4 healthcare trends from HLTH 2021

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HLTH 2021 wrapped up last week – and what an exciting event it was!

HLTH marked Definitive Healthcare’s first in-person tradeshow since March 2020 and it was so great to see our customers and friends in person! The energy at the show was electric and it seemed like everyone was excited to be there.

Unable to join HLTH in person? We’ve got you covered.

After attending various sessions, wandering the exhibit hall and talking with customers, we pulled out four big healthcare themes from the show that you might have missed:

Unlocking the power of healthcare data

Everyone knows the healthcare industry generates massive amounts of data, but the current challenge is sorting through the noise to derive meaningful intelligence from it.

One of the major themes at the show was wanting to do more with the data you already have on hand. We heard this message coming from a wide range of attendees at the show, including provider organizations, biopharma companies, and healthcare IT vendors.

We saw a lot of excitement around Latitude Reporting. Latitude Reporting, which we launched at HLTH, puts the power into the hands of users to unlock new intelligence from claims data. Customers were excited about the ability to create custom patient cohorts on the fly and splice and dice the data in different ways to meet their needs.

Our CEO Jason Krantz also moderated a session, “Fast and Furious Health Data,” featuring an incredible panel of speakers from HumanFirst, Verana Health, IBM Watson Health and Kantar Health. During the session, the conversation centered on how to unlock vast amounts of health data across different areas of the broader healthcare ecosystem – from advancing scientific research to speeding up drug development to improving care outcomes.

As more data continues to be generated in healthcare each and every day, gaining valuable intelligence from it seems like a theme that won’t be going away anytime soon.

Hybrid healthcare will become the norm

From vendors promoting their telehealth solutions, remote patient monitoring devices and even healthcare drone delivery services, you could see the profound way COVID-19 has reshaped the healthcare industry.

Hybrid healthcare is the way forward, and now is the time for organizations to build off the solid foundations they put in place with virtual tools during the pandemic. Patients have grown used to the convenience of certain virtual care services and there is no going back to the pre-COVID-19 days.

Hospitals will no longer be the primary care center as more patient monitoring and diagnostics move to the home or walk-in clinics. Instead, hospitals will be reserved for more advanced clinical procedures instead of routine care.

If anything, patients will continue to look for more opportunities to receive the care they need, when and where they need it and at an affordable price point.

Putting the patient front and center in their care journey

Related to hybrid care, another theme popping up across vendors and sessions was the concept of putting patients front and center in their care journey.

Whether it be providing patients with access to their healthcare information, developing customized nutrition plans or leveraging remote patient monitoring devices, vendors and providers were looking for new ways to deliver patient-centric care and adapt to the increasing consumerization of healthcare.

Patient equity and diversity also frequently came up as part of the conversation on patient-centric care. Addressing the social determinants of health is no longer something that healthcare organizations can ignore. From drug development to care delivery, the focus is shifting to bring more equity and diversity to all aspects of the healthcare ecosystem.

Precision medicine is here

With the patient at the center of their care journey plus significant advancements in genetic testing, the promise of precision medicine is within reach.

Gone are the days of talking about precision medicine as something that will be feasible in 15-20 years. While walking around the tradeshow hall, you could see many exhibitors touting the ability to deliver precision medicine and personalized therapies today.

Sessions like “Genomically Inclined Treatments” highlighted how precision medicine doesn’t just aid in care delivery but can also help biopharmaceutical companies improve drug development and R&D.

Precision medicine is moving beyond the early adopters in the oncology space to more widespread use in other specialties. For example, providers and biopharma companies have identified ways to leverage precision medicine to aid with the treatment of neurological and cardiovascular diseases, bringing personalized medicine to a broader population.

As our understanding of how genetics influence our health and new technology such as CRISPR evolves, it’s clear healthcare organizations can no longer push off embracing precision medicine.

Missed us at HLTH?

HLTH highlighted that there is no denying healthcare has gone through a massive transformation in the last year and a half.

But it also showed us that people are invigorated and ready to tackle whatever comes next. We’re happy to play a small part in shaping the healthcare industry of tomorrow.

Missed us at the show? Book a virtual demo to see what’s new and we hope to see you at HLTH 2022!

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