Inspiring and Empowering Nurses at HIMSS25

To Improve Digital Healthcare Transformation Knowledge and Practice

By Whende Carroll, MSN, RN, NI-BC, FHIMSS, Clinical Informatics Advisor, HIMSS
LinkedIn: Whende Carroll, MSN, RN, NI-BC, FHIMSS
LinkedIn: HIMSS

At the 2025 HIMSS Global Health Conference & Exhibition in Las Vegas, nurses will have immense opportunities for learning and networking that span several essential and timely nursing informatics specialty topics, addressing technology, data, health equity, education, innovation and leadership.

Together, these topics impact the informatics specialty and the modern workforce, advance the nursing profession and help nurses acquire new, essential skills for digital health transformation.

The HIMSS Global Conference is always stellar, but I’m consistently moved and motivated after the preconference Nursing Informatics Forum. It is an exceptional event where nurse informatics and innovation experts, scholars and leaders come together to share insights about timely topics that nurses in all settings can take back to their places of work for impactful change.

Monday’s preconference Nursing Informatics Forum will inspire and empower nurses from around the globe to lead innovative, global, equitable and data-driven nursing initiatives throughout the healthcare industry. They’ll learn how to overcome the regulatory, financial, burden, patient safety, privacy, infrastructure, quality, governance and workflow efficiency challenges healthcare technology introduces into all administrative, operations and clinical practice settings.

Attendees will gain essential insights about the need for mature data structures, new role and revolutionary skills to successfully utilize emerging technologies, complete effective workforce planning, educate the next wave of nurse technologists and create compelling and sustaining partnerships throughout the industry for more equitable care for individuals and communities.

My deep interest in digital healthcare transformation will be satisfied this year at the Nursing Informatics Forum. Three cornerstones of digital health transformation are data, equity and innovation. Outstanding presenters will discuss all of these at the forum.

Here are the sessions that will address the foundations of digital health transformation and provide attendees with high-value insights, recommendations and practical tips to improve their digital health knowledge and practice.

Session NIF-3: Data Literacy & DIKW Framework: A Foundational Perspective
Speaker: Anne Snowdon, PhD, RN, FAAN
Chief Scientific Research Officer
HIMSS

The understanding and impact of the DIKW (Data, Information, Knowledge, Wisdom) framework is relevant in healthcare innovation and is foundational in informatics practice. Anne will discuss the progression from raw data to actionable wisdom and how each stage of the DIKW hierarchy is critical in improving data management, literacy, and ethics in nursing practice — patient care delivery, digital health disruption, clinical decision-making and healthcare outcomes in diverse populations and the care experience.

Session NIF-6: Bridging the Digital Divide: Championing Equity and Tackling Bias in Nursing Informatics
Speaker: Robin Austin, PhD, DNP, DC, NI-BC, FAMIA, FAAN
Assistant Professor
University of Minnesota School of Nursing

Dr. Austin will explore the critical need to address the significant digital health inequities impacting nursing and people-centered care today. Attendees will gain insights into the gaps in nurse technology literacy and access that lead to inequities and biases within healthcare data and algorithms for artificial intelligence (AI) affecting underserved populations. She’ll present actionable recommendations for creating fair, effective, compassionate AI-driven healthcare solutions. A highlight of this session will also be a proclamation about the essentialness of the nursing informaticist’s role in mitigating community-wide technology and data challenges in practice and their role in data stewardship for healthcare excellence and equity.

The entire preconference Nursing Informatics Forum is always an inspiring way to ignite the action-packed week at the HIMSS Global Conference. This year will be no different and promises to empower nurse informaticists with crucial insights and education, enabling them to view healthcare, technology and data through a transformative lens, with a broader vision for a global digital health revolution and understanding better now nursing informatics as a lynchpin role for its success.

This article was originally published on the HIMSS website and is republished here with permission.

More with Anne Snowdon, PhD, RN, FAAN
Tune in to PopHealth Week where hosts Gregg Masters and Fred Goldstein welcome Dr. Anne Snowdon, a trailblazer in digital health and a professor at an Ontario business school. With her extensive experience as a nurse, academic, and researcher, Dr. Snowdon shares her insights into the state of digital health, the challenges of patient engagement, the promise of predictive tools, and the critical need for building smarter, connected communities. Tune in for an enlightening discussion that bridges gaps between technology, care delivery, and equity, as they explore what it takes to truly transform healthcare systems. Take a listen!