HIMSS Native American & Indigenous Community: 2024 Year in Review

Throughout 2024, HIMSS advanced its commitment as an ally and convener for better Tribal and Indigenous health, establishing a community of like-minded individuals to venture toward a more modernized and efficient healthcare system for Tribal populations.

The HIMSS Native American & Indigenous Community advocated and shared health IT best practices for Tribes and Indigenous people across the globe. The group held the first Native American Health IT Symposium at HIMSS24, gathering more than 110 attendees to learn about the current health IT landscape in Indian Country from federal, state and Tribal health leaders.

HIMSS named Robert Coffey as the community chair and Krystal Schramm and Lisa Lyon as vice chairs to help lead and forge a new path. HIMSS is thrilled to celebrate Schramm’s upcoming recognition at HIMSS25 as a HIMSS Health Equity Changemaker Award Recipient.

HIMSS Chapters embraced the HIMSS Tribal Liaison role, an elected chapter volunteer who advocates and educates on behalf of their chapter to advance health IT for their Tribal communities. Five chapters have successfully elected Tribal Liaisons, with more chapters expected to fulfill this role in 2025.

HIMSS hosted five virtual community events, including a quarterly roundtable affectionately named “Coffey Talk” in recognition of Robert Coffey. Participants have discussed a range of topics during these discussions, such as Indian Health Service modernization, data sovereignty, health information exchange, public health, telehealth, digital health equity, traditional healing, tribal epidemiology and cultural competency. One community event was an internationally focused roundtable on indigenous health beyond the borders of the United States. HIMSS hosted speakers from Australia and Canada to present on the current landscape and future considerations for Indigenous and First Nation Health in their respective countries.

HIMSS is committed to strengthening Native American and Indigenous populations by supporting critical policy changes, leveraging funding levers and raising collective awareness that will improve Tribal health outcomes through the power of digital health transformation. The Community is currently leading a letter writing campaign to advocate and educate on the need for full funding toward the Indian Health Service’s Health IT Modernization Program to implement an enterprise-wide electronic health record.

In 2025, HIMSS will continue to use its convening power to bring the broader Native American and Indigenous Community together to identify shared priorities and generate actionable feedback that will lead to policies and funding levels designed to ensure the highest quality care for Tribal communities. This is to not only uphold government’s trust responsibility to protect the interests of Indian Tribes and Indigenous communities, but to also ensure Native populations are not being left out of any core considerations and investments in crafting further equity and interoperability policies and technology.

HIMSS will continue to evolve into a true global learning health community for borderless best practices within health IT and innovation in Tribal and Indigenous healthcare.

Take Action:

• Join our Native American & Indigenous Community
• Explore advocacy and education
• Collaborate in person at the Native American & Indigenous Symposium at HIMSS25

Written by Evan Dunne, Government Relations Manager.