Last week I had the opportunity to speak on two panels at a different kind of conference. HealthIMPACT East was held in Washington DC. The first day was solely focused on social determinants of health 
(SDoH). The rest of the conference was on population health, interoperability, patient centered design, innovation, and blockchain.
The conference organizers and facilitators focus on what they call “purposeful events” with “no BS and no PowerPoints”. Instead of speakers talking “at people”, they facilitate lots of conversation in a room of full of smart people. The format was mostly panels with several excellent individual speakers who did use slides. The organizers want the conferences to be an idea exchange among a community of leaders and encourage dynamic debate.
The overall number of attendees was small. But it facilitated thought provoking discussion during each session and deeper networking connections at meals and breaks. I wasn’t tempted to pull out my iPhone to check my email as presenters talked through slide after slide. Instead, I was asking questions of the experts and engaged in the discussions. The track facilitators did an excellent job getting attendees engaged.
When I walked in, I only knew two people – Megan Antonelli, CEO HealthIMPACT and CEO/founder of Purpose Events Group, who had invited me to speak, and Nick Bonvino, CEO at Greater Houston Healthconnect and a frequent speaker on interoperability.
I met people with very different work experience and backgrounds but all in the healthcare space. I learned from all of them. And as a result, my network has been enriched. Thank you to Fred Goldstein, Gregg Masters, Doug Goldstein, Shahid Shah, Bruce Greenstein, Alan Gilbert, Heather Flannery, Neil Gomes, Vishnu Saxena, Peter Tippett, Amy Sheon and Sylvia Long-Tolbert among others. I encourage you to follow them all on Twitter for great content.
And I even got added to the “pink socks” tribe! Those of you in the health IT world will know what I’m talking about.
The panel on blockchain was excellent – I’ve not paid much attention to it thinking my more technically focused colleagues will focus there. But this group of experts moved me off that. Hearing the innovations happening in both acute and non-acute healthcare settings was inspiring. And I came to appreciate the importance of social determinants and associated challenges as we ensure everyone has access to healthcare.
There was a small number of sponsor firms available to talk about their products and services during breaks. A few of them highlighted their products in short 30-minute spotlight talks.
Would I attend another conference like this and participate as a speaker? Absolutely. And on the opposite end of the spectrum will I continue to attend the ginormous annual HIMSS conference with 40,000 plus attendees and find my niche each year? Yes.
Thanks to Gregg Masters at digital media company, Health Innovation Media, and Fred Goldstein who along with Gregg produces the Pophealth Week series, you will be able to listen to select HealthIMPACT East sessions and interviews with many of the speakers soon at “This Week in Health Innovation”. Hope you check it out!
And if you want to check out conference highlights already shared on social media – look up hashtag #HealthIMPACTEast or @HITHealthIMPACT on Twitter.
Budgets for conferences and training are limited in most organizations. You must choose wisely. I encourage you to consider smaller, focused, high value conferences such as this one.
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