Top 5 takeaways from Definitive LIVE! 2022

Another year, another Definitive LIVE!  

On May 17, 2022, we hosted the second edition of our annual user conference, Definitive LIVE!  

It was an amazing day, jam-packed with exciting keynotes and educational master classes. I was thrilled to watch attendees sound off in the live chat, ask questions and discuss how they use healthcare commercial intelligence to answer pressing questions and grow their businesses.  

We were virtual again this year, but that’s no excuse for not making the event even bigger and better than before! We took everything we learned at last year’s conference and built on it to deliver a truly exciting experience.  

For the customers who were there, I hope you had fun (we sure did!) and that you left Definitive LIVE! having learned something new.  

If you couldn’t make it to the event this year, or just need a recap, here are five of my favorite takeaways from Definitive LIVE!: 

1. There are a lot of exciting products coming soon 
2. Our certification program is now live! 
3. Our customers use data and analytics in innovative ways 
4. Healthcare commercial intelligence is essential to navigating the healthcare market 
5. The healthcare industry is in a time of dynamic change

1. There are a lot of exciting products coming soon 

Definitive LIVE! is a great way to learn something new, get inspired by fellow customers and get tips, tricks and best practices so you can maximize the value you get from the Definitive Healthcare platform.  

But the conference is also a great opportunity to peel back the curtain and preview some upcoming products that you’ll be able to get your hands on this year.  

Jason Krantz, our CEO and Founder, shared some exciting news about upcoming products in his opening keynote. Here are some highlights: 

• Our Latitude Analytics Suite is becoming more powerful than ever. Over the course of 2022, we’ll be working hard to help you build even larger and more complex patient cohorts, access new physician behavioral metrics and perform trend reporting over flexible time periods. 
• We’re rolling out a new version of Monocl ExpertInsight, which comes with an enhanced design and simpler, more powerful workflows. With this latest version, you’ll be able to streamline how you search, identify and connect with more than 11 million clinical and medical experts around the world. Expect Monocl ExpertInsight 2.0 in just a few weeks, alongside the launch of our first mobile app version of Monocl!  
• We’re currently building a new off-the-shelf commercial analytics solution that will be powered by Analytical Wizards technology and leveraging our own data sets. This new product will help companies run on-demand analytics to instantly determine where their patients are, which providers are caring for those patients and where the opportunity is to invest and grow their business. Be on the lookout for more updates later this year.  

And, of course, we’re constantly making improvements to our data to make it more accurate, more relevant and more easily accessible. 

2. Our certification program is now live! 

Think you’ve got Definitive Healthcare skills? Well, now you can let the world know by becoming a certified Definitive Healthcare user. Jason announced our new certification program and the first level, Explorer, is ready today!  

Earning a certification means that you’ve achieved a certain level of proficiency in working with Definitive Healthcare data. But certification also makes it clear that you and your organization are committed to commercial excellence in healthcare. 

Each of the three levels in our certification program includes in-depth, DIY educational training that you can review at your own pace. At the Explorer level, the training covers the fundamentals of the Definitive Healthcare platform and key terms and players found throughout the healthcare landscape.  

And if you’re confident you know your stuff, the training is totally optional. You’ll be awarded a fancy certification badge you’ll be able to share on LinkedIn and other social platforms. Explorer certification is available now and you can learn more and get started here.  

3.  Our customers use data and analytics in innovative ways 

Following Jason’s opening keynote, we headed straight into our customer panel led by Emily De Oliveira, a Senior Product Marketing Manager. Leaders from Marinus Pharmaceuticals, Fisher Healthcare and Kellogg’s Away from Home all spoke on the panel. 

We heard each speaker discuss how they use commercial intelligence from Definitive Healthcare to identify the right buyer, size their respective market opportunity, and provide new insights for their product development process. I particularly enjoyed hearing about the similar challenges that each customer faced, even though they were from three very different industries.  

It was especially interesting to hear from Bill Pentz, the Senior Director of Sales Operations & Strategy at Marinus Pharmaceuticals. Early into the panel, Bill explained how commercializing a new rare disease treatment can really feel like a “leap of faith,” because a small company bringing its first product to market has many unique challenges. Bill dug into the difficulties that come with balancing a limited budget and the needs of multiple stakeholders across his organization. It was amazing to hear how Marinus Pharmaceuticals used HospitalView, PhysicianView, claims data and Monocl ExpertInsight to make decisions more confidently as they entered the market.  

