I was fortunate to attend the ViVE Conference in Nashville earlier this week. If you are not familiar with ViVE, which launched in 2022, it merges the leadership of College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) and the HLTH digital marketplace. The meeting is designed to bring together senior and executive digital health decision-makers who are interested in the business and transformation of healthcare.
At ViVE, I had the opportunity to learn from and interact with many healthcare professionals, from industry leaders to representatives from startups, venture capital firms, academic institutions, and more. This variety of perspectives and experiences led to meaningful conversations and tremendous opportunities for collaboration.
While I am still digesting everything I took in during my four days at ViVE, I wanted to provide some commentary on some of the advanced technologies that were spotlighted throughout the meeting and share a few other highlights from the meeting.
Rapid Adoption of New Technology
Whereas healthcare has historically been slower to adopt technology than other industries, the sentiment at ViVE is that this seems to be changing — fast. The healthcare industry is expected to further capitalize on the technology trends that have arisen over the past few years. The likes of multiomics, molecular diagnostics, personalized care, and digital health solutions are all set to become increasingly prominent, with the industry embracing advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled solutions and digital ecosystems and working to maximize their potential.
The rise of AI and machine learning is quickly transforming healthcare. AI is being used to speed up diagnosis, improve patient care, and enable more personalized treatments. AI-driven technologies are being used to automate administrative tasks (more on this below), analyze medical images, track patient vital signs, and help clinicians make faster and more accurate decisions, among many other applications.
Telemedicine has maintained its popularity coming out of the pandemic, with a feeling at ViVE that the best may be yet to come. We're seeing increased adoption of and innovation in remote patient monitoring, virtual visits, digital health tools, and online doctor consultations. It is being used to reduce healthcare costs and improve access to care, especially in rural and underserved areas.
Digital health solutions, such as wearables and mobile apps, are becoming more prevalent as they enable patients to access their health data and manage their health from anywhere. These solutions are helping to improve patient engagement, reduce healthcare costs, improve the quality of care, and support the continued shift toward value-based care.
The rise of consumerism in healthcare and the importance of delivering an improved patient experience were hot topics at the meeting. Consumers are increasingly demand more transparency and access to their health data, as well as more personalized care and services. Providers are responding by expanding their investments in technologies such as patient portals, telemedicine, and digital health solutions to meet these demands.
One area that received particularly high levels of interest at ViVE is precision medicine. Next-generation sequencing (NGS) technologies are driving the development of more precise and personalized diagnostics.
By leveraging the power of big data, multiomic technologies are enabling clinicians to uncover new insights into the molecular basis of disease and develop more precise diagnostics. For example, multiomic technologies are being used to identify novel biomarkers and drug targets for cancer and other diseases, as well as to develop more precise diagnostics and treatments. For example, NGS with genomic DNA testing and analysis is proving very powerful.
Coming out of ViVE, there is an expectation that as we continue to see companies leverage the power of big data and multiomic technologies continue to evolve, we are likely to see the way we diagnose, treat, and prevent diseases radically transformed in the coming years.
Other Key Takeaways
Despite some market uncertainty concerning digital health, you wouldn't know it at ViVE considering the wealth of discussions around mergers and acquisitions (M+A). It is clear that there is still great interest in and potential to be found in companies pursuing and offering tech-enabled care coordination and innovation.
My conversations with various healthcare chief information officers (CIOs) revealed that organizations are continuing to embrace technology and automation to maximize their teams' productivity and help combat the persistent staffing shortages we are experiencing within healthcare. Staff recruitment and retention challenges remain significant factors in pushing healthcare organizations to increasingly invest in technology and automation to achieve greater output and efficiency.
While presentations covered a wide range of topics and issues, I noted some recurring themes. First, the importance of health equity is high on the minds of many companies and organizations. Second, as an industry, there is a longing for trustworthy data that can help us better unlock the power of human-centered care. Third, there remains significant interest in the opportunities to further and better leverage virtual care, in part to help navigate staffing shortages, increase access to care, and reduce the overall usage of resources.
The private equity groups (PEGs) in attendance seemed to have their sights predominantly set on companies within three industries: those providing revenue cycle management, cybersecurity, and post-acute services. In my conversations with buyers, these were the sectors that stood out most, although it's clear that PEGs are not looking past any sector when it comes to potential transactions.
Let's Connect
If you attended ViVE but our paths did not cross, I'd love to hear from you. The VERTESS team will be attending HIMSS in Chicago in April, so please reach out if you will be attending as well and would like to meet up. If you are interested in discussing any of the topics covered in this column or find out how our team at VERTESS can help your company with a sale or acquisition, do not hesitate to contact me.
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