AMWA was thrilled to be a partner association for HLTH: The Future of Healthcare, held May 6 – 9, 2018 at The Aria, Las Vegas.
This dynamic 4-day conference convened thought leaders from every sector of healthcare, including providers, policy makers, payors, vendors, and disruptive tech innovators to create an “all-inclusive, long overdue forum for the healthcare ecosystem: a place where the ‘hard’ conversations take place and actionable solutions are shared.”
The meeting featured over 575 pioneering CEOs and Founders, 375 speakers, and 3200+ attendees.
One of the key themes of the conference was the use of innovative technology to address key healthcare problems and advance healthcare goals. Examples included:
- Transportation apps to enhance patient compliance
- Google glass technology to improve healthcare communication
- The use of virtual reality in remote medical communities
- Artificial intelligence to promote efficiency and accuracy
- Blockchain technology to reduce healthcare costs and ensure patient safety
- Design of innovative new products like digital medicines,
- Empowering the patient to take charge of their own healthcare
- Allowing data sharing across digital platforms
- Enabling the delivery of precision medicine
With the rapid pace of development of healthcare apps, wearables, and digital platforms, new regulatory models are needed to ensure the accuracy and privacy of data. What measures need to be implemented in this new ecosystem? Who should oversee compliance and quality of care? These are just a few of the questions that will need to be addressed.
The future of healthcare is now. More than ever, physicians will need to step outside of the exam room to better understand the myriad of consumer products and services. The practice of medicine itself may look dramatically different in 5-10 years as patients increasingly access their own genome or use apps and wearables to monitor their own physiological data.
Tremendous opportunities now exist to improve the management of chronic conditions like diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular disease, and depression. Digital platforms can help modify health behaviors, long known to be effective modulators of improved outcomes. Companies like Google, Amazon, Adobe, Walmart, and CVS are also looking to offer innovative, stream-lined solutions. And now, with merely a saliva sample, patients can obtain their own genetic blueprint for less than $100.
As one speaker noted, these changes represent a “paradigm shift for humanity.”
Engaging leaders from all sectors to work together will help break down professional silos to create more innovative, collaborative solutions for improving patient care. As a model for future healthcare conventions, HLTH can’t be beat. No doubt many will return next year for HLTH 2019, May 5-8, at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.
AMWA held an association day session at HLTH:
Revisioning Healthcare Through a Sex/Gender Lens
Sex and gender impact every aspect of our lives. Men and women interact uniquely with medications, equipment, and other technologies, yet we continue to create “one size fits all” products and expect similar results. This eye opening session will accelerate the translation of research into sex/gender-specific design elements for health and other technologies. A new paradigm in health is needed. Peer through the gender/sex lens to envision innovative solutions to improve health, personal safety and quality of life for men and women.
Speakers:
Saralyn Mark, MD
President and Founder, iGIANT
Eliza Lo Chin, MD, MPH
Executive Director, American Medical Women’s Association
