What’s hot at ViVE: Sparks, enlightenment, and camaraderie

The final touches are underway. Appointments and schedules are being finalized, business apparel is being readied for packing —maybe some cowboy boots, hats and buckles, thrown in — and Southwest Airlines passengers are getting their check-in fingers ready to hit the refresh button at exactly 24 hours ahead of flight time. Music City is about to be transformed into a digital health wonderland, as healthcare IT industry leaders get ready to hit VIVE 2023 in Nashville. Expectations are high, as many leaders told DHI they are anticipating inspiration, connections (in-person!), and provocative discussion on topics such as cybersecurity, interoperability, health equity, and artificial intelligence (AI).

There are some really good conversation starters in this mix of comments. We at DHI can’t wait to hear about and take part in these conversations. Stop by the DHI Kiosk, which is next to the CHIME Theater in VIVE Central, the big area right in the middle of the show floor (map).

We’d love to hear your thoughts about these and other topics (click to go to specific topic section):

• Making connections
• Digital transformation
• Artificial Intelligence
• Data quality and interoperability
• Patient focus
• Staff and operations
• Cybersecurity
• Health equity

Making connections

Charlie Harp, CEO, Clinical Architecture (Booth 2020)

“ViVE is a great opportunity to connect with healthcare luminaries and thought leaders and get the pulse of the things that are changing across our industry. This year there is a great lineup of speakers and sessions and, as always, I appreciate the opportunity to meet other travelers on our collective journey to use technology and information to enable better healthcare.”

Rob Dreussi, Chief Solutions Officer, HCTec 

“Attending ViVE is a unique experience. I can’t think of any other conference when I can listen to both the CEO of HCA speak one minute and to a startup company pitch their value the next minute. Personally, I’m excited to see more representation from payors providing their perspectives on healthcare IT. Walking the show floor is a great way to get the pulse on market needs. Certainly, ViVE also represents a great opportunity to connect with existing colleagues and make new ones. Nashville is my home, and I can’t think of any better location for ViVE.”

Wes Cronkite, Chief Technology and Innovation Officer, CPSI

“ViVE and HLTH are the two healthcare conferences I look forward to attending every year for the opportunity to hear in one event the perspectives of where healthcare regulations are heading, where technology innovation is making an impact, and a showcase of all the digital health and startup solutions coming to life. That, along with networking with those serious about changing the game of healthcare delivery in one location for a few days, is incredibly powerful and worthwhile.”

Digital Transformation

Claire Zimmerman, SVP of Enterprise Product, Equality Health

“Just a year old, ViVE has already become the go-to event to learn the latest in healthcare technology, innovation and industry transformation. We expect insightful discussions on leveraging the latest in technology to help assist and unburden providers and staff in our industry, and we’re eager to learn about and share how these solutions help drive the shift to value-based care — a major imperative given CMS’s focus on moving the vast majority of Medicare and Medicaid spending to value-based contracts by 2030.”

Kimberly Hartsfield, EVP of Growth Enablement, VisiQuate

“Health care leaders need to embrace technology like never before to find solutions that allow their staff to work smarter. Facing unprecedented financial pressure following the pandemic and staff burnout, many are considering a “do nothing” approach while waiting for a brighter day. The cost of doing nothing around technology investment was clearly demonstrated by Southwest Airlines over the holidays. The C-Suite should take that as a cautionary tale-making a smart investment in technology right now may be the only path to success in the coming year.”

G. Cameron Deemer, CEO, DrFirst (Booths 1550 and 1524-1)

“The last few years have been characterized by healthcare enterprises, large and small, scrambling to survive a crazy confluence of events. Pandemic, war, economic disaster, we’ve had it all. I’m expecting this year to be very different, though. As we get some breathing room from the focus on just staying above water, we’re going to see a new explosion of innovation. You can already see the eagerness to collaborate, the enthusiasm around the impact of AI, and thought leaders all over healthcare working on efficiency and outcomes in ways that recognize our world has changed. The big question for those at ViVE is: What are we going to do with the opportunities change has created?”

Russ Thomas, CEO, Availity (Booth 2102-2)

“When most stakeholders think about transforming health IT, we think of the moonshots and disrupters. And it’s true that advances in research, technology, and analytics have been force multipliers in public health, population health, and clinical care. However, true transformation in healthcare can’t be realized when the widespread application of 21st century healthcare innovations are impeded by an administrative engine remains fixed in the 20th century. Prior authorizations, claims management, basic benefits and coverage determination and other analog communications between health plans and providers have accumulated steadily over the years. The result is that these cumbersome processes are burning out staff, wreaking havoc on organizations’ financial margins, and leaving too many consumers dissatisfied with the efficacy of the healthcare system, if not left behind altogether. This underlying transformation can only happen with a renewed emphasis on delighting the end user. The underlying technology—artificial intelligence, an intuitive interface, or just a well-designed workflow — is important but only to the extent that it enables a seamless and meaningful user experience.”

