HLTH Europe: Days 2 & 3 Recap

#HLTHEurope has come to an end! Agustina Bigatti already helped us recap HLTH Europe's first two days, so let's get into days 2 and 3.

Day 2

Wednesday started off with a sunrise yoga session (Agus always appreciates a good stretch before a busy day), and a walking tour through the city. After moving our bodies for a bit, we went straight into the panel discussions.

Ghosts in the machine: Empowering healthcare to capitalise on GenAI

The panel discussion was presented by David Rhew, M.D. , Global Chief Medical Officer & VP Healthcare at Microsoft, Betsabeh Madani-Hermann, Global Head of Research at Philips, Julien Hobeika, Partner at EQT Ventures, Claire Bloomfield, Senior Director, Development & Strategy at insitro, and Jim Swanson, Executive VP, Chief Information Officer at Johnson & Johnson.

This roundtable focused on the actual factors health systems need to take into account if they're seeking to use Generative AI. We all know GenAI still has some work to do (trust, bias and accuracy-wise), but its benefits seem to override these possible errors. As Betsabeh Madani Hermann said, "Gen AI brings patient data together across the ecosystem to support a truly personalized assessment.”

However, implementing this technology requires a collaborative, strategic and trusting environment where it can thrive, and, as the panelists concluded, there's a lot of work to do in the healthcare industry.

Expecting tomorrow: Health's most fertile new market

Fertility is definitely a topic we haven't heard much of in healthcare conferences, so hearing how the digital health industry is revolutionizing ovulation tracking, hormone monitoring, fertility advice and conception aides, to name a few, is amazing.

This panel was given by Asima Ahmad, MD, MPH, FACOG , Co-Founder & Chief Medical Officer at Carrot Fertility, Nader AlSalim, Founder & CEO at Gaia, Jens Noertershaeuser, Founder & Co-CEO at Kranus Health, Dr Natalie Getreu, Founder & COO at Hertility, and Leah Callahan, Senior Content Manager at HLTH.

We learned roughly 1 in 6 people worldwide experience infertility in some form, making it a more prevalent health condition than other, much better-funded areas! Nader AlSalim had some truly interesting thoughts about the industry: no one should pay for fertility treatments until results are shown. He stated the only valid measures for fertility clinics are "dollar per birth and time to birth".

Day 2 was, again, filled with interesting panel discussions, but it was also full of fun and relaxing activities, like a gaming lounge, a painting activity (where Petunia joined us) and a DJ set by Ceci Fierce. When there's big conferences like HLTH Europe, we recommend taking time to enjoy these moments where you can share and connect with other attendees.

We finished off Wednesday by going to the HLTHfest, where we heard The Libertines play and danced the night off until day 3!

Day 3

HLTH Europe's last day! Most of the attendees had left, so, as HLTH called us, only the "survivors" were left.

Since this was the calmest day for networking, we dedicated most of my time to the panel discussions, which were especially interesting!

Goldmine or fool's gold? Extracting value from health data

One of the conference's trending topics was data. Healthcare data is extremely powerful, but its maximum potential is yet to be reached.

Lucy Orr-Ewing, Data & AI Policy Fellow at Stanford University School of Medicine and NHS England, Ludovic d'Apréa, CEO Solution for Enterprise Imaging at GE HealthCare, LaShonda Anderson-Williams, EVP & Chief Strategy Officer at Salesforce, Andrew Trister, MD PhD, Chief Medical and Scientific Officer at Verily, and Gloria Seibert, Founder & CEO at Temedica, discussed how to use data efficiently and differently in the healthcare industry.

Having a data-driven approach seems to be essential nowadays, yet using artificial intelligence to manage it still raises concerns. "As tech continues its quest to improve care by leveraging data sets, there are questions about bias and representation we must address. Deep learning and Generative AI approaches must be designed to recognize these challenges.” - Andrew Trister.

At Light-it we truly believe technology and AI are game-changers for the healthcare industry, since it can alleviate workflows, administrative burdens and clinician burnout. We still have lots of work to do until we understand its full potential, but artificial intelligence is definitely a step forward in healthcare innovation!

Greener, leaner, cleaner: Healthcare's role in global warming

Lastly, we were really excited to end our visit at the conference with this discussion, because healthcare's impact in climate change is not normally addressed, so learning our industry creates twice the emissions of the aviation industry was an unpleasant surprise.

Aline Gomez-Acebo Finat, Chief Sustainability Officer at ASISA, Dr Rowland Illing, CMO & Director of Public Sector Health at Amazon Web Services (AWS), Robert Metzke, SVP & Global Head Sustainability at Philips, and Stefanie Kneer, Head of ESG & Sustainability at Three Hills, discussed how healthcare organizations can lessen their greenhouse emissions.

Robert Metzke spoke about his experience at Philips: “In sustainable healthcare there’s a gap in intention and action: In Philips Future Health Index nearly 90% of health leaders see climate change as crucial, yet many struggle to integrate it in their clinical workflows."

So, although we focus on improving people's lives, we always need to bear in mind that global warming is something we need to constantly watch out for, since a contaminated planet will ultimately worsen our health.

HLTH Europe's last day finished off with the Survivors' BBQ, where we shared stories of our week in Amsterdam. These last days were perfect for connecting with other digital health leaders, fostering innovative ideas and getting to know novel solutions in healthcare.

Special thanks to HLTH, who allowed us to cover Europe's biggest healthcare innovation event so our Insiders could stay in the loop. See you all at the next event!