Health Datapalooza 2017 – The Data Revolution Rolls On

Themes for the 8^th annual Health Datapalooza include consumer market places, value based care and health care redesign through data

Greg DowningThe 8^th annual Health Datapalooza returns on April 26 – 28 and offers a re-imagined vision of health and health care through the lens of data. In years past, Health Datapalooza has set its sights on health-care startups, apps, big data, electronic health records – you name it – but the main thrust was always more about the business of health care and how tech and data are used to innovate.

The annual conference for data geeks, developers, health tech venture capitalists, and start-up wannabes, among others, will this year triangulate around the idea that the patient should be at the center of health care. Consumers are increasingly interested in the choices and options available to them, and want more control over decisions about their choice of providers, health care interventions and decisions about healthy foods and activities. Patients want these choices to be more integrated into their lifestyles.

This year, Health Datapalooza, powered by Academy Health, HHS, and others, is targeting a number of patient-centered themes to help patients become informed consumers. There will be opportunities at Health Datapalooza to learn how big data, analytics, cyber tools and tech can improve care and help improve outcomes. Speakers at the conference will be talking about the consumer/provider interaction experience and how it is being transformed by technology – think telemedicine or how value-based care programs have helped reduce hospital readmissions. The agenda includes sessions devoted to “Patients as Co-Pilots,” the “Empowered Patient,” and the “Consumer Marketplace.” Patient-generated health data, patient matching, patient portals, and patients as “co-pilots;” are front and center at this year’s conference. There are also a number of sessions devoted to privacy and security in health data, a perennial focus.

But merely making data available isn’t enough. One of the purposes of Health Datapalooza has always been to identify areas for innovation. The conference serves as an open platform for engaging people who have bold ideas on the use of health data and enlisting them to help revamp how patient data is contributed – by and for patients – and used to innovate.

Don’t Miss Out On…

Two New Challenges Will Be Announced

• HHS will launch a new data challenge, The Healthy Behavior Data Challenge as a collaboration with the Public Health Authority-Canada, and the CDC and the HHS IDEA Lab’s own Sandeep Patel will be on hand at the HHS IDEA Lab booth to answer your questions about what that is all about.
• Patient matching – a thorny challenge that centers on ensuring that the electronic data on hand matches up exactly to the patient in the examination room – is the target of the second challenge, the HHS-HIMSS Patient Matching Challenge.

International Delegations

• Health ministers and delegates from eight countries around the world are working together to establish common principles for the use of health data, and enable the establishment of a global business platform for applying health systems data to spark innovation technology and business solutions. At HHS, we are working internationally to foster economic development and help facilitate innovation, surmount boundaries, cross borders and enable electronic health data to be available when and where it’s needed.

Code-a-thon on April 26th

• HHS is contributing to an off-site code-a-thon with partners at 1776, so there will be ample opportunity for developers and data entrepreneurs to test and modify new ideas to help patients.

Check out the IDEA Lab at the Exhibition Hall

• The IDEA Lab staff and a number of HHS innovators and Entrepreneurs in Residence will be on site at the IDEA Lab’s booth in the Exhibitor Hall at the conference. Follow the IDEA Lab on Twitter (@HHSIDEALab) for updates on speakers and events at the IDEA Lab booth.

My Experience at HDP

We created Health Datapalooza in 2009 from the simple idea that transparency and exchange of data throughout the health care system would unleash massive innovation. Together, we have shaped this event into a platform for catalyzing change by dialogue, testing of new ideas and technologies, providing context to the value of health care and incentivizing business development at the leading edge of the new health economy. Using data as the fuel for innovation, Health Datapalooza stands today as a dynamic symbol for a vibrant, value-based ecosystem that was imagined nearly a decade ago. In the diagram above, we tried to describe this effort. As a founder of this data-enabled movement for health-care system innovation, I can see the remarkable culture change that has come about through the liberation of data. Now, let us continue the revolution of data-powered innovation to shape the new frontier of health and health care in America. ¡Viva la Revolución!