I’ve not yet had the chance to attend the mHealth Summit (held last December in D.C.) or the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), going on now in Las Vegas. After hearing somewhat lukewarm reviews of the mHealth Summit, I’m especially interested to hear how the digital health track of CES compares.
Who better than my good friend, avid healthcare conference-goer and healthcare IT expert John Lynn to ask for a comparison of the two events? John, founder of HealthcareScene.com and co-founder of the upcoming Healthcare IT PR and Marketing Conference, is a Las Vegas native and has attended both events several times. (He’s at CES right now in fact.)
How does the digital health part of CES compare with mHealth Summit?
JL: One of the challenges with digital health at CES is that it’s overwhelmed by the mass of CES (160,000+ attendees). At the mHealth Summit, you can casually run into interesting mHealth people in the halls. This is less likely at CES. However, the digital health portion of CES continues to grow, and if you’re attending the digital health educational sessions or section of the exhibit hall, you’ll meet a lot of really great mHealth-focused people.
As far as companies and speakers, there’s a lot of overlap between the two events. Certainly at CES there is more of a consumer focus, and so you won’t find as many public health officials or healthcare providers as compared with the mHealth Summit.
How have you seen each show evolve over the last several years?
JL: The mHealth Summit has grown really well since its acquisition by HIMSS. I think they still haven’t driven the provider and hospital participation that would really take the event to the next level, but I think that’s their goal.
The mHealth portion of CES has grown by leaps and bounds. When I first went to CES, other than the general computer providers, the closest thing I found for health was a gyroscope exercise ball. The addition of the Digital Health Summit, which takes place as part of CES, has brought digital health to a new place at CES from both a speaker and exhibitor perspective. Last year, I observed that mHealth companies that had 10×10 booths at CES had grown to 20×20 booths. I’m interested to see if this growth continues this year and how many new players are exhibiting. I’m told the digital health portion of CES has grown 40% over last year.
In your opinion, which show paints the most accurate picture of the state of digital/mobile health?
JL: I think they both paint an accurate picture, but they paint them from different angles and viewpoints. The mHealth Summit takes a broader look at mHealth, and includes many more public health and international perspectives. CES paints a much more consumer-focused view of mHealth. Plus, CES has a really strong fitness tech focus that I didn’t find at mHealth Summit. Many of the companies presenting at CES don’t really consider themselves healthcare companies. They see themselves as consumer device or consumer Internet companies.
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.
Are there any readers out there that have attended the most recent mHealth Summit and are in the thick of CES? I’d love to know your opinions as well. Please share them via the comments below.