Artificial Intelligence

Sulabh Agarwal, CTO, KeyCare

With ChatGPT and other Large Language Models (LLMs) blazing through the hype cycle, I expect to see a resurgence of AI at the show. We will see demos of LLMs related to workflow automation and trying to address burnout. It will be interesting to sift through what’s practical for healthcare given the current accuracy limitations of these models.

Calum Yacoubian, MD, Director, Healthcare Strategy, Linguamatics, an IQVIA company (Booth V2130)

“I predict there will plenty of ‘chat’ about generative AI, given the speed of adoption and interest in large language models since ChatGPT launched late last year. I anticipate we will see real questions about the potential value of this type of technology, including where it should best be used – or not used. Unstructured data holds real promise for improving patient outcomes and supporting health equity initiatives and leaders will seek tools with a high degree of transparency and proven success in healthcare.”

Zac Fleming, VP of Strategy, TimelyMD

We are seeing an unprecedented rate of adoption of AI-powered self-care. At first, it was just Gen Z driving this trend, but we are now seeing multiple generations beginning their care journey with OpenAI, TikTok, and Google. ViVE is bringing together those that recognize this shift and are reimagining the future care experience. Not using AI is no longer an option but just focusing on AI is not the solution either. Leaders at ViVE will not be asking ‘if they will use AI’ but ‘how they can use AI to enhance the care experience’.

Colin Banas, Chief Medical Officer, DrFirst (Booths #1550 and 1524-1)

The buzz about AI is at an all-time high these days, and I expect a lot of conversations at ViVE about it as clinicians consider how new technologies like ChatGPT, BARD, and others can alleviate more of the mundane, repetitive tasks inherent in clinical care. There’s good reason to be excited, as long as we “keep it real” with plain talk about what AI can actually do safely for patients right now. Not everything in AI needs to be a proverbial “home run.” We’ve already proven we can hit a lot of “singles” with AI that does many of the tiny, tedious tasks that can weigh down provider workflows, which has made a tremendous difference for clinicians and patients.

Data quality and interoperability

John Nebergall, COO, Consensus Cloud Solutions (Booth 1020)

“Our team at Consensus Cloud Solutions is excited to participate in ViVE 2023 this year and we have many new innovations to share with both leaders and attendees. We see ViVE 2023 as an invaluable digital health event as it provides a platform for sharing innovative ideas and solutions centered on healthcare IT and digital transformation. We’re looking forward to joining our friends and colleagues at ViVE 2023 to further our mission of improving patient care, by offering IT solutions that not only cut costs, but increase efficiencies throughout the healthcare ecosystem. Also, our own Bevey Miner will be joining a panel of HITRUST and DirectTrust leaders to discuss the challenges to interoperability on the CHIME DHI stage.”

Oleg Bess, CEO and Cofounder, 4medica

“The healthcare landscape is dotted with silos full of patient data. Each silo is valuable on its own, but worth so much more when it’s connected to others. The ability to exchange data easily, efficiently and accurately among providers, payers and patients is crucial to delivering high-quality healthcare. I look forward to discussing innovations in data interoperability and the increasing importance of data quality in healthcare at ViVE.”

Kim Perry, Chief Growth Officer, emtelligent

“Healthcare organizations are about to realize tangible benefits from medical NLP provided by expert vendors, those that leverage large language models trained through deep learning on high-quality, task-focused, physician-annotated data. With the benefits provided by these latest methods, organizations will be able to more accurately and reliably identify the tremendous breadth of useful information currently buried in medical reports and increase the searchability and explainability of their data, resulting in improved clinician productivity and patient outcomes, and increased reimbursement and quality.”

Patient Focus

Alecia Pritchett, Chief Growth Officer, ixlayer

“With so many folks across digital healthcare under one roof, ViVE is a conference that sparks one-of-a-kind conversations. I am most looking forward to the thoughtful discussions about using technology to enhance the patient experience – wherever they are. We have an incredible opportunity to shift care delivery through telemedicine and at-home testing, thanks to innovative technologies that connect the dots between logistics and medicine. This not only supports home care and increases access in rural areas, but also empowers patients to understand their health on their own terms – such as patients checking their own vitals with direct-to-consumer health tests or patient monitoring tools. I am really excited to be joining Everly Health, BioReference and Athelas on a panel that discusses how we think access to diagnostic testing will lead to greater health insights at a lower cost for more people.”

David Lareau, CEO, Medicomp Systems (Booth V2128)

“The management and delivery of primary care services is undergoing massive change as companies such as CVS, Walgreens, and Amazon enter the field. The health information deluge is about to become real with the continued growth of Medicare Advantage and other value-based care programs, the establishment of Qualified Health Information Networks (QHINs) and the expanded access to medical information for patients pursuant to the 21st Century Cures Act. Organizations are realizing that to make sense of the data and improve patient outcomes, they must have a new set of tools that makes clinical data and information usable at the point of care, whether in-person or virtual, in the home, or as part of comprehensive case management of chronic conditions.”

