Yesterday afternoon, the 2012 Health Innovation Summit, hosted by digital health seed accelerator, Rock Health, began in San Francisco. The event kicked off with a tour of a few of the leading digital health companies and investors, including: One Medical, IDEO, KEAS, Practice Fusion, Weight Watchers, MedHelp, and Aberdare.
The summit will bring together innovators, strategic partners and investors from diverse disciplines and backgrounds to accelerate the ongoing discussion and actions around changing health. Underlying this acceleration is the central notion that collaboration will help us go beyond simply intertwining healthcare and technology together and instead find convergence.
The new consumer-driven face of healthcare is emerging and creating unprecedented demand for technologies that will help consumers improve and manage their health. I can’t help but note that the paradigm shifting innovations in handheld/mobile devices and smart phones that we’ve seen over the past few years have been fundamental to unleashing this revolution in digital health. As a result, consumers are in the driver’s seat, armed with a new understanding and appreciation of the evolving mobile environment, which has undoubtedly raised our expectations around user experience and how each of us can more effectively (and efficiently) access and consume healthcare and other services.
I’m looking forward to the program and the lineup of incredible speakers that includes true technology innovators and visionaries, leading research and medical experts and preeminent journalists and thought leaders. See you later today at #HiSum.