Giving Compass' Take:

• Casey Ross reports that tech giants including Amazon, Google, and Microsoft are showing growing interest in health IT. 

• What does it mean for companies to be involved in health IT? How can funders work to make sure that improvements in healthcare benefit patients? 

• Learn about the growing influence of tech companies in healthcare. 

Once a meeting of a few thousand health technology insiders, the annual conference of the Healthcare Information Management Systems Society (HIMSS) now attracts more than 40,000 attendees and some of the world’s biggest companies.

It is a place where the ambitions of Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and other tech giants converge — and sometimes clash — before an audience of doctors, politicians, and hospital executives. As opposed to years past, when the embrace of digital health was more tentative, those audience members are now enthusiastically encouraging the tech companies’ incursions into hospital operations and clinical care.

This year’s gathering is expected to offer real evidence of that shift: Several titans of tech and telecommunications, as well as smaller startups, will offer case studies of how their products — from algorithms, to smart speakers, to cloud software applications — are being incorporated into medical practices across the country. Google executives alone will participate in more than 20 panel discussions and presentations.

Read the full article about growing interest in health IT by Casey Ross at STAT.