Ryne Natzke, Chief Revenue Officer, Sphere

“Healthcare providers understand that for the majority of patients, price transparency is becoming the expectation – and not just something requested by a few. Between current financial and economic challenges and patients being responsible for an ever-increasing portion of their healthcare costs, many will avoid care when costs are unknown, except in the most urgent situations. Providers recognize that they must embrace tools to deliver proactive, self-service cost estimates – or risk losing patients to those that deliver better price transparency.”

Andy Flanagan, CEO, Iris Telehealth (Booth MP-2366)

“The consumerization of healthcare is giving patients more control over how and from whom they receive care, and providers are finding that they must adjust to patient wishes in these matters. Some primary care providers who adopted telepsychiatry out of necessity during the pandemic will want to resume in-person treatment because it’s traditional and the model with which they’re most familiar. However, they might find their patients disagree. With the end of the Covid-19 public health emergency (PHE) now set for mid-May, I look forward to the conversations around what it looks like to be a successful telehealth organization going forward and the impact on behavioral health patients because their need for treatment won’t end when the PHE does.”

Staff and operations

Bill Grana, CEO, HCTec

“I’m looking forward to, as is always the case with these conferences, connecting face to face with healthcare provider technology leaders. This conference is even more exciting and special given that this year it’s being hosted in HCTec’s backyard of Nashville. More specifically, I’m looking forward to discussions and sessions addressing ways that healthcare providers can reimagine their operations, further leverage technology, and build strong strategic partnerships to counter the significant financial and labor challenges they currently face.”

Josh Rubel, Chief Commercial Officer, MDClone (Booth 2444)

“Health systems and provider organizations are adjusting to the new economic realities, and high performance will be increasingly based on becoming more efficient and more productive through automation and streamlined data-driven analysis. To succeed, health systems will find ways maximize their talent and their data assets.”

Lyle Berkowitz, MD, CEO, KeyCare

“Every health system is dealing with staffing shortages, access issues and provider burnout. Leaders are looking for technology and services – or ideally a blend of both – that can help address these challenges. As health systems come to realize it’s time to mimic best practices in other industries, I believe we will hear more discussions about how tech-enabled virtual care teams can support and amplify office-based providers and how providers can automate, delegate and virtualize as much routine work as possible.”

Greg Miller, Chief Growth Officer, Lumeon (Booth 1338)

“We talk with Health System executives every day, and the common theme is their urgent need to solve for workforce challenges, while also reducing costs. Automation in other industries (banking, insurance, travel, etc.) has proven to have a positive impact on both workforce and cost reduction, while actually improving the customer experience. In healthcare delivery, there are many frequent, manual, repetitive processes that a computer is better suited to do, but instead, we task clinicians and staff to do them. I believe that you will see an increase in health systems focused on automated care process orchestration. The goal of orchestration is to streamline and optimize the execution of frequent, repeatable processes and thus to help care teams more easily manage complex tasks and workflows. Anytime a process is repeatable, and its tasks can be automated, orchestration can be applied to save time, increase efficiency, and reduce costs, while also enhancing the predictability and reliability of outcomes.”

Adam McMullin, CEO, AvaSure (Booth 911)

“I predict that care team transformation will be a hot topic at ViVE. The nursing shortage and financial pressures are the key drivers. At a time when there are 1.1M+ open positions, 52% of nurses are considering quitting the bedside. Hospital leadership is acutely aware they need a change, and 83% are considering virtual nursing as a solution. Nurses can practice at the highest level of their licenses and take pleasure in the most rewarding aspect of their work thanks to virtual monitoring technology, which allows them to spend more time with patients.”

Cybersecurity

Scott Stuewe, President and CEO, DirectTrust 

“I’m looking forward to discussion at ViVE around digital identity and cybersecurity relevant to interoperability. The presentations on Digital Identity Federation and the CARIN Alliance proof of concept on Monday are sure to be enlightening for how the health IT community moves forward in the identity space so interoperability can continue to progress.”

Dan L. Donson, CEO, Fortified Health Security (Booth 2243)

“I never miss an opportunity to get closer to our industry and network with our clients. ViVE provides so much collaborative learning for all that attend, and we’re excited to contribute to this through our own presence at the show. And at this year’s ViVE 2023 we’ll be launching our innovative new service delivery platform, Fortified Central Command. This is truly going to transform the relationship between us and our clients, and we’re looking forward to sharing it publicly for the first time!”

Health Equity

Vidya Raman-Tangella, Chief Medical Officer, Teladoc Health

“It’s clear there’s a greater industry-wide focus on health equity this year that is embedded within both clinical strategy and delivery of care from the start. Virtual care has and will continue to play a vital role in addressing health equity within the health system, and I’m looking forward to hearing what some of the best in the industry are doing to drive advances in equity forward, in both in-person and virtual settings, and to exploring new ways we all can collaborate in achieving this important shared goal.”