J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference Recap: How Technology Can Improve Healthcare

Posted by | January 12, 2012

We’ve talked about Enterprise 3.0 before—how the evolution of social media, big data, mobile technology, Internet of Things, and cloud computing are transforming the enterprise. But more and more of the conversations at the healthcare and life sciences conferences this week were about the convergence of these same trends in many life sciences sectors and how this combination can spur innovative new growth opportunities for entrepreneurs.

While healthcare may already be one of the most technologically advanced industries, most of the technology has been applied reactively to develop medical devices and drugs that treat existing maladies or diseases. When it comes to preventive medicine, technology has come up short—which may be contributing to skyrocketing healthcare costs.

Fortunately, we are now seeing technology enter the healthcare and life sciences space to proactively address healthcare issues. Take the iPhone. It represents a ubiquitous consumer product that now has thousands of healthcare apps available, enabling physicians, patients, and consumers the opportunity to quickly and efficiently monitor and discuss health issues.

There was extensive talk at the conference this week about the countless opportunities to improve healthcare by combining mobile technology and medical devices. Mobile connectivity allows patients to be monitored in an entirely different way, providing critical medical information to physicians and caregivers in real time, no matter where they are. Mobile can also help improve chronic disease management, allow for efficient tracking and maintenance of wellness and fitness, and tether doctors and patients 24/7.

Mobile technology provides an opportunity to improve healthcare, but is just one of the advances poised to help healthcare become more efficient. In fact, we may be at a tipping point of the tech invasion of healthcare; it can change the game and allow us to engage health in a more social way. You never know, at this rate, it may not be long before OneMedForum San Francisco and the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference are combined with C.E.S.!

(Visited 97 times, 1 visits today)

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,