Cocktail receptions provide a much-needed respite from the breakneck pace of the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference. Not to mention eye candy for the largely male attendees: women servers in figure-hugging, decolletage-baring outfits offered finger foods.
As I found out, they also afford occasion for comic relief.
I was at the athenahealth cocktail reception at the Clift Hotel Tuesday evening at the conclusion of day 2 of the conference.
With the Rise of AI, What IP Disputes in Healthcare Are Likely to Emerge?
Munck Wilson Mandala Partner Greg Howison shared his perspective on some of the legal ramifications around AI, IP, connected devices and the data they generate, in response to emailed questions.
The event drew people from the health IT and mobile health sector, not surprisingly given that athenahealth is a cloud-based provider of electronic medical records and just announced its intent to acquire mobile app maker Epocrates.
Some people I met at the reception were Eve Philips, co-founder and CEO of Empower Interactive, which uses Web and mobile tools to educate on behavioral health issues; Terry Lynn, chief financial officer of MedHelp, an online consumer health community also offering health tracking apps among other things; Bradford Lee, partner at the ScaleUp Group, a business operations advisory firm helping early stage companies; and Nandini Rangaswamy, chief financial officer and executive vice president of ZeOmega, which provides integrated healthcare management software.
Rangaswamy and I were deep in conversation about how the healthcare industry would fare in 2013, when we were joined by Vijay Ramakrishnan, president and CEO of Menlo Park, California-based PIKAMAB, a biopharmaceutical company engaged in developing antibodies to treat cancers.
Ramakrishnan introduced himself and described PIKAMAB as a Stanford startup. I responded that I had fond memories of the university since both my husband and my brother went there, but I didn’t. To which Ramakrishnan made a wisecrack about how I didn’t look like I went to Stanford. I feigned shock at his comment as he mock-apologized for hurting my feelings and we all laughed.
A Personalized Approach to Medication Nonadherence
At the Abarca Forward conference earlier this year, George Van Antwerp, managing director at Deloitte, discussed how social determinants of health and a personalized member experience can improve medication adherence and health outcomes.
Then he asked Rangaswamy about her company and realized that he was talking to someone in health IT. Ramakrishnan was surprised to see that the room was full of these sorts of companies. I responded that the party was hosted by athenahealth, a health IT company, so the audience makeup made complete sense.
Ramakrishnan was bewildered.
He asked, “Isn’t this the Wilson Sonsini event?” I cracked up. As Rangaswamy and I tried to explain that it wasn’t the event organized by the well-known law firm, Ramakrishnan whipped out his BlackBerry that showed an alert for the event.
Meanwhile, a plateful of vegetarian finger food arrived, which he must have ordered previously. But Ramakrishnan had already wasted too much time on health IT folks. Rangaswamy smartly excused herself from the conversation, possibly to make more fruitful connections while eventually Ramakrishnan figured out that the event was not until a day later. He began taking his leave, apologizing profusely to me for what exactly I don’t know. I was still giggling away when slightly buzzed, he asked me to eat the “very good” finger food he specially ordered and not waste it.
Here’s hoping Ramakrishnan has better luck in making his business meetings on the right day in 2013.
[Photo Credit: LOL symbol from BigStock Photo]
