Health 2.0 Santa Clara ‘2016 – the event, which is already more than a conference
- 2017-01-30 00:00:00
- Conference
Health 2.0 Santa Clara ‘2016 – the event, which is already more than a conference
Gyarmati Gábor – Quercus Consulting Group
A few weeks ago came to the end the 10th Health 2.0 conference in the heart of the Silicon Valley, in Santa Clara. As the founder and director of the Health 2.0 Hungary Chapter, I had the opportunity to visit the event in California and attend various lectures and professional discussions.
The four days of the Health 2.0 10th Annual Conference brought out everything we expect from a big American event: 2000 visitor, live presentations of more than 150 innovative health technologies, star presenters from the owners and management of the biggest solution-bringer companies, and of course an exciting and milling exhibition place, where you can get acquainted not only with the futuristic looking health gadget world but also with the attendance.
From the huge amount of new experiences, I would like to highlight only a few, which will be hopefully interesting for the Hungarian professional public.
In the midst of the rampageous presidential campaign, one of the main topics was the health care program “ObamaCare”, its attractive and convincing results and connection with the world of the cost-effective health technologies. The main value of these innovative solutions for the local decision-makers, hospital directors and businessmen is not primarily their creativity and novelty, but the attainable health-profit in US dollar. Aetna, one of the United States’ leading health insurance companies, announced during the conference that it will support its insured clients to purchase an Apple Watch with health care functions and a new application in order to help their health maintenance.
It is very difficult for me to highlight just one from all of these interesting technological innovations, but the Siren Care’s smart-sock is an excellent example for the health start-up world of the Silicon Valley. The Siren Smart Sock and its mobile application help the treatment of diabetic neuropathy with tracking the feet-temperature of diabetic patients.
Besides the American presenters and exhibitors, a serious and relevant European group attended the event as well. The Team Finland defined themselves as a small, easily reachable and very innovative “health care superpower”. A few years ago the Finnish team decided to expend most of its resources to finance local startups, which can provide creative solutions in the field of health care technology. Besides the financing, these companies also got business training and marketing support to reach overseas. There are representatives of almost twenty companies in Team Finland, and they presented a very successful presentation sequence. They showed us new solutions like sleep-tracking appliances, contact lenses with vital sensors, or mobile applications for cancer patients.
Although a lot of pharmaceutical companies attended the event as a presenter, only one of them, the Pfizer appeared as an exhibitor. They promoted their newest initiative, the competition trending towards developing creative digital technology solutions to ease the life of women with metastatic breast cancer. This global challenge is open for domestic candidates too because everybody can register on www.advancingmbcpatientcare.com without any restriction.
Since its start in 2007, the event series “Health 2.0” dreamed and organised by Indu Subaiya and Matthew Holt have become global, and a real movement emerged around it. These conferences bring out every aspect of the health care’s technological revolution, but show us not only digital trends but also provide a place to the brightest minds in this field to share their thoughts with the audience. Between the events, almost 100 different regional Health 2.0 Chapter communities – for example, the Hungarian – make sure that the local thoughts become global.
If the Health 2.0’s exciting and colourful world caught your attention, join the community of the Health 2.0 Hungary Chapter on LinkedIn and at our local event.
Gábor Gyarmati is the founder and co-owner of the Quercus Consulting Group – formerly Szinapszis Group. The QCG Group provides integrated services in the fields of market research, online and offline health care communication solutions and sales support. As a consultant and the founder of Health 2.0 Hungary Chapter, QCG is an expert of the digital technology trends of the health- and pharmaceutical industry.