Observations from HLTH 2024: Making healthcare work better for all

Last week I had the pleasure of attending HLTH 2024 in Las Vegas. I always look forward to HLTH – at least until I have to start packing – because it represents a chance to be surrounded by people working towards the same goal: making healthcare work better for all. 

I often get accused of being a bit of a “geek” when it comes to healthcare technology, especially healthcare data. I can feel people’s eyes glaze over when I start to wax poetic about the nuances of FHIR API versioning or which implementation guide someone should read to familiarize themselves with how clinical notes are captured in FHIR. Totally fair, I get it. That’s not the cool stuff (for most people). What’s cool is what people can build with FHIR. 

I won’t recite the statistics, we all know them, but I wake up every morning looking forward to a future where the United States doesn’t lead the world in healthcare spending in return for some of the worst healthcare outcomes of any developed country. I truly believe technology can move the needle here, and HLTH represents a gathering of people who at least feel some semblance of the same way. 

Aside from the excitement of being around like minded people, I also look forward to HLTH as a way to keep tabs on what’s happening in the broader health tech space. Here are some of my observations from my time at this year’s event:

AI takes the backseat to solving today’s practical realities

I was not surprised to see an AI Pavilion filled with companies putting their own twist on how this emerging (yes, still) technology can help drive healthcare forward. It was great to see the ways that AI is already being used, across all segments of healthcare, to help accelerate initiatives related to patient care, clinical trial recruitment, and more. 

I was somewhat surprised to see the hype around AI had become more muted than at last year’s conference. I even attended a roundtable where the moderator asked panelists to answer questions “without talking about AI”. In many ways, it seemed as though this year’s attendees were more concerned with solving the practical realities of today than with more forward-looking opportunities.

Putting patients in the driver’s seat for their health

A common thread across many conversations, panels, and sessions was putting patients in the driver’s seat for their health. At 1upHealth, we strongly believe that enabling individuals to better engage in their care is a fundamental step to driving improved healthcare outcomes so it was exciting to see this reciprocated broadly by our peers in the space. 

One example of this was positioning food, and wellness more broadly, as medicine – both as a preventive measure and in helping patients recover from particularly grueling treatments (aggressive chemo, invasive surgeries, etc.) faster. “Precision Medicine” is often thought of in the same breath as oncology, but diet and exercise also need to be tailored to the individual in order to be effective. A prerequisite for this is having a complete view of the individual, their medical history, and their needs – and this requires interoperability.

Interoperability challenges and opportunities

On the subject of getting a complete view of the individual, I was also surprised to see just how much of an unsolved problem healthcare interoperability represents. I spoke with dozens of people over the course of the conference that had interoperability challenges unique to their business, had talked to several vendors at the conference, and still left with more questions than answers. 

While I’m hopeful that I helped at least a few of them find more answers and resolve some questions, it was striking to me how difficult it must be to navigate the interoperability space as someone who isn’t steeped in it on a daily basis. There’s integration engines, HIEs, TEFCA, QHINs, HL7, HL7 FHIR, and all sorts of other alphabet soup acronyms that people need to learn. 

If your expertise is in radiology, and you’re building software to help doctors interpret the results of CT Scans faster, the most efficient use of your time is not in worrying about how to integrate with EHRs. I’m glad to be part of a team like 1upHealth that can help take that burden off the backs of folks who are pushing technology forward and ultimately will help us live longer, better, healthier lives. 

The leading interoperability solution for patient-mediated data access

Just ahead of HLTH, 1upHealth announced the latest release of 1up Patient Connect, featuring enhanced capabilities for secure and compliant patient data access and sharing. With 1up Patient Connect, digital health companies, providers, and life sciences organizations can enable individuals to easily access their health information from their doctor or health plan within any application they choose, and seamlessly authorize the secure flow of data into that app. The latest release builds on the initial product’s success.

Customers Primary Record, a family health app, and Evidation, a leader in direct-to-participant, real-world health research, joined us in our HLTH booth to talk about their experience with 1up Patient Connect and demo their use of the product, allowing visitors to see interoperability in action instead of in the abstract.

I regularly work with companies like Primary Record and Evidation, who want to focus on what they’re building and need help connecting the dots data wise. If you find yourself in a similar boat, please don’t hesitate to reach out (Kevin.Kowalczyk@1up.health). I’d value the opportunity to discuss your business model and how 1upHealth might be able to help with your data interoperability challenge.