Healthcare techno-populism & innotaiment

I recently overheard a conversation between a group of healthcare administrators during one of the many healthcare innovation conferences in our country:

“Didn't you go to the HIMMS in Las Vegas?” In the derogatory tone of .... you don't really move with the times, do you? The addressed manager responded with "Uhh, at our organization we have guidelines that prevent such trips for directors and besides, we can't get our trips to Las Vegas on." The first colleague was clearly out for a personal victory. “Yes, but this is the technology conference for healthcare. No modern healthcare manager should be missing there!!” His colleague agreed: “Yes indeed, the future in healthcare is genome sequencing! 3D printing! wearables! block chain! drone! robots! big data! startups! And if you don't understand that, then you're not of this time as a driver!"

“But for me it's about the attention for the patient and our employees”, the director addressed further defended himself. The Las Vegas travelers turned haughtily and left their fellow conference-goer in awe. I walked up to the woman and told her that I had been listening in and asked what she thought of the convention. “Oh dear, those two can't get a a clinical report digitally out of the institution yet”, she said with a smile. “And especially not to each other. Just work together. They compete against each other about which innovation they have now embraced and all conferences expire. That must cost a lot of money and time! Between us, their IT and consultant costs are skyrocketing, while the most basic information exchange is not functioning properly.”

I nod in understanding and she continues with encouragement. “Well, there are a thousand in a dozen of these kinds of innovation conferences. All those presentations are similar: it starts with an emotional anecdote, then comes a gibberish about technology, such as the one just described, illustrated with hilarious videos, and that should make healthcare cheaper, better and more personal? It is more entertainment than it is about the real challenges and solutions in healthcare. Many of these technological innovations only make healthcare more expensive without improving quality. Researchers have known this for a long time, but you rarely see them at these kinds of conferences. Critical questions are not welcome anyway. It is a day of 'feel good', paid for from the training budget and there are no uncomfortable questions and doubts.

The conversation becomes more and more serious. “Everyone has an interest in this innovation hype: the speakers are part of a well-paid traveling circus, the industry promotes its technology, researchers and engineers want money for their research and consultants sell the summary to those naive managers. In this way we keep each other busy without improving the patient and our people with our hands at the bedside.”

“Well, it's not that bad after all,” I say soothingly. “Yes, it's even worse than you think!” continues my congresswoman. “Even our government talks about start-ups, wearables and apps, but takes no responsibility to make those fun creative products work well with our healthcare systems. Our government promotes fun 'things' and does not think about the necessary strategy. The boys and girls of start-ups in healthcare will never be successful this way. You know, the people who attend these conferences are not working on a solution in healthcare, but on the illusion of a solution. That panting about innovation and technology seems to be mainly an excuse not to talk about the real problems and solutions in healthcare. But thanks for the conversation. I am now going to the leadership and big data workshop. Good afternoon!"

Bewildered, I stay behind. “The Dancing with a care robot clinic will start in room 4,” the conference voice announces. I turn around and move toward the exit – pensive, feeling very uneasy.