We also heard some incredible feedback from both Bonnie Cooper, the Director of Vertical Strategy at Fisher Healthcare and John Feilmeier, a Senior National Accounts Manager at Kellogg’s Away from Home. When Bonnie shared that her team uses Definitive Healthcare to spend “a lot less time Googling, and a lot more time finding,” it was great to hear John jump right in and agree with her.   

Both shared how slow and “archaic” it is to spend hours on LinkedIn or searching the web for contact info that might not even be correct. Instead of firing blindly, Kellogg’s and Fisher Healthcare use Definitive Healthcare to give their teams the right information to engage with the right points of contact and win more business.  

There were plenty more great tidbits to listen to in the customer panel, which you can watch here.  

4. Healthcare commercial intelligence is essential to navigating the healthcare market 

The healthcare landscape is constantly changing – and nothing proves that fact more than the content in our master classes.  

While I wish I could have gone to all the master classes, I only had time to go to three classes. I’m looking forward to watching more of them when the conference replay is posted. Of the three classes that I did make it to, my favorite was run by Customer Success Manager Coleman Maglio. 

New technologies, treatments and techniques that revolutionize how healthcare professionals diagnose and treat patients can shake up the industry. At the same time, there are external forces like government legislation and COVID-19 at play that impact how companies strategize and make moves.  

How can you make sense of it all? And more importantly, how do you navigate these changes while still making the best possible decisions for your business? 

This is exactly what Coleman covered in his master class. Coleman explained that healthcare commercial intelligence (HCI) is essential for any business looking to sell and compete in this highly competitive industry. Coleman outlined three key goals that healthcare commercial intelligence can help solve. In general, these goals are: 

1. Find a path: How HCI can help you uncover new business opportunities. 
2. Seal the deal: How to use HCI to strengthen your positioning against your competitors. 
3. Stay current: How HCI helps you keep up with a changing market with refreshed analysis. 

If you’re a Definitive Healthcare customer, you can check out a recording of this master class and all of our master classes here.  

5. The healthcare industry is in a period of dynamic change 

One of my favorite moments of Definitive LIVE! was the closing keynote from our president Robert Musslewhite. Over the course of 20 minutes, Robert shared the top 10 trends in healthcare, which the Definitive Healthcare team identified by looking at more than half a petabyte of data inside the Definitive Healthcare platform!  

You can watch the full video below, but here are a few key trends if you just need a quick summary. 

• The perfect storm: The COVID-19 pandemic placed unprecedented pressure on healthcare providers. This led to the major supply shortage of healthcare workers going on right now, widespread physician burnout, millions of patients delaying medical care and more.  
• The healthcare financial spreadsheet: COVID-19 wreaked havoc on hospital financial models, leading to a 2% drop in net patient revenue and a 3% increase in total operating expenses. As a result, hospital execs looked to consolidate, adding thousands of beds and dozens of hospitals and physician groups into their systems.  
• The fundamentals of treatment: As we all know by now, hospitals are no longer the epicenter for much of patient care. We’re seeing significant growth in procedure volumes in both ambulatory surgery centers and physician groups. At the same time, healthcare work is going hybrid. Telehealth and remote patient monitoring technology has skyrocketed in use, application and preference.  
• The technical revolution in care delivery: Right now, precision medicine and genetic testing are some of the hottest areas in healthcare, and hospitals are heavily investing. Precision medicine is a rapidly emerging field with great potential to diagnose and treat patients more effectively by using highly customized treatments. Precision medicine may be able to dramatically reduce the cost of cancer treatment and mortality rate.  

That’s a lot to unpack! And it was only a brief summary of Robert’s keynote. Robert dives deeper into the 10 trends and offers his perspective on how companies can take advantage of these changes to the healthcare ecosystem. And keep your eyes peeled to our blog—we’ll be exploring all of these trends in more detail in an upcoming blog series.  

On to the next Definitive LIVE! 

What an incredible day! Between an inspiring customer panel, educational master classes and thoughtful keynotes, I’d say Definitive LIVE! 2022 was a smashing success. If there was a session you missed, no worries. Recordings of master classes will be available to watch on-demand soon.  

You can get some more information about all the exciting things that happened at the conference, including the winners of our first-ever Apex Awards, on our highlights page here.  

We’re already brainstorming what we can do to make Definitive LIVE 2023 even more fun and valuable. So let us know if you have any ideas! And, maybe, we’ll even see you in-person next year. Stay tuned!