1. 15 Years HIS-tory of:
HIS Buyers Seminars
© 2015 by H.I.S. Professionals, LLC, all rights reserved.
By Vince Ciotti, Principal
HIS Professionals, LLC

2. More Vendor HIS-tory
• It’s strange to be the subject of a HIS-tory
episode oneself, but this year marks the 15th
year of our HIS Buyers Seminars, and a
review of them highlights how this industry
has changed so much in such a short time.
• Just the fact that we’re having one again in
2015 shows how hot the market has now
become as hospitals are finally getting over
their MU fixation and are going to market to
change HIS and EHR systems once again.
• This episode will cover how the seminars
got started back in 1998, how rapidly the
vendor landscape has changed since, and
feature some of the oldest digital photos!
© 2015 by H.I.S. Professionals, LLC, all rights reserved.

3. An Early “Cernover”
• Credit for the seminar idea belongs to a former
member of our firm, HIS guru and frequent HIStalk
contributor: Frank Poggio. You may remember our
HIStory episode about Frank’s pioneering PC-based
HIS from Health Micro Data Systems (HMDS), that
sold over 100 small hospitals in the 1990s before
being bought by LIS vendor Citation, also on PCs.
• Both were bought by LIS giant Cerner in 1998, who
had just started selling their “Millennium HNA”
clinical systems during the pre-Y2K purchasing frenzy
and decided to sunset both systems in favor of HNA.
© 2015 by H.I.S. Professionals, LLC, all rights reserved.
• Frank left Cerner, went into consulting on his own, and contacted
me about joining him in a “Buyers Seminar” for his HMDS client
hospitals (out of deference to such an old friend, I won’t show any
recent pictures of Frank, but just this high-school portrait…).

4. Brilliant Idea!
• In deference to his many clients whose CFOs were personal
friends, Frank wanted to offer them help in figuring out what the
alternative vendors were, their financial vs. clinical product lines,
and how to do a system selection and contract negotiations.
© 2015 by H.I.S. Professionals, LLC, all rights reserved.
• In 1998, HIMSS was already a huge event, with
thousands of attendees and long lines at vendor
booths, per these photos taken with my Sony
digital camera at their ‘98 conference in Orlando.
• Frank envisioned a small seminar, with only tables
for vendor demos (no booths), and an audience
limited to those HMDS hospitals who had to buy
a system before the looming doomsday of Y2K.
• For vendors who struggle to qualify prospects as
being true buyers or not, it was an ideal set-up.

5. A Unique Approach
• Unlike the thousands of attendees at HIMSS (many of whom are
students, consultants & vendors), we got “only” 60 people from
≈25 HMDS hospitals who were buying to attend, which is about
the number of prospects a vendor gets from HIMSS anyway…
© 2015 by H.I.S. Professionals, LLC, all rights reserved.
• We split the 2-day seminar into two rooms: a
lecture hall where each vendor got a ½ hour
to present their firm & product lines,
• And an large exhibit hall where vendors
each set up a table for one-on-one
demos during coffee breaks and meals.
• We also presented our shticks on system
selections, contract negotiations, and
implementation do’s & don’ts…

6. Carrying the Torch
• Frank’s consulting interest drifted back toward the vendor world
that he knew so well, several of whom hired him in interim
executive positions, leaving us the hospital consulting business.
© 2015 by H.I.S. Professionals, LLC, all rights reserved.
• The original seminar was such a
success, we repeated one every
year thereafter, following the
same format & approach.
• In 2001, the seminars were so
successful we actually held them
in 3 different cities as can be seen
in this incredibly old Microsoft
“Works” file of our brochure that I
had to spend hours trying to
translate into today’s “Word.”

7. Sad Time in History…
• If your eyesight is good enough, you can read in the mailer on the
preceding page that one of our 2001 Buyers Seminars was held in
NYC on September 20 & 21. Does that date ring a (sad) bell?
© 2015 by H.I.S. Professionals, LLC, all rights reserved.
• It was right after the
infamous 9/11 attack on
the World Trade Center!
• When I landed at Newark
airport and was driving
into the city, I took this
shot with my digital Sony
camera of the Manhattan
skyline, with the sad gap
downtown that the WTC
used to dominate…

8. Leading Vendors Back Then
• So just who were the leading vendors back in 2001? Here’s more
pics from my ancient Sony camera showing the vendor dudes &
dollies giving demos of their HIS systems (no EHRs back then):
© 2015 by H.I.S. Professionals, LLC, all rights reserved.
• Harvey Wilson’s hot name for his
new vendor that “eclipsed” the old
TDS and BICS systems, re-wrote them
under modern technology and with a
product name that was a stunning
pun on the other vendors’ “sunsets!”
• Super-salesman Rollie Suprenant
manned the IDX booth just a few years
before they were acquired by GE and
renamed as part of their complex
“Centricity” product suite; Rollie’s now
with Allscripts, who acquired Eclipsys.

9. More 2001 Vendors
• CPSI’s booth drew a lot of attention for
demos of their “CPSI System;” this year
they renamed both as Evident & Thrive.
© 2015 by H.I.S. Professionals, LLC, all rights reserved.
• McKesson was still known as
“McKessonHBOC” back then. They
dropped the last 4 letters soon after
when it was revealed how HBOC
cooked the books a bit before
McKesson (over)spent on them…
• Dairyland’s booth back in the day, before
they re-named themselves Healthland.
Interesting how their products were
known as “solutions” even back then.
Today, every vendor rep is trained in
“Solution Selling” – no more “products!”

10. 2001 Vendors, cont’d
• Mike Freeman from HMS talking up
their IBM mini-based HIS that sold
superbly to the many Nashville chains:
© 2015 by H.I.S. Professionals, LLC, all rights reserved.
• Rick Opry on the left at IntraNexus’
booth. Rick did a great business for
years supporting many of SMS’
sunset Allegra clients, built his own
HIS/EHR, which he sold to NextGen.
• Speaking of NextGen, here’s the roots of
their hospital EHR system: Opus, formed
by Tim Rhoads & Fred Beck back in the
90s. They built it for Universal Health
Systems in PA, then sold it to NextGen who
also acquired Florian Weiland’s Sphere.

11. 2001 HIS Vendors
• The last few pics I was able to translate from Apple’s QuickDraw:
© 2015 by H.I.S. Professionals, LLC, all rights reserved.
• Keane’s booth back when Ray
Paris still ruled from Melville. They
were eventually sold to Caritor,
and are now owned by NTT Data,
still offering the superb “PatCom”
revenue cycle system from PHS
days, now part of Optimum.
• We even did an “LIS Buyers Seminar”
back in 2001, when that niche was
especially hot for Soft, Sunquest, etc.
• It’s a little hard to make out in this picture, but we ended the
seminars with a panel discussion among vendors – Cerner
didn’t participate, so competitors mocked their empty chair!

12. 15-Years of Vendor HIStory
• So there you have it,
how the vendor
landscape has evolved
from 2000 to today, over
15 years of HIS Buyers
Seminars: eight of the
top 11 vendors have
either changed names
and/or been acquired.
• What will it look like in
another 15 years!?
• I’m sure I missed a few things, so if you have any questions or
even older digital pictures of HIS-tory you’d share, contact:
- vciotti@hispros.com 505.466.4958