Connecting at Connected Health 2018

Lisa Rotenstein

Brigham and Women’s Hospital

PGY-2 in Internal Medicine

Connecting at Connected Health 2018

I recently had the chance to attend the 2018 Connected Health Conference in Boston. It’s the main event of the year for Boston techies interested in health. First and foremost, I enjoyed learning about the wide swath of technologies being developed to tackle almost every issue we have in delivery of modern healthcare – inability to access or own records, chronic disease management, care convenience, etc. It was a pleasure to meet entrepreneurs putting forth diverse solutions to these challenges.

One of the conference’s most memorable sessions was led by BWH iHub speakers, including Jose Elias, Brian Mullen, and Mark Zhang. This trio discussed what it’s like to undertake innovation in an academic medical center, including how internal innovation groups can help clinicians bridge their ideas with those of technical experts who are building solutions.  I also particularly enjoyed a panel on the “Uber Primary Care Experience” from entrepreneurs building non-traditional, tech-enabled primary care systems. Their reflections emphasized how to use technology to support primary care rather than building care around technology, although the latter often happens because of disconnects between tech companies and healthcare systems

My biggest takeaway from the conference had to do with the diverse opportunities for innovating outside of the EHR, particularly in terms of patient-facing technologies. While much of my exposure to technology in training has centered on Epic, the Connected Health Conference offered a vision of how we can move past this to apps, telemedicine, and connected wearables that enhance the doctor-patient relationship and accordingly, outcomes. The conference specifically exposed me to some app-based technologies that I can look towards implementing in my own primary care practice in the future. For example, Bradley Crotty’s group at the Medical College of Wisconsin uses an interesting application called Patient Wisdom, which allows patients to share stories about themselves and set an agenda for their next visit. Providers then access this information, enhancing their visits. The FeatForward mobile application (which encourages patients to increase physical activity) is well accepted by patients and its use is associated with weight loss and decreased cardiometabolic risk. I can see myself using similar applications in my own practice and have connected with the researchers behind this work.

Attending the conference furthermore allowed me to connect with both new and old contacts in health technology and strengthen mentoring relationships. Post conference, I have connected with important health technology figures including Adam Landman and Rushika Fernandopulle, while meeting new contacts in the vendor world who have implemented patient messaging and wearable applications across diverse health systems.

This conference strongly met my expectations and broadened my horizons of how I can collaborate with industry in the future to achieve healthcare improvement goals related to chronic disease management, and patient and physician engagement.