The dust is starting to settle from the 2018 CES Digital Health Summit that took place January 10-11 in Las Vegas. No, the dust has nothing to do with the power outage that struck parts of the Las Vegas Convention Center last week, sapping major tech players’ (e.g. Samsung, LG, Sony) ability to demonstrate and sell new products for nearly two hours. It was a nightmare for both CES and the companies involved, but they powered through it, pun intended. This was my first time attending CES Digital Health Summit as a representative of ACAP Health, and I was duly impressed with everything I heard and saw.
The 2018 Digital Health Summit did a remarkable job of packing a diverse array of companies, content, ideas and innovations into a two-day event. Inside the exposition center were companies and gadgets ranging from baby tech to fitness sensors. The bottom level of the venue was filled with start-ups looking to develop new business leads, build their brands and possibly secure additional funding from the venture capital community. Unlike the electrical transformer that temporarily broke down at the LVCC, everything at the Digital Health Summit worked just right. I spoke with eight different exhibitors during the event spanning sleep tech giants like Sleep Number and small-scale research thought leaders from Case Western University in Ohio and they all told me the exact same thing – they were completely satisfied with their decision to invest their time, people and funding in the event, despite the risk of being a “small fish in a big pond.” In truth, there was plenty of “water” to go around for everyone.
I also heard from research leaders at Evidation Health about the latest trends in digital therapeutics, also known as “software as drugs.” Dr. Deborah Kilpatrick profiled how most patients and their medical outcomes in the past have been categorized for treatment and medication using “visible-to-the-system” information that is typically episodic, such as sneezing and congestion being linked to the common cold. Kilpatrick called for focusing clinical analysis on “invisible” types of patient information sources, such as anxiety and sleep patterns, to ask and answer different questions about human health. The ultimate goal for this new treatment method is very similar to the ACAP Health mission and the portfolio of employee benefits that ACAP provides… improve the quality of human lives.
Be sure to keep a close eye on the ACAP Health blog for more thought leadership content in the weeks and months ahead. Thanks for reading.
