HLTH Conference 2022: A Few of Our Learnings

HLTH Conference 2022 was a success! With 10k attendees this year, HLTH has become THE destination to bring together healthcare’s technology innovators. Here are some of our takeaways from HLTH 2022:

1. People Are Eager for In-Person Time. HLTH 2022 attendees reached ~10,000 people, taking over the Venetian Expo. There was an air of pent up conference energy (what is more efficient than catching up with all of your healthcare tech friends in a 36 hour sprint?). We finally met folks in person who we have gotten to know over zoom over the last two years, and it was a blast.

2. Health Equity is Now Part of the Mainstream Dialogue in Health Tech Innovations. It is known the US Healthcare system is biased when it comes to racial, gender, and socio-economic equality. Finally, healthcare organizations are focused on health equity for the patients they serve, as well as openly discussing how to prioritize employee inclusion, diversity, and equity (hats off to Greg Adams at Kaiser). Maybe the pandemic was the straw that broke the camel’s back, leading to action. At Casana, recent news about skin tone bias in finger pulse oximeters is top of mind for our research and development, to ensure we avoid bias in our own device.

3. Remote Patient Monitoring is Here to Stay. The home is now included in the holistic picture of healthcare. Emerging health tech companies hope to help Health Systems and provider groups ease the burden on their staff, enhance their telehealth presence, and keep patients healthier at home as long as possible. In addition to Casana’s Heart Seat, several new passive and active RPM solutions shed light on the challenges of patient compliance for home monitoring. Thanks to our toilet seat form factor, Casana is uniquely positioned to solve the adherence challenge and effortlessly capture health data from the home.

4. We Are Still Talking About Value-Based Care. Value-based care was again a hot topic at HLTH 2022 (as it was in 2021 and 2020…). Value-based healthcare – shifting all stakeholders to focus on health outcomes and away from our fee for service transactional model – makes sense as a way to align incentives. However, shifting a deeply ingrained system to value based care will take great effort and innovations from the entire industry, and will take time. Several panels touched on the challenges of transitioning to a value-based care model. At Casana, we hope we can play our part in making value-based care a reality.

5. Digital Health Venture Dollars Have Slowed, though it was not clear based on the HLTH 2022 Convention floor. The 2022 HLTH convention floor was packed with nearly 800 vendors, many of which emerged from the last few years of heavy venture investments in digital health technologies. Reports show that ~$29B was invested in health tech in 2021, including over 80 deals > $100m. In contrast, as of Q3 2022, only ~$12.6B has been deployed in Digital Health companies (a decline by roughly 50%). Although the convention floor did not reflect the economic realities of today, we will possibly see the impact of slower funding at HLTH next year.

We feel fortunate for the amazing reception that we received from everyone who stopped by our booth to tell us how inspired they are by The Heart Seat. We look forward to seeing you all at HLTH 2023! THANK YOU!