The federal program could be a short-term patch for struggling rural hospitals or the last chance to move rural healthcare onto a model that works at scale. Michael Dalton of non-profit virtual care provider Ovatient explains.

Dr. Stephen Klasko, executive in residence at General Catalyst, will deliver the keynote at the Smart Health Transformation Preconference Forum at HIMSS26, where he'll discuss predictions for tech and his vision for reshaping healthcare delivery.

Shlomi Madar, CEO of SpotitEarly, discusses how the company helps detect cancer by leveraging dogs’ sense of smell, AI technology and reward-based training that teaches dogs to distinguish between healthy and cancerous samples.

Dr. Michael Zappa, chief clinical officer at Cape Fear Valley Health and physician advisor at Juno Health, says maintaining close connections with clinical leaders is essential to optimizing clinical workflows.

Abhinav Shashank, Innovaccer CEO and cofounder, discusses the company's manifesto, Autonomous Healthcare, and previews the HIMSS26 panel where he'll join other unicorn founders to share stories of their origins, failures and breakthroughs.

Head of emerging technologies at Mass General Brigham Esther Kim discusses healthcare technologies' ability to address unmet needs while underscoring the importance of careful, thoughtful adoption to ensure safe, systemwide impact.

Recovery, downtime and disruption from IT outages cost some independent and senior care providers "tens of thousands of dollars per minute," lower staff morale and pose patient safety concerns, says healthcare IT security expert Danielle Morrison.

Hospitals can increase health literacy by having instructions in multiple languages and tailoring conversations at discharge, says Greg O'Neill, director, Patient and Family Health Education at ChristianaCare, who will be speaking at HIMSS26.