
In the case of the supplementary and hospital health ecosystem, this translates into initiatives that unify communication, history, and demand management at multiple points of contact, with attention to privacy and security.
Questions to guide internal planning
- What stages of the patient's journey have the most feedback and the longest wait time today?
- Where do teams lose track record due to fragmented systems and channels?
- What administrative processes already have sufficient volume and standards for secure automation?
- What integrations are necessary for telehealth to work as a continuity of care?
- What security controls are mandatory before expanding the use of AI with sensitive data?
HIMSS 2024: projects with governance and metrics
HIMSS 2024 showed a consistent acceleration in AI in health, automation, interoperability, and virtual health. For Brazilian organizations, the opportunity lies in transforming these trends into projects with a controlled scope, operational metrics, and data governance, ensuring safe evolution and clinical consistency.
What do you consider to be a priority in the short term: administrative automation, interoperability, integrated telehealth, or cases of AI applied to care?
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
What is HIMSS?
It is one of the leading global Health IT events, focusing on technology, management, data, and innovation for the health sector.
What were the main trends of HIMSS 2024?
AI applied to clinical diagnosis and support, administrative automation, personalization of care, interoperability focusing on unified history, cybersecurity, and telehealth/virtual health expansion.
Why is interoperability important in healthcare?
Because it reduces loss of history, improves care coordination, and provides visibility for multidisciplinary teams, provided that there is access and security governance.
How did telehealth evolve in HIMSS 2024?
Focusing on continuity of care, integration with systems, and greater use of telemonitoring for scale and efficiency.
