ABSTRACT
This chapter summarizes the history of Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) to give readers a glimpse into how HIMSS was formed and how it came to be known as potentially the world’s largest not-for-profit healthcare information technology professional society. HIMSS was founded on the thesis that an organized exchange of experience among members and other interested parties could promote a better understanding of the principles underlying hospital management systems and could develop new principles for improving the skills of the person who directs hospital programs and the practitioner who analyzes, designs, or improves hospital systems. In collaboration with information and management colleagues at Georgia Tech and the University of Connecticut, a questionnaire was designed to test the extent of interest in forming a new society. The mission of HIMSS is to transform healthcare through the best use of information technology.
