Why Some Well being IT Leaders Ought to Skip HIMSS26 (Even when they’ve beloved HIMSS prior to now)

I’ve been to HIMSS. Greater than as soon as.

I’ve walked the exhibit flooring till my ft harm, sat in packed classes scribbling notes, ducked into impromptu hallway conferences that become significant conversations, and felt that acquainted rush that comes from being surrounded by 1000’s of people that imagine—earnestly—that know-how can nonetheless repair healthcare.

HIMSS is superb.

It’s large. It’s energizing. It’s not like anything in well being IT.

And that’s precisely the issue.

For a rising variety of well being IT leaders, HIMSS has quietly crossed a line—from helpful immersion to overwhelming extra. Not as a result of the convention has failed, however as a result of the realities of healthcare IT management have modified quicker than the convention mannequin itself.

The size that when impressed now exhausts

There was a time when the sheer measurement of HIMSS felt obligatory. Healthcare IT was fragmented. Leaders wanted a single place to see all the pieces directly, distributors, requirements our bodies, policymakers, friends, futurists, all below one roof.

Right this moment, that very same scale can really feel paralyzing.

The exhibit corridor alone is an train in cognitive overload. A whole lot of distributors, many providing overlapping options, every promising transformation. Periods compete for consideration, typically scheduled concurrently, forcing leaders to decide on between equally related (or equally imprecise) discussions.

As an alternative of readability, many leaders go away with:

• Extra enterprise playing cards than insights
• Extra concepts than execution capability
• Extra follow-ups than time

In an trade already drowning in complexity, “all the pieces directly” is not a characteristic—it’s friction.

The fee dialog has develop into unavoidable

Well being IT leaders are being scrutinized in methods they weren’t even 5 years in the past. Each journey, each convention, each line merchandise now carries weight.

HIMSS isn’t only a registration payment. It’s airfare, motels at premium pricing, meals, transportation, and—most expensively—time away from methods that don’t pause as a result of a CIO is in Las Vegas.

For leaders who’re:

• Below stress to regulate spend
• Managing leaner groups
• Answering immediately for outcomes

The query isn’t whether or not HIMSS is “price it” in concept. It’s whether or not it delivers measurable, defensible worth relative to smaller, extra focused alternate options.

More and more, that reply isn’t automated.

The content material downside isn’t high quality—it’s distance from actuality

HIMSS classes are polished. Considerate. Typically well-produced.

However many well being IT leaders don’t wrestle with imaginative and prescient. They wrestle with execution.

They know AI is coming. They know interoperability issues. They know cybersecurity threats are escalating. What they need assistance with are the unglamorous questions:

• How will we combine this with out breaking workflows?
• How will we unwind a nasty vendor choice?
• How will we get clinicians to belief the system once more?
• How will we govern knowledge when nobody agrees who owns it?

These conversations are tougher to stage on a large platform. They don’t lend themselves to tidy panels or sponsor-friendly narratives. Consequently, the content material can really feel more and more disconnected from the messiness leaders live daily.

Vendor optimism vs. operator actuality

HIMSS is, by necessity, vendor-forward. That doesn’t make it illegitimate—however it does form the expertise.

The present flooring is designed to focus on what’s attainable, not what’s painful. Failure tales are uncommon. Lengthy-term penalties are softened. Complexity is abstracted.

For leaders who spend their days coping with:

• Implementation overruns
• Contract fatigue
• Integration debt
• Submit-go-live remorse

The disconnect might be jarring. The optimism doesn’t all the time really feel dishonest—however it typically feels incomplete.

AI has moved from pleasure to fatigue

AI will dominate HIMSS26. That’s not hypothesis—it’s certainty.

However many well being IT leaders have moved previous pleasure into discernment. They aren’t asking what AI can do. They’re asking the place it breaks, who owns the chance, and the way they’ll be held accountable when it fails.

HIMSS excels at showcasing chance. It struggles to dwell in upkeep, governance, and rollback plans. Inspiration is plentiful. Operational steering just isn’t.

In 2026, that imbalance issues.

Time away is not impartial

4 days at HIMSS isn’t simply 4 days out of the workplace—it’s 4 days of deferred selections, delayed approvals, and unanswered questions.

In a world of fixed system stress, staffing shortages, and clinician burnout, time away carries an actual operational price. Leaders are more and more asking whether or not that price is justified when related insights might be gained by way of:

• Smaller govt boards
• Peer networks
• Targeted vendor briefings
• Curated, closed-door discussions

Skipping HIMSS isn’t a rejection—it’s a recalibration

Not attending HIMSS not alerts disengagement.

For a lot of, it alerts self-discipline.

It says: I do know what HIMSS presents. I’ve been there. I’ve benefited from it. However this yr, my group wants depth over breadth, execution over publicity, and outcomes over inspiration.

That’s not cynicism. That’s management.

A closing observe—earlier than the emails arrive

HIMSS26 shall be proper for some leaders. It should nonetheless ship worth for particular objectives, roles, and moments in a corporation’s lifecycle.

However it ought to not be handled as necessary.

Generally probably the most strategic choice a well being IT chief could make isn’t exhibiting as much as the largest occasion within the room—it’s realizing when much less is definitely extra.