A tactical decision was made earlier in the year to move MedCity’s annual patient engagement conference, ENGAGE to San Diego, from Washington D.C., which has been home to this conference for the past three years.
This is, after all, an election year and the nation’s capital may not be an ideal place to host a healthcare conference that aligns a patient-centered healthcare system with policy.
And while that decision was made well before I joined as editorial director, I couldn’t agree more heartily with it. I have been attending conferences in San Diego for several years now and there are efforts in place to firmly put the Southern California city on the map of healthcare innovation, particularly as it relates to patients.
One such effort is being led by Biocom, a life sciences industry association in California.
“San Diego is positioned I think for the future to be the no. 1 place for patient, healthcare provider and biotech company engagement,” said Joe Panetta, president and CEO of Biocom. “We’ve got a 2020 strategic plan at Biocom that focuses on making San Diego known around the world known as the center for personalized medicine, genomics and the application of genomic data to research and development and the commercialization of products…”
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.
MedCity ENGAGE is an executive-level event that features the most innovative thinking from hospital systems, providers, insurers, health IT, doctors and other innovators to discuss best-in-class approaches to advance patient engagement and healthcare delivery. The 4th annual MedCity ENGAGE will be held October 18-19 in San Diego. Register now and save.
And then on the other side there are world-class providers be it academic medical centers like the University of California San Diego or a nonprofit hospital system like Scripps and Sharp Healthcare. And last but not least, San Diego is also home to Dr. Eric Topol, the indefatigable champion of empowering patients through digital health tools. Topol is director of Scripps Transnational Science Institute.
So as we gear up to run a thoughtful conference, we hope that you will join us at ENGAGE from all of the 50 states, soak in San Diego’s sunshine and make meaningful connections.
We hope to spark some scintillating conversations at San Diego with speakers who will talk about what Amazon’s Echo can do for healthcare; when is a bot better for patients; and how we can go beyond patient engagement to behavior change.
See you at ENGAGE.
Photo Credit: Getty Images, compassandcamera
