On April 16, 2024, the MedHealth Summit brought together healthcare innovators from the U.S. and Canada for a memorable day of content and connection. Since 2017, the summit has provided fertile ground to explore how we can improve care delivery and keep healthcare in step with the rapid pace of technology. Here is a snapshot of what happened at the event.
Attendees
Exhibitors
sponsors
Speakers
Matchmaking Meetings
What We Heard
Federal agencies like the Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) for Health Information Technology and Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) are key in advancing healthcare innovation, providing funding, support, and regulatory frameworks for biomedical research, health IT, and electronic health records. Collaboration between the government and startups is vital for tackling healthcare challenges through technology advancements.
Health equity and responsible AI use are top priorities. The ONC’s “Health Equity by Design” initiative addresses inequities in technology development, and regulations emphasize transparency, accountability, and bias mitigation in AI tools. Both agencies focus on creating inclusive health technologies and promoting responsible, high-value uses of health information.
AI and the Future of Healthcare
The panel discussion, sponsored by AWS, delved into the potential of AI in clinical care, emphasizing its ability to handle vast data, optimize labor, and integrate with consumer technology. However, trust remains a significant barrier due to a need for ethical considerations and data privacy.
The panel also addressed the technical challenges of using AI in healthcare, such as the importance of prompt engineering and preventing AI from operating in unsuitable areas like clinical abductive reasoning. Because of this, AI is more likely to assist rather than replace providers by supplementing existing workloads.
The Landscape of Funding for Medtech
This panel, sponsored by ID Ventures, discussed the core components that investors look for when evaluating opportunities: viability, scalability, and value proposition. They stressed the importance for pre-investment companies to show research progress, validate their problem–engaging with healthcare systems to validate their products and align development strategies with investor expectations.
The panelists also dove into topics such as the evolution of Michigan’s entrepreneurial ecosystem, market sizing, and the importance of maintaining velocity when working toward commercialization.
The Future of the Healthcare Workforce Training
This panel, sponsored by the Detroit Regional Chamber, discussed innovation being used to train healthcare professionals. Trending topics like virtual reality and augmented reality (AR and VR), as well as AI, were among the technologies explored. AR and VR offer immersive and engaging learning experiences that can accelerate training and provide standardized approaches to education. Although AI adoption in healthcare is slow due to accuracy concerns, it holds significant opportunity. Teaching healthcare staff to write prompts for AI tools could improve efficiency in various tasks such as data analysis and text summarization.
Additionally, technology can be used to educate healthcare professionals on human-centered factors like unconscious bias and cultural sensitivity. Beyond technology, upskilling involves listening to healthcare professionals’ concerns, addressing their well-being, and providing necessary resources and support.
Behind the Scenes With HHS
This year, representatives from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) joined us at the summit to share how healthcare innovators can engage with federal agencies and access funding and resources that are critical for early-stage research and innovation. The day before the summit, MedHealth and participating HHS agencies toured several locations to learn about nontraditional places where healthcare is happening in Detroit, including:
