Left to right, HIMSS board member Dana Alexander, Peyton Manning and Dr. Robert Heyer at HIMSS16 in Las Vegas.
So, it turns out a guy who missed an entire season of football due to a series of neck surgeries, tore his plantar fascia, probably faces a hip replacement in a few years and has admitted to gaming concussion tests does know a little about healthcare after all. He also happens to be the namesake of the Peyton Manning Children’s Hospital at St. Vincent Health System in Indianapolis.
Or at least Super Bowl 50-winning quarterback Peyton Manning knows how to play to an audience.
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The closing keynote session at HIMSS conferences tends to be someone from outside the health IT universe. “Dilbert” creator Scott Adams and “Freakonomics” co-author Steven Levitt have spoken in this slot, usually the day after the vendor show ends and thousands skip town.
This time, Denver Broncos quarterback Manning packed the house, perhaps because people were hoping he might announce his retirement in the unlikely venue of HIMSS16. Manning, 39, didn’t discuss his football plans, though he sounded like someone who still wants to play.
“I really enjoy being coached, still,” Manning said during a talk that focused heavily on leadership. “When you are as competitive as I am, it is part of your fiber,” he added. After a record five MVP awards and two Super Bowl victories, does he still have the fire?
He’s due to earn $19 million if he plays in 2016, but he also has other business interests, including multiple Papa John’s franchises in the Denver area. “Due to some recent law changes in Colorado, the pizza business has been pretty good,” the affable Manning quipped.
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Despite recent questions about whether Manning engaged in sexual harassment when at the University of Tennessee in 1996, he was a crowd favorite, drawing a couple of standing ovations. He played to the audience.
“Football is a game. Revolutionizing healthcare is a mighty endeavor,” Manning said. “I can’t even come close to doing what you do,” he told the HIMSS crowd.
After speaking from the lectern, Manning sat down with HIMSS board member Dana Alexander, who brought out another guest, Dr. Robert Heyer, team physician for the Carolina Panthers and president of the NFL Physicians Society. Recall that the Broncos beat the Panthers in the Super Bowl last month.
Manning and Heyer actually have been friendly for a long time. Heyer performed a physical on Manning 18 years ago at the NFL scouting combine before the quarterback was drafted.
Heyer explained how the NFL has an electronic health records system. Among the things the EHR does is help diagnose and manage concussions, Heyer said.
Manning praised the health and fitness technology all around him in pro football. “Analytics has played a huge role, from a concussion standpoint to an overall health standpoint,” in improving injury detection, he said, in an inherently rough sport that’s come under criticism of late. Manning noted that players now wear trackers to monitor how many steps they take during each practice.
The NFL a few years ago put an athletic trainer in the press box at each game to help spot hits that may have resulted in concussions. The trainer can watch replays and call down to the field to have officials stop the game to assess potential injuries, Manning added.