Last year MedCity’s annual INVEST conference in the Windy City attracted around 350 attendees attracted by strong programming where we discussed everything from how tech companies have plans for clinical disruption to the evolving payer-provider collaboration.
This year, too, MedCity is discussing exciting technologies such as blockchain and AI along with newer trends in healthcare where upstart payers are working with established health systems to create a new framework for population health.
And today – Jan. 31 is the last day to save $500, so please register. [We have actually extended the deadline from Jan. 30, which you may have seen in a previous iteration of the story.]
What will you see when you get to Chicago, May 1-2. For one, the hottest startups.
- Pear Therapeutics’ Everett Crossland, who heads up market access and reimbursement will discuss how investors are seeking well-thought out reimbursement models from entrepreneurs. If you didn’t know, Pear is one of the nine companies, including Apple, Verily, and Roche that is part of FDA’s pilot program on digital health.
- Fabien Beckers, CEO of Arterys, will discuss how the company’s medical imaging AI cloud, which is FDA-approved to boot, is bringing this new technology into the clinical workspace.is
- Dawn Barry, president and co-founder of Luna DNA, will talk about a new application of blockchain in healthcare – the first and only genomic and medical research knowledge database.
- Thorsten Wirkes, vice president of Oscar Health, will be there to talk about the partnership with Cleveland Clinic to provide health insurance to the providers’ patient population.
You will meet venture capitalists too – Renee Ryan, vice president of venture investments, at Johnson & Johnson Innovation – JJDC; Jessica Zeaske, director of healthcare investments, GE Ventures, and Nicole Walker, partner at Baird Capital and many more. Some of these VCs will judge the INVEST Pitch Perfect startup competition – more than 40 startups selected from different healthcare sectors – biopharma, health IT, diagnostics, devices and health services who will get up ons stage to become the best of INVEST.
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.
But INVEST is not just about new startups eager to transform healthcare and the financiers who take bets on their vision.
The conference will also discuss issues that are core to healthcare today. For instance, the issue of drug pricing and whether that will affect the way companies engage in innovation. John Flavin, a biotech VC and the head of the Polsky Center Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the University of Chicago will bring his perspectives on that panel as well as Shehnaaz Suliman, senior vice president of, business development and strategy at Theravance Biopharma, who was formerly a Roche executive.
Digital health is a staple at most conferences these days, but we are looking at this market from the point of view of scale. There are so many ideas but entrepreneurs seem to going from one pilot to another without seeing adoption. How do they break this cycle? What do providers want? Hear that perspective from Raj Khandwalla, a cardiologist at Cedars Sinai Medical Care with a keen interest in digital medicine.
Here’s the complete agenda for our 2018 conference. We are still adding speakers but ticket prices will increase come Thursday. So, register here today.
