Advancing Health IT and Behavioral Medicine: SBM’s Partnership with the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS)

Manal Baqer, PhD - SBM Organizational Partnership Committee and Industry Connections Committee

Digital technologies are widely used in the management of health conditions and are increasingly used by behavioral scientists in health research. The Society of Behavioral Medicine (SBM) has a sizable community of scholars who study topics related to digital health solutions, including academic scientists, clinicians, and behavioral medicine experts who work in industry settings like digital health companies. HIMSS, on the other hand, is a global leader in healthcare technology, with a focus on digital health transformation, interoperability, and healthcare business and management. HIMSS connects healthcare business leaders, providers, policymakers, and technologists with an aim of improving patient care. These interrelated interests led SBM to establish a non-profit partnership with HIMSS in 2021. This organizational partnership facilitates collaboration and shared knowledge across our professional communities to bridge the gap between health IT innovation and behavioral health research.

HIMSS has multiple benefits to offer SBM members, such as access to a vast network of experts, industry research business insights, and industry-leading annual events, such as the HIMSS Global Health Conference & Exhibition. In addition, HIMSS has numerous local and global chapters with their own conferences, workgroups, committees, and professional programming throughout the year. Similar to SBM, HIMSS has an online Resource Center that provides access to whitepapers and health-tech oriented webinars and certifications that can provide SBM members with unique health-tech industry knowledge and skills.

Since 2021, various SBM members have contributed to and fostered this partnership by collaborating on SBM-HIMSS projects such as conference symposia and publications. SBM and HIMSS also participate in cross-marketing both organizations’ annual conferences to their respective membership communities. The partnership further fosters interdisciplinary teamwork between healthcare IT specialists and healthcare business professionals and behavioral medicine researchers to support evidence-based digital health innovation and cross-disciplinary learning to produce effective solutions for patient care and public health. SBM members who wish to engage with HIMSS partnership can do so in numerous ways:

• Policy and Advocacy Opportunities: SBM members can contribute to shaping policies that support the integration of behavioral medicine into healthcare technology initiatives alongside HIMSS members.
• Cross-Disciplinary Collaboration: Be a part of interdisciplinary teams alongside healthcare IT and business experts to submit collaborative conference submissions to SBM and HIMSS annual conferences.
• HIMSS Learning Resources:  HIMSS offers Health IT-related online education and certifications and open-access newsletters featuring healthcare business and payer industry insights.

Finally, SBM professionals can attend HIMSS events to learn about the latest health technology trends and connect with healthcare business industry leaders. HIMSS Global Health Conference and Exhibition is held annually typically in the spring and a variety of other events are held throughout the year. If you have any questions about this partnership or have ideas for collaboration with HIMSS please send your query to our current liaison, Dr. Manal Baqer at info@sbm.org