HealthConnect #HCTO Panel Event Review
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Building on previous successful events such as SportsConnect, MusicConnect, FashionConnect, FilmConnect, BankConnect, EduConnect and GameConnect, the final XConnect event of the year was held at the ING Direct Cafe October 25th, 2012:
This time the topic was the intersection of technology and social media with the world of healthcare. The conversation was moderated by Cassie McDaniel and the panel was comprised of Abigail Keeso, Nikolai Bratkovski, Dr. Karim Jessa, Farid Kassam, and Hadi Salah.
No discussion on healthcare and technology would be complete without a dialogue on privacy, and the topic was brought up almost straight out of the gate. Dr. Karim Jessa expressed the challenge of privacy in healthcare quite succinctly, calling it “the apostrophe problem”. There is a patient’s privacy versus patients’ privacy — on an individual level (patient’s) many of us are okay giving up personal privacy for an improvement in our own personal care, but at the collective level (patients’) we are more reluctant to give away all patient privacy without any restrictions. Audience members came forward with a multitude of questions and comments about the privacy issue, and we easily could have spend all night on that one issue alone, but Cassie did a fantastic job of keeping everyone moving along.
Challenges with the regulatory environment and a healthcare model made up of a number of disparate medical record systems were concerns for the healthcare practitioners on the panel as well as from the investment and entrepreneur perspective. Red tape seemed to be noted as one of the largest obstacles to innovation.
Squeezed between a frightened investment community and overspent government budgets, healthcare definitely faces challenges when it comes to sharing information and making use of technology. While all panelists agree there is no “silver bullet” solution to sharing information effectively, they all shared part of their visions of a future where technology can help us attain higher quality, faster, more efficient and less expensive medical care.
It was another packed house at the ING Direct Cafe, and many people stayed around long after the official panel discussion ended to continue the chats that had started.
As with other XConnect events, there will be a follow up report with a Summary of the series, interesting key insights shared from the disrupters and industry professionals that we connected with over the series, and recommendations from thirdocean!
Thanks to all of the fantastic sponsors who helped HealthConnect happen!
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[...] Wednesday, we were proud to host our fourth instalment of XConnect 2012: HealthConnect. Here’s a quick review written by Alex Conde. Building on previous successful events such as SportsConnect, MusicConnect, FashionConnect, [...]
[...] Wednesday, we were proud to host our fourth instalment of XConnect 2012: HealthConnect. Here’s a quick review written by Alex Conde. Building on previous successful events such as SportsConnect, MusicConnect, FashionConnect, [...]