The 2012 Health 2.0 European Conference held this past week in Berlin was a great success. With over 300 attendees from over 30 countries and an impressive lineup of 75 speakers, Health 2.0 Europe proved to be a unique experience. Our global correspondents were present at this conference to discover new and emerging innovations in Medicine and to measure the pulse of the eHealth entrepreneurial landscape. Our conclusion: the eHealth scene is extremely fit and healthy, growing strong, and poised to revitalize medicine and healthcare in BIG ways.
As a conference, Health 2.0 has an incredible track record of introducing new and emerging eHealth and Medical Technology companies. This year’s European conference was no exception, highlighting over 50 unique eHealth / Medical solutions.
According to Pascal Lardier (@pascal_lardier) Health 2.0′s International Ambassador, “the essence of Health 2.0 is that: “we [as a conference company] show products rather than talking about health topics;” and this conference primarily ”showcases new technologies and let’s these new technologies inspire the conference attendees.” This year’s event was no exception with a truly inspiring showcase of technology solutions which will potentially make an impact on patients and care-providers and possibly help reshape healthcare delivery and medicine in general.
“Health 2.0 has introduced over 500 technology companies to the world stage, [and has] hosted more than 9,000 attendees at [their] conferences and code-a-thons.”
It would be impossible to cover every solution presented at Health 2.0 Europe; therefore in this conference review we share some highlights with you and links to most of the solutions presented. In subsequent posts we will be sharing interviews we have conducted with several of the speakers and a few of the attendees. In order for you to gain a more comprehensive overview of this conference you can access the entire program of Health 2.0 Europe 2012, here: ( PDF Download 4MB).
Highlights:
Health 2.0 Europe kicked off with an overview of a tightly packed agenda of keynotes, workshops, presentations and product demos as described by the Co-Chairman, Matthew Holt, (@boltyboy). After this overview Pascal Lardier quickly dove into the topic of BIG DATA which is transforming healthcare and prepared the attendees for a series of speakers and demoes focused on the perspectives of both patients and health care providers in making informed health decisions. The first speaker was Neil Bacon of iWantGreatCare who shared his opinion that: “[health care] is not going to see a revolution set by doctors, or hospitals, even though they have the control, but rather if there is going to be a breakthrough [in health care] it is going to come from the citizen.” Neil shared thoughts on how to unleash the power of [patients] and argued that “start-ups that successfully do (tap into the power of patients) will create an incredible force.”
”The challenge is to create a revolution by giving more power to the [patient] consumer.” – Neil Bacon
Tim Ringrose of Doctors.net.uk / Networks in Health followed with an example of how Health Professionals used trusted, credible information (another form of BIG DATA) to improve their practice and thus in part improve medicine. The broad discussion throughout the conference was how everything is becoming more patient centred and that trends which are categorically “Health 2.0″ are transforming hospitals and physicians’ practices. Terhilda Garrido of Kaiser Permanente shared her insights on how Health 2.0 are transforming hospitals and physician’s practices which included the following video:
A special Q&A panel discussion with Investors was a big draw for many of the established and emerging Health 2.0 Startups looking for ways to finance their ideas and solutions. Various perspectives on the future of health care were covered by Matteo Penzo of frog Design (UX and health technologies perspective); Tim Kelsey of the UK’s NHS, (transparency of health care services and open data perspective), and during the closing keynote speech given by Peter Levin, of the U.S. Dept. of Veterans Affairs (health informatics perspective.)
Key Learnings:
At the Health 2.0 European conference the general consensus was that medical systems and health care in general are undergoing a extremely slow transformation. This consensus was highlighted by numerous references to health care change occurring at a glacial pace, which could be measured in decades and generations. What was even more interesting was the acknowledgement that rapid change in healthcare will only occur once patients are empowered to influence this change. Most of the solutions demonstrated at Health 2.0 were not developed by physicians, rather they were developed by non-medical professionals (a.k.a patients) whom of which have applied their skills to help solve a health care / medical problem they had faced. (A wonderful example is Isabel – Healthcare which was founded by a Financier after his daughter had been misdiagnosed and improperly treated.) The main highlight of this conference was in witnessing the breadth and scope of creative solutions which empower patients and tackle important medical issues, thus helping to transform health care.
The “Start-ups” and Medical Entrepreneurs making efforts to “unleash the power of patients” through their innovative solutions were numerous at this conference. The following are links to most of the solutions demoed: (If we have forgotten to list your solution please contact us and we will add it to the list.)
Solutions Demonstrated at Health 2.0 Europe:
NetDoktor , UniversalDoctor , doktorsitesi , Health Corpus , PatientsCreate , Isabel Healthcare , SkinScan , DocCheck , Vienna University of Technology / KHRESMOI Project , Fundacion Recover / Hospitales para Africa , Directorate-General of Health , Medting , Best Doctors , Laastari Retail Clinics , Polish Health Care System , Humetrix , CITEC-B , Bokavård.se , Whittington Health , myHealthbox , UK Preventive Medicine , mySugr GmbH | eating diabetes , Biovotion AG , TRxCare , drugee , HealthyHeroes , 4th Main Health , Ayogo Games , Wellness Layers , Institute San Raffaele , WellKom Corporate Services Ltd , DIGIFiT , getHealth Limited , HeiaHeia , Thryve , Sleepio , CyberDoctor , iDoc24 , SXT Health CIC , Playful Pandas / Blues Buddies , SilverCloud Health , DuoFertility , KamaszPanasz , Synappz / iP Voiding Diary.