Sickcare innovation: help, hype or hope?

?"Gallia est omnis divisa in partes tres", means "Gaul is a whole divided into three parts". That's the oft quoted opening line of Caesar's Gallic Wars. It was my introduction to learning Latin in high school for the next 4 years.

After attending yet another recent Zoom conference on sickcare innovation and entrepreneurship, I've concluded that all such conferences are divided into three parts: help, hype and hope.

Here is why an AMA spokesperson thinks AI talk about transforming sickcare is premature.

Those presentations that are helpful are usually data driven, problem focused, validated, generalizable and clinically applicable to participants where they work and live.

Those presentations that are hopeful are aspirational and usually fall into the the tenor of "Wouldn't it be great if we could____". By definition, they are merely ideas, not inventions or improvements and certainly not innovations at this point. While these "what if" discussions are interesting and fun, after a while they get tiresome and further contribute to innovation fatigue on top of the already existing Zoom fatigue. By that time you are watching the 35th Powerpoint slide in the program entitled, "The future of _____", which, in many cases, is just a wild-assed guess of what might happen, or, is happening now but just unevenly distributed. Then you are told that the presenter who talked about how to deliver on your value proposition exceeded their time, so we won't be answering any questions we asked you to post in the chat box after all.

Then, there is the hype. You can spot these primarily by the fact that there is no discussion of the statistical and clinical validity and relevance, or, the conclusions are not justified by any data presented. Some have referred to one example as digital health snake oil.

Many clinical specialty conferences are divided into sections that present basic science research findings, clinical or translational research findings, poster sessions and a potpourri of other presentations. The opening plenary session keynote address is delivered by a big shot who has little or nothing to do with sickcare, who is a famous entrepreneur or "leader" and who is being paid $10,000 for a twenty minute speech paid for with your dues or registration fee.

Other sessions are badly disguised infomercials from the vendors who are sponsoring the meeting. But, at least you get to go home with yet another free iPhone charging cable as a giveaway.

Here's what to do when someone calls your meeting ugly.

Maybe it's time we divide sickcare innovation and entrepreneurship meetings into help, hype and hope sessions. Qui idiuvaret (that would help).

Arlen Meyers, MD, MBA is the President and CEO of the Society of Physician Entrepreneurs