ViVE Conference 2023 Wrap-Up: 6 Key Takeaways from Our Experts

ViVE 2023 was all about delivering better care at speed and at scale by leveraging the incredible changes that are occurring in technology to double down on benefiting the patients and practitioners. More than 7,500 health leaders from around the country attended the event. Our experts Sava Marinkovich and Andrew McGee were there, feeling encouraged to see the volume of conversations focused on making these innovations occur faster. Sava Marinkovich brings you the rundown of 6 takeaways from the conference.  

#1 End-to-end patient experience as an essential approach of delivering care has been broadly recognized 

What’s different today? Most industry stakeholders are pursuing options: payers, like UnitedHealth Group’s UCard, device manufacturers integrating patient insight before the first interaction with a device, and pharmaceutical companies looking at device/digital/drug interactions.

In one sense, there’s a land grab of consumer’s minds as they vie to reduce the total number of applications used on a regular basis. This inevitably leads to a “WeChat” approach of having one application serving as scheduling, triage, drug price comparison, and all the most common interactions when people think about health. 

I’m extremely fortunate to have a chance to work with an excellent team, Momentum Design Lab, who has been working at the forefront of understanding what makes people/patients reach their goals in the simplest and most comfortable way possible. 

#2 US Healthcare continues to be problematic 

With the highest spending per capita in the developed world and without the corresponding high level of health outcomes, US Healthcare continues to be problematic. Access is difficult, and poverty and addiction only add to the continued burden. Child health and maternal health are more fragmented across the US, especially after recent supreme court decisions. 

#3 AI and GPT4 will radically change the industry in 5 years 

It’s not just that the OpenAI's GPT4 platform has shown linguistic competency to address people’s questions and prompts, but that this transformer model can reach far beyond into the patient pathways and enable:  

• A quantum leap in insights. Insights into the patient pathway and interactions can be “quantified” in their own conceptual language and used to even better understand and tie into treatments. 
• The radical improvement of transparency and understanding of care. As a doctor speaks to their patient, a summary report and presentation can be made in real time, in the patient’s own language, with clear next steps ahead. Hospitals can now use these to create their own tailor-made reports into patient friendly and more compliant roadmap ahead for the patient, creating better trust. 

#4 It’s a dangerous time for data 

…and a few reasons why: 

• There is no healthcare equivalent of GDPR, where you can ask a provider or hospital to completely delete your data. It’s still in the hands of companies and health systems, and a person has no way to revoke this data from being used. What makes things even worse is the fact that, with GPT4, you may never know exactly how or when your data has been pulled in what way. The need for differential privacy in healthcare, especially when building out AI models will become essential. 
• E-Consented information is too broadly shared. Doctors have already expressed concerns about receiving a patient’s full medical record, especially if they are coming for a narrowly scoped consultation. A doctor may not want to know if a patient had an abortion, for example, as gray-area or inconclusive laws might require them to report that patient to state authorities. 
• It is unknown how people’s data, from wherever the source, might influence how GPT4 is deciding or delivering care, even in non-public data. There’s limited control and access (back to the GDPR issue), but also traceability. This can easily amplify health equity issues. 

#5 Better design thinking is needed, especially in AI/ML  

Better design thinking in the field of AI and ML will enable digital health equity, providing all individuals, regardless of their race, socio-economic status, age, cultural differences, with equal access to and use of digital health technologies and services.  

#6 Closeness of development to the patient and end-user 

Sandeep Dadlani, UHC’s Chief Digital and Technology Officer, showed how their team has moved to a 2-week cycle of getting feedback from users and immediately updating their new patient-facing features, especially through their new unified app, Ucard. This rapid iteration process, typical of what we, HTEC Group, and others do, is now on a large, corporate scale. These rapid refinements will allow them to stay close to the customer and their emerging needs.   

Andrew McGee explains that there was a palpable desire to unlock speed through technology, through partners, and through proven methodologies to focus on mission-critical initiatives that will make the health system better.    

“In my view, many questions and discussions challenged the status quo. Here are a few of them: 

• How do we reimagine what is already existing in the market to work more to the benefit of the patient/practitioner relationship?  
• How to build something entirely new that will disrupt existing models and products?  
• And maybe, most importantly of all, how do we do that at speed and scale while not losing sight of the ultimate person these new products and initiatives are meant to benefit most?” 

Andrew says that despite the new economic forces impacting all stakeholders, the conference displayed an ambitious attitude that left him feeling optimistic about the future of the industry. 

“I am confident that through continued collaboration and the integration of new technologies and disruptive product-led initiatives, we can improve the way healthcare is delivered to everyone.” 

How can HTEC help you shape and develop Healthcare solutions that will drive positive health outcomes for all?   

We have been helping organizations accelerate innovation and build transformative solutions that will reimagine the future of health. Check our client stories to see how we bring our clients' visions to life.    

We are sure not to miss next year’s ViVE Conference. In the meantime, reach out to Sava Marinkovich or Andrew McGee of our Healthtech excellence team to learn how we can help you build transformative medical solutions that will reinvent care delivery.