Can the business side of healthcare have a positive impact on patient care? The 2024 Health Sciences & Business Conference, hosted by Pitt Business, set out to illustrate the power of this intersection.
On October 25, 2024, the conference, “Advancing and Scaling the Equitable Delivery of Patient-Focused Healthcare Solutions,” hosted over 25 industry expert panelists and speakers and was attended by over 125 academic, business, and healthcare professionals.
Vanitha Swaminathan, associate dean for research and strategic initiatives and Thomas Marshall Professor of Marketing, says, “The theme of the conference stemmed from conversations about bringing together thoughtful voices from across the healthcare ecosystem, including people from the industry, and the researchers and scientists who are coming up with path-breaking innovations.”
Intersections & Conversations
The event kicked off with remarks from BioForge CEO, Ken Gabriel. He spoke about the intersections and opportunities provided by overlaps in business and science. “Whenever we talk about innovation, people tend to swing towards innovations in medicines, innovations in technology, innovations in science. Too often we forget the power of innovations, business models, and different ways of doing things,” says Gabriel.
Gabriel sees the conference as “a good start to bring people together to get a sense of the different perspectives.” Each perspective only sees one aspect of a problem. By bringing different perspectives, problems can be addressed so that everyone benefits. He says, “It is going to take everyone working together on a specific project, not one be-all-end-all solution to a massive problem.”
The appreciation for perspectives wove its way from the keynote, through each of the following panel discussions. The four panels dove deep into topics including barriers to access, patient-centric technology advancements, and health equity. The panels built upon one another and rounded out a full day of engagement.
Tracey Conti, chair for the Department of Family Medicine at the Pitt School of Medicine, was a panelist on the panel titled, “Barriers to Access and Ecosystem Enablers of Health Equity”. She credited the conference for “sharing a variety of viewpoints on different areas of interest and not just hearing from a singular voice.” She says what she learned from speaking and listening at the conference will help her become a better healthcare provider.
Shandong Wu, director of Intelligent Computing for Clinical Imaging (ICCI) Lab & technical director for AI Innovations in Radiology at Pitt, was a panelist on the panel titled, “Technologies Advancing Patient-Centric Healthcare Solutions.”
He believes that his research will benefit from some of the connections he made at the conference. Equity was a main point of discussion throughout the day. Wu notes that barriers to access are something he was less aware of because he is focused on the technology side of research. He says, “These discussions made me think about how to address this issue so that we can build technology that is equitable to all patients.”
The list of panels show the range of panels discussed at the conference:
Stakeholder Perspectives on Patient-Centricity
This panel discussed the practice, problems, and promise of patient-centric healthcare solutions. Panelists were asked questions about what “patient-centricity” is, how it can be successful, and what its challenges are.
- Moderators: Vanitha Swaminathan and Sue Cohen
- Panelists: Jaideep Behari, Evan Facher, Ken Gabriel, Darren Jones, Lynn Fischer Kirimli, and Mike Rapach
Barriers to Access and Ecosystem Enablers of Health Equity
This panel was tasked with redefining equity through a financial lens. They noted that healthcare is fixing illness; whereas, health is an economic issue. They discussed insurance coverage and the cost of care, and how health outcomes have to do with income.
- Moderator: Carrie Leana
- Panelists: Jeff Cohen, Tracey Conti, Dwight Heron, Mylynda Massart, and Tony Villiotti
Technologies Advancing Patient-Centric Healthcare Solutions
This panel allowed the panelists to introduce themselves and the technological work they are doing in this industry.
- Moderator: Lydia Chen and Tom Davis
- Panelists: Ankur Goel, Jeremy Kimmel, Jonathan Steckbeck, Lans Taylor, and Shandong Wu
The Business of Health Equity
This panel tackled how the industry can balance the pursuit of health equity with the need for profitability.
- Moderators: Barrie Athol and Alison Gerlach
- Panelists: Chuck Bogosta, Nadia Boutaoui, Susan Bryant, Anna Mamo, Ashby McGarry, Ryan Miller, and Don Taylor
Future Pitt Business Impact Conferences
This was the first conference in the new Pitt Business Impact Conference series.
Spring 2025 will see four conferences. On March 21, the Center for Supply Chain Management will host “AI-Enabled Supply Chain Transformation”. On April 11, the Center for Branding will present a conference on “Responsible AI”. On May 5, the Center for Sustainable Business will host a conference on “Sustainability Governance”.
Panels 1 & 2
Panels 3 & 4
From left to right: Swaminathan with Gabriel; Gabriel’s keynote.