George Bush was the keynote speaker yesterday at HIMSS in Chicago at McCormick Place. As expected and appropriate, the Secret Service detail was at-the-ready to ensure the President’s safety and security. 

In the morning, members of the press were told by HIMSS’s communications staff that we would be able to watch the speech, live streamed, in the press room, able to cover the event in detail: words have meaning, and many of us were keen to hear how this President, who ushered in the early era of electronic health records, viewed healthcare and information technology then, and now. A fascinating story to come, right? 

Your intrepid Health Populi blogger (that would be me) made her way to the press room in plenty of time to get a spot near the screen to hear every word President Bush would say. Unfortunately, that best-laid-and-executed plan was foiled by the President’s security detail, who shut off the live feed due to concerns of some sort. I’ve no idea what those were. 

Thus, you will not have a post from me as I’ve written in detail the past two days for the President of Walgreens and the President of Humana. 

President Bush’s thoughts on health, life, and EHRs in 2015 won’t appear in Health Populi the way Hillary Clinton’s speech did from HIMSS 2014, on 26 February 2014. 

Ironically, that blog post was found in an online search by a writer, Zaid Jilani, covering H. Clinton on the campaign trail. He contacted me by email last week and followed up on my recollection of her talk on health, health care and technology. Because I had taken copious notes, I could respond, and his piece appears here.

H

ealth Populi’s Hot Points:  Most people in the press room left their bags and computers there and rushed to an overflow room to listen to the President speak. I chose not to and instead to follow Twitter, which some folks inside the hall took advantage of, presumably unobtrusively via their mobile phones.

So you can search snippets on Twitter using #HIMSS and, perhaps “Bush.” 

 As for me, I’ve added two new category tags to the Health Populi blog: First Amendment, and Freedom of Speech. This post is the first to use these tags.