HIMSS appears to be getting bigger and bigger. There are 23,500
people here and over 800 exhibitors, but segregation is the watchword.
The big guys are downstairs in the main exhibit hall, while the smaller
companies are in an upstairs gulag. Cerner has perhaps the most
interesting approach,
taking a huge space in the middle of the hall, but featuring its
clients rather than itself. Several other big companies are hosting
smaller ones, with Microsoft devoting seemingly all its space to lots
of vendors who use Windows, and maybe one day Vista. Meanwhile, the
other Vista, as in the VA’s
system, is the core of Medsphere’s new offering for the mid-range
hospital market. CMO Scott Shreeve told me that "Epic is a Jaguar, but
not everyone can afford a Jaguar."

I’ll report more this week on wireless tracking, ePrescribing,
RHIOs, and interoperability–the IHE has a large part of the gulag
showing its interoperability forum. Brailer’s keynote yesterday
continued the inter-operability message.