CHICAGO – At the HIMSS Virtual Conference & Expo, there's no need to change out of your business shoes into sneakers. You can check out what first-time and veteran exhibitors are displaying without fear of feet fatigue.

First-time exhibitor HP will be showcasing all of its healthcare-related product offerings: its suite of storage and servers, including Bladesystem servers; personal computing products including desktops, notebooks and mobility devices; medical image archiving, software and services. HP will also exhibit Virtualization solutions for the data center, which can drastically improve server and storage utilization as well as reduce cooling costs and power usage, said Paul Behncke, marketing manager for HP's America's Health and Life Sciences Industry.

Specialists for all the product offerings will be available during the conference to answer customer questions. Attendees can also download white papers and video-formatted case studies, and access HP's external Web site for more information.

"HealthcareGoesMobile.com will introduce several educational resources, such as new videos that will demonstrate at how one New England community hospital implemented a clinical-grade network and found tremendous success and return on its investment," said Julie Malloy, healthcare segment manager for Intel and a founding member of the HealthcareGoesMobile.com community. Also on hand will be case studies on globally implemented mobile point-of-care technology and its benefits. Free membership at HealthcareGoesMobile.com includes access to its new Solutions Center, which will also be featured at the show, and periodic updates on educational Webinars and other resources.

Second-time participant HealthcareGoesMobile.com is launching a special VCE promotion for its community, said Malloy. On-site registrants to the community (see www.healthcaregoesmobile.com) will be entered into a drawing to win a Dell E4300 notebook computer or one of two Wii Fit gaming systems. Winners will be announced June 11. The community's Mobile Point-of-Care (MPoC) Lounge, which is reserved for attendees interested in mobility, will feature timely topics and experts who can live chat on technology developments, the stimulus package, clinical-grade networks and M-Health trendspotting, Malloy said.

Returning exhibitor NetMotion Wireless will demonstrate a software solution that provides secure wireless data connections across networks and coverage gaps for use in hospitals, home healthcare organizations, emergency medical services and ambulatory care organizations, said Amy Ting, senior marketing manager.

The company will also showcase its core product, Mobility XE, an award-winning Mobile Virtual Private Network (VPN) used by leading healthcare organizations including Mayo Clinic, the Marshfield Clinic, Lee Memorial Health System, St. Joseph's Hospital in Wisconsin and St. Luke's Episcopal Health System in Texas, and the mobile sales forces of device manufacturers such as Beckman Coulter, St. Jude Medical and Resurgens Orthopaedics.

Imprivata returns for its third HIMSS Virtual Conference and Expo to exhibit OneSign, its appliance-based employee access management platform that provides single sign-on and authentication management. In addition to case studies and white papers that can be downloaded, Imprivata's sales team will be available to answer any attendee questions.

i365, a Seagate Company, will be exhibiting its EVault Data Protection Solutions, which address the complexity of explosive data growth while solving regulatory compliance, disaster recovery, and protection for local and remote offices, said Dana Loof, senior director of Corporate Communications. Incorporating DeltaPro, patented Quick File Scanning and patent-pending Adaptive Compression technologies, i365 EVault Data Protection ensures efficient backup and recovery across a health system's range of operating systems and applications, she said.

Multiple delivery options and price points enable tailored solutions for small, mid-size and enterprise organizations, Loof said. i365 will walk through its backup and recovery technology offered as a service or as on-premise software. The company will also highlight its EVault Plug-n-Protect appliance, a fast, economical and complete data and systems protection solution.

"We've participated in several VCEs in the past and find it a perfect medium for attendees who can save time and money without the travel budgets and travel time required," said Loof. "Additionally attendees get one-on-one interaction with qualified i365 experts who can guide them through our technology and answer any questions they might have."

Sprint, which has been an exhibitor since the first HIMSS VCE, will be featuring Sprint Converged Network Solutions and its relationship with GE Healthcare. This service will be highlighted during its educational webinar, along with how Sprint can deploy a "Wire it Once" streamlined Distributed Antenna System (DAS) infrastructure that can streamline in-building wireless networks for today and the future, she said. The company will feature real-life case studies for wireless solutions in the home healthcare and hospital setting.

Sprint will show a video demonstrating how home healthcare nurses at the Hospice of the Florida Suncoast use Sprint Mobile Broadband cards during patient visits to enter information into healthcare information systems in real time. "This reduces the amount of paperwork they have to carry around, the time lag between the visit and information upload and trips into the office," said Stoufer.

Sprint will also discuss how its Emergency Response Team services can help facilities be prepared for emergencies or outages. "We have emergency Go-Kits that can be instantly activated in the event of a disaster, to keep communications flowing when they are most needed," she said.

Finally, Sprint will highlight two new products: the Palm Pre smartphone and its new Sprint Mobile Hotspot, which creates a personal cloud of high-speed Internet connectivity that customers can easily share among up to five users and a variety of WiFi-enabled devices through its connection to the 3G network, the EVDO Rev., a Sprint Mobile Broadband Network.