Founded in 1961, the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) is a not-for-profitprofessional membership association that provides leadership in healthcare for the management of technology, information, and change through publications, educational opportunities, and member services. HIMSS has more than 41 chapters and more than 12,000 members working in healthcare organizations throughout the world. Members include healthcare professionals in hospitals, corporate healthcare systems, clinical practice groups, vendor organizations, healthcare consulting firms, and government settings in professional levels ranging from senior staff to CIOs and CEOs.

The Annual HIMSS Conference and Exhibition, the Society's educational cornerstone, is the largest in thehealthcare IT field.

The 2001 Annual HIMSS Conference and Exhibition will be held February 4-8, 2001, at the Ernest N. Morial

Convention Center in New Orleans, LA. Attendance is expected to surpass 17,000, more than 175 educational sessions will be presented, and nearly 800 vendors will showcase a wide variety of healthcare information technology-related products and services.

HIMSS annual professional education workshops and conferences offer members and industry professionals continuing education opportunities on specific topics.

The Internet-based, trend-tracking and data-collecting Annual HIMSS Leadership Survey represents theopinions of thousands of chief information officers, chief executive officers, senior managers, and consultants in the healthcare information and management systems and technology industries.

In 1997, HIMSS joined with the Center for Healthcare Information Management (CHIM), the College forHealthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME), the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA), and the American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA) to form the Joint Healthcare Information Technology Alliance (JHITA). The intent is to pursue a wide variety of objectives related to the common good of the alliance membership, including common advocacy efforts.

HIMSS works closely with the HIMSS Foundation, a separate, not-for-profit 501-(c)-(3) educational foundation that funds the Richard P. Covert Scholarship Program.