Northern California Chapter HIMSS - About Northern California HIMSS -

Welcome to Northern California HIMSS (NoCal HIMSS), a tax-exempt, 501(c)(6) non-profit corporation focused on providing leadership in healthcare for the management of systems, technology and information.

NoCal HIMSS is one of 40+ affiliated chapters of HIMSS, the largest health care information systems professional organization in the nation. We bring health care professionals together to promote the exchange of experiences and knowledge among colleagues, and to assist members in their professional growth. We accomplish this objective by presenting educational seminars/conferences, networking opportunities, and a forum for the exchange of ideas among those committed to the goal of improving patient care through the effective use of information technology.

Chapter members come from diverse backgrounds, all involved in some aspect of health care information systems and management. Our members consist of professionals from hospitals and clinic organizations, third-party payors, administrators, information technology systems vendors, consultants, management engineers, telecommunications professionals, physicians, nurse and medical informatics professionals, and essentially anyone interested in the trends of health care information and management systems.

Our History

NoCal HIMSS originally began in the mid 70’s as an informal, collegial association of Management Engineers from around the San Francisco Bay Area. Originally known as BAHME – the Bay Area Hospital Management Engineers would gather each month at various healthcare related venues on a rotating basis for informational luncheon or dinner presentations regarding topics of interest to our members. Early BAHME members included some well known HIMSS leaders such as John Gall, Rich Rydell and Rich Corell. As Information Technology and advanced telecommunication systems grew in use and complexity – the organization’s composition changed to include a CIO forum. In the early 80’s BAHME officially joined HIMSS as an affiliated chapter.