Connecting with Connected Health (PCHA Connected Health Conference)

[grow_thumb image=”https://telecareaware.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/JC-with-VGo.jpg” thumb_width=”150″ /]Guest contributor JC Muyl attended the PCHA Connected Health Conference last week and contributed his thoughts on the event.

Last week I drove down from NYC to spend an afternoon at the Connected Health Conference (#CHC16) at the Gaylord Convention Center outside DC. The majority of my time was spent in the exhibit hall meeting digital health vendors.

I walked away fascinated by just how eclectic the digital health industry is. By approaching it from so many different angles, we’re bound to find some solutions that will stick. I thought I’d spread my optimism by sharing a sample of what I saw for those who couldn’t make it. Here’s my take on my day:

  • The most represented category was patient engagement solutions, probably as a function of the conference itself. Also, when you think about it, a proliferation of proactive patient engagement solutions makes sense in the context of value-based payments. What I like about patient engagement is that it has applications across multiple segments (payers, providers, employers, etc.) which means a bigger market. I met with the folks at Fitango Health (customizable care plans & member engagement), CareWire (member engagement via text), PokitDok (a development platform for care management / patient engagement), Utila (a text-based behavior health engagement solution) and Dacadoo (a cool health score app for patients based on proprietary algorithms).
  • Dacadoo was the play that felt most natively consumer-centric, especially because the user is able to track their health score in the app. The other solutions were for providers looking to manage and interact with patient populations. I like the notion of designing these products from the standpoint of how consumers want to navigate their healthcare experience.
  • In telehealth, I visited SwyMed, a ruggedized telehealth kit for emergency workers (makes a lot of sense), and VGo (see left above), a friendly-looking telehealth assistant that combined a Segway with a camera and a screen. They demoed how they could remotely drive it to the patient for a telehealth consult. I really think this product has legs…well wheels, actually! Seriously, it made me wonder how soon until we use drones to deliver meds & pick up samples?
  • I was surprised by the number of international companies: Medelinked from the UK, EarlySense from Israel, Voluntis from France, Dacadoo from Switzerland, most with a local presence here in the US. These foreign companies are usually pretty big in their home country, with a (clinically) proven product, yet are approaching the US market with the agility but also possibly the financial needs of a startup. I bet they would make good prospects for investors.

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PCHA Connected Health Conference in Washington–book soon!

11-14 December, Gaylord National, National Harbor MD (Washington DC area)

Hosted by the Personal Connected Health Alliance, the Connected Health Conference was renamed in 2015 to reflect an increasingly consumer-centered, technology-enabled and collaborative approach to improving health, and builds on the success of the mHealth Summit. There are three days of programming with over 300 speakers, four tracks, a new and innovative exhibit floor, and specialty events. Each component — from keynotes, panel discussions, interactive sessions, roundtables and the dynamic exhibit floor — focuses on new research and actionable knowledge such as best practices, lessons learned and conclusive case studies.

  • Pre-conference sessions providing a deep dive into key topics
  • Four content tracks bringing diverse perspectives, sparking meaningful discussion and advancing new solutions around key issues such as behavior change, real time intervention, design, collaboration, data science, disparities, policy, interoperability, ethics, privacy and security, and more
  • Numerous opportunities for networking

Co-located at the Conference is the Global Digital Health Forum, which addresses digital health in low- and middle-income countries.

Click on the advert in the right hand sidebar or the link above to learn more. When you register, use code TELE100 for $100 off registration. TTA is a media partner of the PCHA Connected Health Conference.

Connected Health Symposium to merge with PCHAlliance conference

One of the earliest conferences in healthcare tech, the Connected Health Symposium organized annually in Boston by Partners HealthCare, is merging with the Personal Connected Health Alliance (PCHAlliance)‘s Connected Health Conference to stage one conference in 2017. Joseph C. Kvedar, MD,  who is VP Connected Health at Partners HealthCare, will be a senior advisor to PCHAlliance, a featured speaker at this year’s PCHA CHC in December and will be the Program Chair for the newly combined event. To this Editor, it’s a logical move as when both of these conferences were pioneering nearly a decade ago, there were few venues beyond the traditional (and boring) Big Health meetings. Now there are multiple meetings, large and small, expensive and popularly priced, every month in many cities. In the release there is no information on when and where the joint event will be. The Symposium was in October and the 2016 PCHA CHC will be 11-14 December at the Gaylord National Harbor near Washington DC. TTA is a media partner of the PCHA CHC for the 8th year, starting in 2009 when it was the brand new mHealth Summit.

Fall/winter US events–Extra #1: TEDxNJIT, PCHA CHC and CHS

“Shuttle Corridor” Conferences this fall! Coming up fast: New Jersey Institute of Technology is hosting a TEDxNJIT event on Innovation and Collaboration next Wednesday 28 Sept at the Jim Wise Theatre on their Newark campus. It’s not strictly healthcare–it includes everything from nanotech to the arts, students, entrepreneurs and local government. TEDx is the local, self-organized version of TED talks and “Ideas Worth Spreading”. See their flyer and website. Hat tip to Michael Ehrlich of NJIT’s Martin Tuchman School of Management. 

Partners HealthCare is hosting its 13th Annual Connected Health Symposium (CHS) 20-21 October, with an opening networking event on the 19th October evening, all at the Boston Seaport World Trade Center. The theme this year is “Digital Technology That Cares: Bringing the Human Element to Life”. Speakers are listed here. The CHS has traditionally been focused on care delivery and how it impacts the daily lives of patients, with a significant academic bent. More information, registration.

And put a few days aside before Christmas for the PCHA Connected Health Conference at the Gaylord National Harbor Resort near Washington DC, now back in December (11-14) when it belongs. It also includes the Global Digital Health Forum on the last two days, a separate conference co-presented by PCHA and the Global Digital Health Network, with the Canada-US Connected Health Workshop on the 14th and three pre-conference events on Sunday the 11th. More to come. TTA is a media partner of the PCHA CHC for the 8th year, starting in 2009 when it was the brand new mHealth Summit.

 

Put them on the calendar: autumn/winter UK health tech events

[grow_thumb image=”https://telecareaware.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/calendar.png” thumb_width=”150″ /]September means that we come back from our holidays. Those smartphone calendars come out and the gaps are filled for the last part of the year into 2017 (gasp!) Here’s our (now separate) starter list for UK.

The RSM’s Telemedicine and e-Health Section (which is chaired by our own Contributing Editor Charles Lowe, who will be updating them as usual)…Event listings here and surely more to come (All at the RSM)

Point of care testing: disruptive innovation – is the NHS ready for it yet?   22 November

Recent developments in digital health   28 Feb 2017

The King’s Fund’s upcoming meetings involving healthcare technology (All at The King’s Fund)

Designing digital services around users’ needs   6 Oct 2016
Learning from clinician and patient-centred service design

Integrated Care Summit 2016   11 Oct 2016
Improving local population health and delivering accountable care (more…)