While University Row has been a part of the annual HIMSS conferences for several years, this year the exhibit is in a higher-profile location: Lobby B of the Orange County Convention Center, near the Hall WB1 entrance.

“University Row has been kind of tucked away in the past,” said Mara Daiker, senior manager of professional development at HIMSS. “This year, though, we wanted to move it to a high-traffic lobby space so more attendees are aware of it.”

The special exhibit allows attendees to learn about more than 20 educational institutions with degree programs in fields related to health information technology at the community college, baccalaureate, graduate and doctoral program levels. Educational representatives will be available to answer questions throughout the conference.

“If you’re a student or a potential student, you have an opportunity to literally walk down a line of different universities and speak to representatives and get information that you can sit down with at a later time and compare the programs,” said Maggie Van Vossen, manager of professional development at HIMSS. “You can get a lot of information in a very short amount of time.”

Even as technology is beginning to transform healthcare by enabling interoperability, more collaborative care, and better patient monitoring and interaction, a shortage of healthcare IT professionals threatens to hamper progress.

In response, educational institutions have developed degree and certificate programs at the associate’s, bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral levels for health informatics and health information technology.

The institutions with booths at HIMSS17 are:

·      American Public University

·      Arizona State University

·      CAHIIM (Commission on Accreditation for Health Informatics and Information Management Education)

·      Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Division of Health Sciences Informatics

·      MUSC College of Health Professions

·      Oregon Health & Science University

·      Sacred Heart University

·      Temple University Health Information Management Department

·      Texas State University

·      University of Alabama at Birmingham

·      University of California

·      University of Central Florida

·      University of Connecticut

·      University of Illinois at Chicago

·      University of Missouri-Health Management & Informatics

·      University of New England

·      University of St. Augustine For Health Sciences

·      University of San Diego Online Health Informatics Program

·      University of South Carolina Integrated Information Technology

·      Weill Cornell University

HIMSS17 runs from Feb. 19-23, 2017 at the Orange County Convention Center.

This article is part of our ongoing coverage of HIMSS17. Visit Destination HIMSS17 for previews, reporting live from the show floor and after the conference.

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