I had dozens of conversations with healthcare system leaders, enterprise capital buyers, and digital well being executives in the course of the three days I spent in Las Vegas for this 12 months's HLTH convention. I additionally had the chance to watch among the occasion's programming, that includes topical conversations concerning the quickly evolving fields of healthcare and expertise.

Beneath I've collected seven refreshingly sincere recordings I heard throughout my time at HLTH 2024.

AI may worsen well being disparities

On the subject of the deep-rooted well being inequities within the US healthcare system, “AI is vastly widening the hole,” stated FDA Commissioner Robert Califf.

“I’m very involved that healthcare techniques are utilizing AI primarily to divide sufferers into those that are worthwhile and those that are usually not. It seems that that is at the moment the biggest use of AI in US healthcare. What we want is for AI to convey ahead the people who find themselves at the moment deprived. And it's so clear that this might occur, however it’s important to give attention to that,” he said.

Retail firms have to cease making an attempt to be one thing they don’t seem to be

Retailers getting into the world of main care are starting to comprehend how complicated the economics of well being care might be, says John Couris, CEO of Tampa Common Hospital.

“You’ll be able to't simply take a mannequin within the retail house and apply it to healthcare – as a result of healthcare is just not a retail enterprise. To start with, we're not. We’re a healthcare wholesaler, we don’t function in accordance with the identical rules,” he famous.

Walgreens CEO Tim Wentworth, who joined the corporate a 12 months in the past, has shifted the corporate's focus from its main care investments to its core pharmacy enterprise, Couris famous, including that he thinks this can be a good transfer is.

“Once I learn that, I believed: 'That man is aware of precisely what he's speaking about.' Cease making an attempt to be one thing you're not. You failed in main care since you tried to use a mannequin that works within the pharmacy world on the supplier facet, and it doesn't translate,” he said.

Strict abortion legal guidelines are prone to have financial penalties already

MedCity Information Editor-in-chief Arundhati Parmar moderated a panel discussing strict abortion legal guidelines, exploring how these measures not solely negatively affect girls's well being, but in addition have a transparent financial affect, the true impact of which remains to be unknown.

One panelist — Dr. Irene Agostini, an emergency room doctor on the College of New Mexico and former chief doctor on the College of New Mexico Hospital — identified that New Mexico permits abortion with out being pregnant restrictions. Figuring out that docs within the neighboring state of Texas shouldn’t have the identical freedom to observe safely, her hospital launched a marketing campaign to recruit docs from Texas.

“We actually recruit docs [through] large billboards on the freeway to get to New Mexico. stated Physician Agostini.

The marketing campaign is known as FreeToProvide.

“New Mexico is a poor state and we want docs, and so this now turns into each a political and an financial argument. Texas is clearly very dissatisfied with that,” defined Dr. Agostini out.

There are extra warning indicators for states with strict abortion insurance policies. For instance, from 2022 to 2023, there was an 11.7% decline in purposes for gynecologist medical residency in states that had banned abortion, in addition to a 6.3% decline in states with being pregnant limits on abortion.

That compares with a decline of simply 5.2% throughout all states and a decline of 5.3% in states the place abortion was authorized, in accordance with a survey carried out by the Affiliation of American Medical Schools. Between 2023 and 2024, purposes fell once more by 6.7% in states with full abortion bans, whereas purposes elevated by 0.6% throughout all states and by 0.4% in states the place abortion was authorized.

Many buyers have realized that they had been backing merchandise, not firms

The digital well being funding panorama seems very completely different than it did just some years in the past – an period marked by inflated valuations and a frenzied tempo of funding.

“I positively suppose there was plenty of rationalization this 12 months. [Investors] got here to comprehend that the issues they supported had been merchandise, not firms. Because the enterprise finance mannequin tightens, buyers should make robust selections about the place to place new cash and how you can assist their present investments. So plenty of rationalization needed to be completed this 12 months,” says Andrew Adams, co-founder and managing accomplice at Oak HC/FT.

He identified that this can be a good factor, noting that the funding exercise we noticed in 2021 and 2022 was “not a sustainable pattern.”

Healthcare leaders should keep in mind that they’re within the customer support business

Sven Gierlinger, Chief Expertise Officer at Northwell Well being, highlighted a perception central to the healthcare system's organizational technique.

“We be sure that everybody understands that the affected person is our buyer and that we’re assembly their wants, and that we’re as depending on them as they’re on us – or maybe much more depending on them than they’re on us,” says he. stated.

Gierlinger famous that Northwell CEO Michael Dowling meets all new hires throughout their orientation and tells them they’re within the customer support business.

“That’s not an inherent idea in healthcare,” he said.

Subsequent 12 months, digital well being exit exercise will seemingly nonetheless be lifeless

There hasn't been a lot exit exercise amongst digital well being startups in recent times, and Abby Miller Levy, managing accomplice at Primetime Companions, doesn't suppose that can change subsequent 12 months.

“I feel there may be nonetheless sufficient capital to assist a few of these startups within the enterprise group, but in addition to make bridge rounds. And I feel the consumers – like Aetna CVS and different payers – are very distracted this 12 months,” she defined.

Nonetheless, she did predict that non-public fairness corporations could purchase extra healthcare firms.

“Of all of the potential routes, I’m most optimistic a few PE exit,” stated Miller Levy.

We have to cease treating AI as a buzzword

Arcadia CEO Michael Meucci famous that the healthcare client expertise within the U.S. is “dismal.” He thinks AI has the facility to bridge the hole between the fragmented, irritating experiences sufferers have as we speak and the place we should be tomorrow.

“However we have to cease utilizing AI as a buzzword and begin defining it for what it’s: a software that may rework healthcare, get rid of inefficiencies and assist us meet the wants and expectations of sufferers as healthcare shoppers. I imagine AI can push EHRs into the background and turn out to be the co-pilot we have to empower physicians, enhance affected person outcomes, and create a system that lastly works for everybody,” he famous.

Picture: HLTH