Hard agree, and not just because I'm a spreadsheet nerd. Why are we all here? Isn't it in the service…
From HIMSS 4/17/23
I arrived in Chicago in mid-afternoon Monday to lingering snow flurries, whipping wind, temperature in the high 30s, and near chaos in the O’Hare rideshare pickup area that made me glad to have a coat for the wait (unlike several guys wearing shorts and tee shirts featuring understandable but definitely undesirable nipplage). The warm-up starts Tuesday, however, with Thursday topping out in the low 70s, which is likely where weather comparisons to RSNA’s post-Thanksgiving weekend diverge. The view outside looked like six weeks ago in warmer Southern climes, with budding and flowering trees that are surely confused given that Chicago hit a record high of 82 just a couple of days ago.
Many folks on my flight were also headed to HIMSS23, and unlike me, were bubbly and loud in talking shop with their fellow conference travelers. They were all exhibitor people, so maybe they were getting warmed up for glad-handing. I’m staying in a quite nice, and nicely located, River North hotel at excellent HIMSS rates. Dinner was my first time having chicken Vesuvio, which was so fantastic despite its simplicity that I’ll try making it at home. I’m indifferent to Chicago hot dogs compared to Southern chili dogs, I’m not a fan of the underbaked dough lasagna called deep dish pizza, and I’ve yet to try Italian beef although I suspect I would like it a lot. I enjoy Garrett’s and Nuts on Clark popcorn, but not enough to pay the asking price. I also like the Walnut Room and Frango mints from the former Marshall Fields before Macy’s dragged them down a bit, at least from past visits, but I doubt I’ll head down to State Street this time around.
I haven’t even looked at the agenda, but my HIMSS23 plan for the week is simple: get my badge early Tuesday in hoping for shorter lines than last year, wander about the exhibit hall Tuesday and Wednesday, and try to overhear conversations that aren’t intended for me since those are more interesting. I’ll decide Wednesday evening whether it’s worth going again Thursday and then just walk around Chicago if not, heading home Friday.
I need eyes and ears out there because of my slothfulness while all the eager beavers are racing madly from one spot to another and stacking up social events with higher confidence levels than mine that something interesting awaits, so let me know if you hear or see anything important. I’ve been to enough HIMSS conferences to know that other than a few pre-timed announcements early in the week, nothing all that newsworthy happens there, and sites that try to cover it like real news usually end up trying to make lame press releases sound relevant.
I can’t decide: is the HIMSS23 slogan of “Health that Connects + Tech that Cares” calculatedly clever or does it try a bit too hard to deny being a boat show and fall short?
News
Microsoft and Epic announce that they will work together to bring generative AI into Epic’s applications via Azure OpenAI Service. UC San Diego Health, UW Health, and Stanford Health Care are already using an initial solution that automatically drafts message responses. Another solution will add natural language queries and interactive data analysis to Epic’s SlicerDicer self-service reporting tool.
In Japan, investigation of a hospital ransomware attack finds that NEC used the same username and password for thousands of user devices and EHR servers, assuming that front-ending the login process with a user’s smart card would secure the system by hiding the password in what it incorrectly thought was a system that wasn’t connected to the outside world. More than half of the 280 hospitals that are users of that EHR were found to have the same username and password.
Announcements
Medhost announces a Rural Emergency Hospital package.
Intelligent Medical Objects announces IMO Studio, a cloud-based platform for clinical terminologies, code sets, and data quality whose rollout will start with in July Epic customers.
EClinicalWorks will integrate its EHR/PM solutions with ChatGPT, cognitive services, and machine learning models from Azure OpenAI Service.
People
Ellkay promotes Ajay Kapare, MBA to president and chief strategy officer. He replaces co-founder Lior Hod, who will transition to chief culture officer.
Health Data Movers hires Darin Ryder (Continuum Health IT) as VP of client services.
1. deep-dish pizza is a culinary abomination, just for tourists. Tavern-style is our true self.
2. River North is ok for food, but head over to eater chicago . com for food porn
3. I believe, Mr. H, you would be a fan of the empty bottle
4. Where did you go for vesuvio?
Agree on the tavern-cut pizza. Cracker-thin crust and spicy sausage all day long.
But, a beef wet hot (Italian beef with extra gravy and hot giardinara) is still the best Chicago food. Even the chains do it well. Find a Portillo’s, Buona or (ideally) an Al’s and don’t tell your cardiologist.
Thanks for the explanation!
I still think “wet beef” sounds so very, very wrong. But you gave me enough information to start to make some sense. And now I know what giardinara is!
And what is wet beef after all? Are we talking a beef dip here?
Depending on the location “wet” will mean with extra gravy ladled on the sandwich or even the whole sandwich dipped in the gravy. Although some places will call this “dipped” or “soaked. The more gravy, the messier the sandwich.
And the gravy is akin to au jous of a french dip. It’s. It thickened.
I was wondering how Italian beef differs from the LA versions such as Philippe’s “French dipped sandwich.” I’ve never had that either, but their website says you can get it “single-dipped, double-dipped, or wet” and they add cheese by default. It’s interesting that both sandwiches use another country’s name even though they are purely American inventions and neither is flavored in any way like something you would recognize in Italy or France.
I read an article a couple of weeks ago in the New York Times about tavern pizza, even how to make it — low-moisture dough mix, formed into think pizza shells that are left uncovered in the refrigerator overnight to dry out even more for a crackly crust. Cut into small squares like bars do to encourage communal eating that is followed by profitable communal drinking. I couldn’t find an obvious place to get it in River North.
I took your advice and walked to Al’s Italian Beef on N. Wells for an early dinner this afternoon. Beef wet with sweet peppers and a large side of stellar hand-cut fries. Definitely a winner, so thanks for the recommendation. Probably not the kind of place that HIMSS expense accounters would patronize, so even better.
I got the Vesuvio from Harry Caray’s Italian Steakhouse, which was an obvious choice both because of reputation and because it was a short, snowy, blowy walk from the hotel. The free homemade potato chips in the bar were also excellent.
That NYT article was by the great J. Kanji Lopez-Alt. He’s a great food writer and he makes cooking at home so approachable. I’m anxious to try his pizza recipe. I follow him in Instagram and he spent a lot of time developing it.
I’m glad you enjoyed the beef. It’s hands down my favorite Chicago food.
1. ditto on tavern style pizza
2. beef and sausage combo wise choice but haven’t been in the loop in ages now with remote work and no idea where to go for one there
I suggest, time permitting, take an Uber to The Purple Pig on Michigan Ave. Has always been one of our favorite places (small plates/tapas style). If you are a red wine drinker, highly recommend Babic (it’s a wine from Croatia).
Enjoy my home town!