Takeaways from CES 2020's Digital Health Summit

By Jamie Skipper RN, PhD

Elevation Health Consulting

We’re in the midst of two of the biggest weeks for digital health technology as folks shift from CES 2020 to the JPMorgan Healthcare Conference. After attending CES 2020, and more specifically, its digital health summit, I found this year to be the embodiment of the “1000 flowers bloom” mantra. Walking the exhibit floor gave me images of throwing spaghetti at the wall to see what sticks. It was clear that the digital health crowd is growing and that tech entrepreneurs realize that healthcare is a new sector ripe for innovation. However, this year has been more about sharpening digital capabilities and introducing competition rather than introducing shiny new innovations. The two biggest themes I saw were the focus on improving sleep through data analysis and monitoring EKGs via wearable devices. For me, the most exciting aspect of this year’s CES was seeing a stronger Big Pharma presence and their interest in joining the dialogue around the future of digital health. FDA’s Dr. Amy Abernethy, Principal Deputy Commissioner, also joined the conversation and stressed the FDA’s efforts to stay in pace with the digital health revolution with relevant policies and programs.

I was invited to host conversations at the CES Digital Health Live Studio this year and interviewed some of the best innovators across the CES 2020’s Digital Health Summit. From across the interviews I hosted as well as my own interview about we're doing at Elevation, here are the most valuable takeaways the speakers had for the CES community that I hope are taken to heart:

1.      The mission of innovation must be coupled with the strategic aim to scale. Scaling involved designing business models and products that meet the larger goals of individuals through their health and care journeys. It also involves understanding the workflow and reimbursement processes to which hospitals, physicians, and payers must adhere. Because healthcare is highly regulated and reimbursements rest on a foundation of regulatory compliance, understanding the regulatory requirements for care delivery is essential to building products that can scale. In the CES world where most innovations are generating new data points, products must be designed with the new national data interoperability regulations in mind. 

2.      The data coming from any device must fundamentally enhance the view into the patient’s fuller health story. Data from clinical encounters account for a very small percentage of data that composes the narrative around a person’s health outcomes. Data on an individual’s biological, behavioral, and social determinants data, to name a few, are essential to understanding how to provide optimal care and produce the best health outcomes. However, these data points cannot be leveraged without adherence to data standards and policies that safely and effectively liquidate data. 

3.      Convenience is now a matter of life and death, not a luxury. Convenience is akin to basic access. If we want to see healthier populations and decreased health care spending, we have to make the right healthcare decisions an easier decision for consumers to make. Therefore, looking at telehealth as a novel modality is outdated. Remote visits and remote patient monitoring is the only way to move forward in revolutionizing care delivery, decreasing provider burden and realizing improved health outcomes along side improved quality of life. However, this cannot come to fruition without interoperable data and supportive reimbursement structures. 

I am excited to see if the conversation shifts at JPMorgan to funding game-changing solutions and paring down the current innovation pack in a way that aligns to the new national data interoperability regulations being released in the next month. All the best to those in San Francisco this week!