October 28, 2021
In-person events are slowly but surely returning after a year filled with fully virtual healthcare IT conferences. Several of our clients and Aria team members attended the HLTH Conference last week in Boston, which was a hybrid event with both in-person and virtual sessions. HLTH brought together senior healthcare leaders to discuss solutions to some of the industry’s most pressing problems over four days of networking and educational sessions for payers, providers, employers, investors, startups, life sciences, and policymakers.
Some organizations have been more hesitant to attend events amidst the ongoing pandemic and with recent events drawing smaller crowds, but HLTH seemed to crack the code. The thorough combination of COVID-19 vaccination requirements, on-site testing, mask mandates, wrist bands indicating comfort level of handshakes/hugs, and virtual access to sessions seemed to ease anxieties and create a safe, comfortable atmosphere for attendees. Clients and Aria team members who attended in-person only had good things to say about this year’s safety precautions and felt the educational content was second to none.
Aria President Scott Collins attended the show and remarked that there seemed to be “a lot of pent-up energy and demand for new digital solutions in the healthcare industry.” He also noticed “there was a trend across many of the panels focused on an increased emphasis on health equity and how organizations can improve patient access to care and reduce bias.”
Scott and our EVP Jessica Cohen also had an opportunity to connect with our clients and friends who attended, including executives from AVIA, Kyruus+HealthSparq, Sensyne Health, VisualDx, and 1upHealth. Some of the highlights from our clients at HLTH include:
- VisualDx's CEO Dr. Art Papier and Medical Director Dr. Chesahna Kindred gave a powerful presentation on the ways that technology can improve health equity and outcomes for traditionally marginalized populations. VisualDx also announced that Janssen Biotech is a beta partner for the company’s new application programming interface.
- Kyruus + HealthSparq also had a great meeting with Forbes to discuss Kyruus' acquisition of HealthSparq and how the combined entities plan to transform care navigation together, as well as what the future of payer-provider collaboration entails.
- AVIA also had a terrific meeting with Forbes to discuss the growing reliance on digital in healthcare and why smart healthcare leaders are relying on digital firms to advance their organizations.
- Sensyne Health and AVIA had an opportunity to connect with Bill Russell at This Week in Health IT to share updates on their organizations and plans for the year ahead.
Events like HLTH provide the perfect environment for our clients to connect with the media and healthcare influencers alike, so we were eager to set up strategic meetings to build on previously established relationships and form new ones. It is also always nice for us to catch up with our clients in person – especially when the event takes place so close to home! According to a recent #HITMC tweet chat, the consensus seems to be that people want to get back to fully in-person events rather than hybrid because they offer better networking opportunities, and we agree: while virtual sessions are great for learning, nothing compares to an in-person, hands-on experience.
If things like healthcare IT, industry conferences, and working with media are of interest to you, you’re in luck! Aria is hiring across all levels. Send your resume to JCohen@AriaMarketing.com to apply.
