The roster of keynote speakers for HIMSS 2012 says it all: Biz Stone, co-founder of Twitter, followed by Farzad Mostashari, government guru for health information technology, then two political commentators, Donna Brazile and Dana Perino. 

More than 70% of healthcare organizations report that personal health information (PHI) has been compromised during the past 12 months, according to a recent survey. Most of these infractions were due to employee snooping.

It has been a roller-coaster ride for health information technology in 2011. Slow but steady progress has ramped up adoption of electronic health records, but the number of reported health data breaches is disturbing. Many organizations use mobile health but lack policies on the devices; e-prescribing is up but physicians aren’t using all the available functions.