Buyers seminar hi story

15 Years HIS-tory of: HIS Buyers Seminars

© 2015 by H.I.S. Professionals, LLC, all rights reserved.

By Vince Ciotti, PrincipalHIS Professionals, LLC

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!


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.


• 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…).

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.


• 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.

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…


• 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…

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.


• 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.”

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?


• 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…

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):


• 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.

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.


• 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!”

2001 Vendors, cont’d• Mike Freeman from HMS talking up

their IBM mini-based HIS that sold superbly to the many Nashville chains:


• 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.

2001 HIS Vendors• The last few pics I was able to translate from Apple’s QuickDraw:


• 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!

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: - [email protected] 505.466.4958

mailto:[email protected]

Buyers seminar hi story

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