The Dish: HIMSS26 Recap: What You Need to Know

This episode of The Dish on Health IT, hosted by Tony Sheath of Point of Care Partners, recaps key insights from HIMSS26, one of the largest health IT conferences in the world. The panel—featuring Brian Bamberger, Vanessa, and Brian Dwyer—discusses the convergence of AI, interoperability infrastructure, and policy as the dominant forces shaping healthcare technology. A major theme is the shift from AI as a buzzword to practical, workflow-integrated tools, particularly in prior authorization, patient data quality, and rare disease care. The discussion emphasizes that while AI shows promise, its success hinges on high-quality, structured data and robust interoperability frameworks like FHIR, DaVinci, and TEFCA. The panel also highlights the growing momentum around patient cost transparency, rural health transformation, and the critical role of trust, identity, and consent in enabling data exchange. Despite progress, challenges remain in execution, stakeholder alignment, and workforce adaptation, with a strong consensus that the next 12–18 months will be pivotal for closing the 'last mile' in interoperability and realizing tangible patient and operational benefits. Key takeaways include: 1) Prior authorization is nearing operational readiness, but requires payer-provider reconciliation and standardized criteria; 2) AI’s real value lies in targeted, practical applications—not broad automation; 3) Interoperability is now infrastructure, not vision, and must be built on trust, identity, and data quality; 4) Rural health transformation is gaining momentum through grants and data-sharing initiatives; 5) Human-centered design and workforce engagement are essential for successful technology adoption. The overall sentiment is optimistic yet grounded, reflecting cautious confidence in the industry’s trajectory.