The fall foliage is coming in nicely here in New England and the heat has kicked on the last few mornings. The seasons have changed and that signals the intense, final preparations for this year’s Connected Health Symposium. I’ve been heavily involved in the content for this year’s event and am excited delve into some of the hot topics on the agenda.
This post is designed to help you build your own personal program for the event. Among the themes featured this year are: Consumer connected health, automated care, genetics and connected health, growing the market for connected health (both on the innovation side and in the more established supply chain of payers, providers, government and pharma), health policy and the implications for connected health and connected health at scale.
It promises to be a sensory smorgasbord unlike any other. If you have a smartphone, we’ll have an app for you to download so you can customize your own agenda during the two day event, but here’s my take on some of the speakers/sessions that are thematically connected. While we don’t have tracks, armed with your phone and this primer, you can create your own.
Consumer Connected Health
This is arguably one of the biggest developments in connected health over the last few years. I’ve included sessions on patient empowerment in this category. Start with the debate on the real role of social networks in healthcare delivery, with Jeff Benabio and Andrew Watson, moderated by Alex Drane, promises to be informative and entertaining. Later Thursday AM, back-to-back keynotes by Susannah Fox and Joe Coughlin fit well into this category. That afternoon, you can hear about ensuring patient comprehension and motivation in a panel moderated by Talya Miron-Shatz with panelists Michael Barry, Mary Beth Chalk and Rami Cohen.
On day two, start out with Charles Duhigg’s talk on his now famous book, The Power of Habit. Next, attend a panel discussion on physician ratings, moderated by Michael Cantor, featuring Rosalind Joffe, Barbra Rabson, John Santa and Barbara Spivak. Participate in Sarah Krug’s panel on Peer-to-Peer Healthcare, featuring Sean Ahrens, Hugo Campos, Dave DeBronkart, Danny Sands and Susan Woods. In the afternoon, check out Patricia Flatley-Brennan’s keynote on the Every Day Lives of Patients and the following Reactor Panel featuring Kathy Duckett, Judy Flynn, Carol Gawrys and Jon Wald.
Automated Care
We start right off with Sherry Turkle, who offers a balance to all of the enthusiasm about using technology to extend communication. Her book, Alone Together, was one of my recent favorite reads. Later in the day, I’ll be interviewing John Brooks on the Joslin Diabetes Center’s efforts in connected health. On Friday late morning, attend the panel on automated care moderated by Tim Bickmore, featuring Tom Ryden and Victor Wang.
Genetics and Connected Health
This is speculative but I suspect both Juan Enriquez and Esther Dyson will speak to this theme as they’ve been bullish on it in the past. I will be talking on Thursday afternoon on this topic as well. It is probably the most futuristic topic we’re covering this year, so there are only a few relevant talks. Speaking of futuristic, be sure and catch Rick Valencia’s interview with futurist Daniel Kraft on Thursday afternoon.
Connected Health Market Growth
Right off the bat on Thursday morning you can see a panel by several seasoned venture capitalists on The Magic Mix of Ingredients to Accelerate Company Growth in Connected Health. Michael Greeley moderates and will be joined by Bill Geary, Will Cowen and Todd Cozzens. We will also have three Innovators Challenges where ten companies will show their innovative wears to the audience during each session, moderated by Shahid Shah, Al DiRienzo and Steve Flammini. On Friday AM catch a panel on The Connected Health Innovation Ecosystem moderated by Scott Kirsner, with panelists Michael Balmuth, Naomi Fried, Amir Nashat and Halle Tecco. If your interest is connected health applications in the more established health care delivery supply chain, I call your attention to Chris Butler’s panel on Payment Reform and Connected Health. Two panels on Friday also AM stand out. One is on Connected Health’s Impact on Pharma (moderated by Paulo Machado, and including Craig Lipset, Dennis Urbaniak and Wolfgang Renz), and the other on how creative employers are using connected health (moderated by Jeremy Nobel, and including Robin McGrath, Julie Wilkes, Delia Vetter and Michael Yetter). For the provider perspective, make sure to attend Gary Gottlieb’s keynote.
Health Policy and the Implications for Connected Health
Lots to feast on here. On Thursday, right after lunch, you get the one-two punch of Elliott Fisher on ACOs and David Blumenthal on our national HIE. Later in the day, we get the juxtaposition of the US and EU perspective, when Larry Cohn interviews both Dr. Fisher and Peteris Zilgalvis. On Friday afternoon, stay tuned for a panel on Connected Health Data in the HIE, moderated by Pamela Goldberg, and featuring Laurance Stuntz, Gary Christensen and Mickey Tripathi.
Connected Health at Scale
There are three relevant sessions here. The first is a panel on the implications of Big Data on Connected Health. Bill Geary moderates and fellow panelists include Charlie Baker, Chris Kryder and Michael Weintraub. Later on Thursday afternoon, hear Adam Darkins talk about his experience at the VA scaling telehealth. On Friday, we have three leading suppliers to give their perspective on scale. The panel is moderated by John Herman, and includes Liddy Manson, Jasper zu Putlitz and Roy Schoenberg.
There is much more compelling content at the Symposium. I’ve only scratched the surface. Also there is nothing like the opportunity to network with such a large crowd of passionate people who all share in the same vision for moving healthcare forward.
I look forward to seeing you there.