March went out like a lion in the health tech world, with ViVE 2023 in Nashville the last week of the month, and spring conference season continued with HIMSS 2023 in Chicago in April. It was a whirlwind of activity for these dueling conferences, with many of the same sponsors and attendees for each.
There were also some common themes at these two behemoth gatherings, which is not surprising given the overlap in timing, speakers, audiences, and exhibitors. Here is a brief look at some of the trending topics we took note of.
Health Equity
Two ViVE agenda themes–Mind the Gap and Justice League–focused on different aspects of health equity. At least a dozen sessions at HIMSS focused on health equity, and assuredly many more touched on it. Even Lirio’s three ViVE sessions were about how personalization impacts health equity. Health equity is achieved when every person has the opportunity to “attain his or her full health potential” and no one is “disadvantaged from achieving this potential because of social position or other socially determined circumstances” (CDC, 2022).
Health equity is a critically important topic, especially for those of us in purpose-driven organizations working to improve people’s lives. Don’t expect health equity to come off the trending topics list anytime soon.
Patient Journeys
More and more healthcare executives are focused on the holistic journeys that consumers have with their health systems, plans, and other health solutions like wellness apps, fitness trackers, and more. It’s critical that we think of health consumers as human beings and understand their circumstances well beyond their engagement with the healthcare sector in order to create journeys for them that fit their lifestyles, schedules, and other needs. Journeys can and should be as unique to every individual as their care plans, which is where personalization comes into play.
Consumerism
The word “consumerism” itself was less prominent than it has been in recent years, which was admittedly refreshing. But the idea of consumerism–protecting the interests of consumers, consumers taking greater control of their own healthcare, and consumers expecting the same kinds of services and experiences they get in other areas of their lives–remains abundant. Lirio’s Precision Nudging™ Interventions are designed specifically to get people to take action for better health when they otherwise wouldn’t by meeting them where they are and overcoming barriers using behavioral science. In other words, a form of consumerism. At conferences later this year, expect the definition of consumerism to be a constant theme, even if the word itself doesn’t appear.
Artificial Intelligence
Likewise, the topic of artificial intelligence (AI) is not going anywhere. AI has been bubbling up for years now, mostly focused on image recognition and workflow automation. It’s now boiling over. It seemed like every other booth at spring conferences claimed to be leveraging AI in some way, and it can be hard to discern what is truly novel AI like Lirio’s Personalization Engine and Precision Nudging™ Interventions versus utilization of something like OpenAI’s GPT in a product. In any case, AI will continue to be a popular topic in healthcare for years.
There are quite a few more meaningful digital health conferences on the calendar for 2023. We look forward to more connections, conversations, and collaborations at these events. We’ll continue to follow these trending topics and others that emerge. Want to share your own observations? Drop us a note at hello@lirio.com to engage.