TOMMAO WANG
EVENTS
T
he HLTH annual healthcare conference was back in-person this year and in Vegas and included a mix of talks, presentations, panel discussions, and a massive exhibit hall. Unlike specialty society conferences, HLTH caters to startups, industry leaders, investors, and policymakers. There are company announcements, networking events, and parties instead of research posters, procedure labs, and CME credits. This year’s event drew over 10,000 attendees, 800 sponsors, and 300 speakers. Highlights included everything from pitch events to meditation rooms to a Ludacris concert. It was great to attend a live event! HLTH knows that physicians are increasingly interested in investing in healthcare companies and working in advisory and consultant roles. Maddie Coffin, senior marketing manager for HLTH, said: “HLTH’s aim is to bring the entire healthcare ecosystem together... Our goal was to make sure physician attendees received tailored value from sessions, activities, and partner programs.” I’ll focus on physicians’ experiences at HLTH and profile three groups that led physicianfocused events: the American Medical Association (AMA), StartUp Health, and Google.
Physicians’ goals and experiences: I spoke with several physicians who attended HLTH for education and networking. They compared their experience to typical academic and specialty society conferences. Paulius Mui, MD, and Kenneth Qiu, MD, family physicians, wanted to learn more about health tech and
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[ Q4 ] 2022
MD Next
A Physician’s Guide to HLTH
Sometimes what happens in Vegas doesn’t stay there. By John Dayton, MD, FACEP, FAAEM
shared their experience on their Solving for X Substack. They note that one downside to the conference was the focus on entertainment over evidence. However, they felt the major upside was networking and meeting with other attendees in person: “HLTH was surreal, extravagant, and very different, but it was fun. It was a vacation with people who were all interesting. It was awesome to talk about health policy and health tech innovation, while in Vegas and doing Vegas things.” Gerad Troutman, MD, is the national medical director of Innovative Practices for Global Response Medicine. He believes that EMTs and paramedics are underutilized in the healthcare system and attended HLTH to connect with companies focused on technology that will assist with hospital-at-home
and ED-at-home solutions. While many of the companies lacked sufficient validation he was impressed with the range and pace of new innovations being developed. “As a provider at the local level, I had never experienced this level of innovation that is occurring behind the scenes. I don’t think most doctors realize what is likely to come to our care toolboxes in the very near future.” Aditi U. Joshi, MD, telemedicine expert and founder of Nagamed Consulting, came to learn about startups as part of the American Medical Association’s Physician Innovation Network. Like Drs. Mui and Qiu, live networking was a major highlight of HLTH. She was also seeking companies solving pain points she was researching for her book on telehealth equity. As an
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