Blown the travel budget? Or is it just too darn hot? Either way, if you want to know what’s happening at the CONVERGE conference kicking off in Philadelphia today, but you can’t be here to see it, here’s my virtual guide to some of the highlights.
You can also follow the buzz on Twitter hashtag #mcConverge as well as the Twitter handles of some of the attendees and speakers listed below.
I’m looking forward to hearing the keynote from Adrian Rawcliffe, GlaxoSmithKline’s senior vice president for finance in North America on some of the medical challenges facing the pharmaceutical industry as well as changes occurring in the research and development and commercial side of pharmaceuticals. GSK has had some exciting developments in the past few months. In May, GSK’s skin cancer drug and companion diagnostic got U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval. Last month, the CEO said it plans to exit some of its operations this year and refocus the group toward new medicines. It’s awaiting approval from the FDA for three drugs and awaiting late-stage data for 14 other drugs this year. It’s also been doing some interesting collaborations with academic institutions.
Clinical outcomes collaboration. A couple of things I find compelling about the current healthcare environment is the growing voice of patients and the studies showing that comorbidities such as depression can have a big impact on adherence, particularly for chronic conditions. Cognific founder Solome Tibebu (@Solome33), will talk about the company’s behavioral health patient engagement platform and how clinicians are engaging patients.
How to transform healthcare delivery. Telehealth, connected care or whatever you call it, providers are doing pilot programs to assess the best way to use it to implement affordable care delivery. I look forward to hearing what Mayo Clinic’s Center for Connected Care Medical Director Dr. Nicholas LaRusso will share in his talk with Chris Seper (@chrisseper) about the kind of services the Mayo Clinic is planning to deliver online.
What are payers doing to reduce healthcare costs? Independence Blue Cross has been doing some interesting collaborations from its work with Penn Medicine and the city’s first healthcare startup accelerator DreamIt Health. And then there is the impending deadline for the health insurance exchanges. Lots of potential talking points there for IBC CEO Dan Hilferty in his talk with Karl Stark (@kwstark) of the The Philadelphia Inquirer.
Last, but not least, I’m excited to look up some of the startups that will be showing their stuff at the conference.
A Deep-dive Into Specialty Pharma
A specialty drug is a class of prescription medications used to treat complex, chronic or rare medical conditions. Although this classification was originally intended to define the treatment of rare, also termed “orphan” diseases, affecting fewer than 200,000 people in the US, more recently, specialty drugs have emerged as the cornerstone of treatment for chronic and complex diseases such as cancer, autoimmune conditions, diabetes, hepatitis C, and HIV/AIDS.
Thanks to its collaboration with Independence Blue Cross, DreamIt Health’s startups will be represented at the conference.
Aircare (@aircareapp) is a mobile application that helps hospitals prevent readmissions and improve patient outcomes through tele-nursing and patient-specific analytics.
Biomeme (@BiomemeInc) is a mobile molecular diagnostics device to help point-of-care clinicians and epidemiologists diagnose and track infectious diseases in real time with smartphones.
SpeSo Health (@SpeSoHealth) is an online analytics platform to identify and access medical expertise in rare and complex diseases.
Among some of the early stage companies at the conference will be those that are part of Pfizer’s StartUp Showcase.
DocASAP (@DocASAP) works with care providers to publish their profiles and open appointments across multiple channels such as health insurance doctor finders, consumer portals, referring networks and the provider’s website.
IntelligentM has developed a high-tech approach to impacting the transmission of hospital-acquired infections by improving hygiene. Its technology uses sensors to detect whether hospital staff have washed their hands thoroughly enough and remind them they need to do it again. It also transmits detailed compliance reporting through monitoring.
Neurotrack (@Neurotrack) has developed technology that can diagnose Alzheimer’s disease three to six years before symptoms appear, creating the potential to transform the diagnosis and treatment of Alzheimer’s disease.
