– Kipp Fesenmaier, Vice President of Sales, BioIQ –
I recently attended the Texas Hospital Association 2016 Annual Conference in Dallas. The event was attended by more than 500 healthcare professionals, ranging from hospital executives to thought leaders in care delivery. The conference spanned two days with breakout sessions on many important healthcare topics, namely, improving the healthcare experience for the consumer. The conference was also abuzz with speculation about the changes we are likely to see to healthcare over the course of the next decade.
Population health was a key discussion topic during the breakout sessions. BioIQ fit seamlessly into this conversation. Our innovative technology platform can close care gaps and give healthcare executives a refined view of the macro health trends in their communities.
Traffic at our booth was brisk, with conference goers stopping by to learn how the BioIQ platform can automate many manual processes when screening large populations. Most healthcare leaders and decision makers said that technology will assist in breaking down barriers to care, which is an industry-wide challenge.
Nearly all the hospitals and health systems I spoke with provide health screenings to their communities, but common missing components included the lack of engaging individuals through technology and moving the data to all stakeholders. Another area of interest was how hospitals can improve population health based on the findings of their screenings. BioIQ takes an evidence-based approach that resonated with healthcare executives and led to some great conversations at our booth.
The conference featured several engaging and well-attended sessions. In a presentation entitled “What if the Crowd is Wrong,” Jeff Goldsmith, president of Health Futures, Inc., shared how misperceptions of trends can lead to a false sense of healthcare innovation.
Another noteworthy presentation was delivered by Dr. Timothy Sielaff, chief medical officer of Allina Health in Minneapolis. Allina Health is an excellent example of a health system using data and analytics to recognize poor courses of treatment and close gaps in care.
A hallmark of the conference was a panel discussion featuring Pulitzer Prize winning Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson and Fox & Friends Tucker Carlson. Despite their varying views on many topics, these right and left wing thought leaders both agreed on one thing: there’s as much uncertainty in the future of healthcare as there is in the upcoming presidential election.
The Texas Hospital Association Conference and Expo is one of the finest state healthcare conferences I have ever attended, due to the on-point discussions of current and future healthcare trends. It was rich in discussion around healthcare technology and BioIQ is well-positioned to aid health systems in meeting their population health improvement goals.
