Health care, IT, and why your doc may be stuck in the 90s….the 1890s

Everyone’s seen the vision— all your health care information instantly available to you and your collaborative team of clinicians, who guide your care path by accessing the best clinical information, and steer you to the best outcome. Unfortunately, most everyone’s still stuck in the reality— hospitals that seem to kill as many as they cure, insurance companies that make the DMV look user-friendly, and doctor’s offices that make you sit there for 90 minutes if they deign to take your call looking for an appointment in the first place.

If successive Internet technology advances have made businesses more efficient and consumers more powerful in the last two decades, why — despite buckets of money from Sand Hill Road thrown at it in the last ten years — can’t America’s biggest industry get off the dime? Matthew Holt will try to give some answers. He’ll explain why the biggest health care IT companies are ones you’ve never heard of, and he’ll suggest what types of information technology may actually make a difference in health care…if you have the patience to wait a few years.

Presenter(s)

Matthew Holt has spent more than 15 years in health care as a researcher, generalist forecaster, and strategist. He's conducted in-depth studies about many aspects of health care for public release and private clients. He's a well-regarded, amusing presenter, and has delivered several keynote addresses. He publishes his analysis and opinions about health care online daily in The Health Care Blog (http://www.thehealthcareblog.com) and is the editor of the daily digest newsletter FierceHealthcare.

Matthew started his health care career conducting international health policy research at Stanford's Asia Pacific Research Center. At the Institute for the Future, the Menlo Park, CA think-tank, he led projects in healthcare financing, delivery and information technology. At Harris Interactive, the New York-based survey research firm, Matthew conducted two landmark survey research studies, Computing in the Physician's Practice and The 10,000 Patients Study. Most recently before returning to the consulting life, Matthew was Vice President, Strategy and Business Development at i-Beacon.com, an eHealth software company. He holds an MA in Political Science and an MS in Health Services Research from Stanford University.