Just a few weeks ago, we had our 13th annual Partners Connected Health Symposium. It was a success by all counts, with just under 1,200 attendees from around the world participating in this amazing event. Year after year, we take great care and significant pride in delivering unparalleled content and, based on feedback from attendees, this year was no exception. I hesitate to mention highlights as there wasn’t a weak spot on the program, but I particularly enjoyed JoAnn Jenkins, Charlotte Yeh, Nancy Brown, Zoe Chance and Dan Ledger. The panels were all well received too and our innovator-focused sessions — the annual Innovator’s Challenge; new CHIC Challenge; and the FitMind Challenge, which was sponsored by AARP — were highlights to many.
A number of folks pointed out to me how our focus for the Symposium has changed over the years. I’d like to think that our content and theme have reflected the state of the industry and provided an important look to the future. This year we focused on caring technology (motion sensing, wearables that provide insight) and technology as a tool for improved health as we get older.
Our broader focus at Partners Connected Health has always been — and remains — to educate, inform and inspire the adoption of connected health strategies. The Symposium has been an important way for us to achieve this goal. We’ve also always believed in advancing innovation through collaboration. At our 13th annual event, we announced a new partnership that will create the singular leadership event focused on the future of technology-enabled health and wellness.
As of 2017, the Connected Health Symposium will join forces with the Personal Connected Health Alliance’s Connected Health Conference (formerly the mHealth Summit). The merger of our events creates a platform with greater reach and significant opportunities to provide leadership, support innovation and bring together business, government and healthcare leaders to achieve the sustained adoption of personal connected health.
This combined event will be hosted by PCHAlliance (a HIMSS organization) with Partners Connected Health serving as the Organizing Partner, and will come under the banner of the Connected Health Conference. We are finalizing the dates and location for next year’s meeting, so stay tuned.
I was honored that PCHAlliance asked me to serve as Program Chair for the combined event. As you probably know, I have been extremely involved in shaping the content for our Symposium and look forward to doing the same for the new Connected Health Conference. That means you can count on a new look and feel to the combined event, and you’ll see evidence of my involvement in the content choices, organization and structure of the 2017 Conference.
The Connected Health Conference, currently in its eighth year, has built an impressive following. Our combined efforts will bring together major companies, investors, government agencies, consumers and, of course, healthcare providers, with the intent to inspire them to change the world by implementing insights gathered and lessons learned from our conference in their day to day lives.
We’re starting to work on next year’s program already. Our team at Partners Connected Health is excited about this new collaboration and DeAnna Grosbaum, who has done an outstanding job organizing our Symposium, will be working with the PCHAlliance team to help us deliver a dynamic, thought leadership program.
In the meantime, I will be at the 2016 Connected Health Conference next month in Washington, DC, and will be eager to hear your ideas as we build the largest event dedicated to digital and connected health.
I can’t wait. Stay tuned.
The Road Ahead for Partners Connected Health Symposium
