As is the case with many conferences, the day before the show officially opens is packed with pre-conference events. And at the HIMSS Media mHealth Summit 2013, these also happen to be among the show’s sexiest sessions.
“Four comprehensive pre-conferences focused on various parts of the mHealth ecosystem kick off the summit,” says Rich Scarfo, vice president of events for HIMSS Media and director of the mHealth Summit.
Take the Venture+ Forum and WIPJam, for instance.
“Venture+ is aimed at providing an education and pitch event bringing entrepreneurs, startups and young companies together with potential investors and business services professionals,” Scarfo says, while the “WIP Jam is for mobile developers.”
In that VC spirit, Qualcomm Life Fund Director Jack Young will open the Venture+ Forum with a keynote, during which he'll examine the sustainability of an mHealth ecosystem amid the rush of accelerators, incubators and crowdfunding efforts.
Also during the forum, 11 chosen startups will present their ideas to a panel of judges, with products ranging from clinical integration platforms and research technologies to personal genomics sharing the stage.
The Venture+ Forum runs from 10:30 a.m. to 7 p.m., while the WIP Jam runs from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.
For mHealth hopefuls not quite ready to pitch their wares in front of a live audience but interested in taking things to the next level, there’s the National Institutes of Health (NIH) mHealth Training Institute, in which attendees can work with experts “to follow a project from conception through dissemination,” according to the website. The program begins with a look at developing mobile apps, considering design elements to build usable and secure software, assessing user burdens, battery life and the potential for surviving data tsunamis with the app, followed by a look at methodology and, ultimately, evaluation. This session runs from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.
And then there’s the mHealth Law track, which runs from noon to 5 p.m. While that might sound rather arid, this half-day track kicks off with a discussion of the legal framework necessary for managing risk in the mHealth ecosystem, then progresses in short order toward legal implications of telemedicine and then … a look at artificial intelligence and robotics in U.S. healthcare and abroad. Following that will be a wallop of privacy and security sessions homing in on BYOD, Big Data and, of course, HIPAA and HITECH. Attendees will also be privy to expert insights concerning the legal issues around bioinformatics and navigating FCC and FDA regulations.
Sundays speakers will include Elliot Menschik, MD, managing partner of DreamIt Ventures; Patricia Salber, MD, CEO of Health Tech Hatch; Amita Shukla, CEO of Vitamita; Lisa Suennen, managing member of the Psilos Group; and Christopher Wasden, managing director of PricewaterhouseCoopers.
The mHealth Summit takes place from December 8-11 at the Gaylord National Resort and Conferenbce Center in National Harbor, Md.
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