JP Morgan Healthcare Conference Roundtable
By Larry Stofko
In early January, The Innovation Institute and Sheppard Mullin hosted a “Healthcare VC and Early-Stage Investors” lunch gathering and roundtable at the 2023 JP Morgan Healthcare conference held on January 9-11 in San Francisco. The facilitated discussion was attended by members of MultiCare Capital Partners, 7wireVentures, Echo Health Ventures, and Amazon AWS VC & Startups Group.
The agenda consisted of introductions and a State of Venture Capital presentation by Larry Stofko, EVP at The Innovation Institute and Mike McKinnon, Partner at Sheppard Mullin, followed by an interactive roundtable discussion by all of the participants. Each organization brought to light noteworthy recent investments and initiatives, as well as 2023 investment themes and focus areas. Key themes and takeaways from the conversation included provider expense reduction (workforce, coding, clinical decision support, and documentation opportunities) and VC portfolio company health (balance sheet health and “profit over revenue” focus). The core shared message from both the provider and VC perspective was that real clinical or operational value and ROI would be required moving forward, whether it be in making a purchasing and/or investment decision.
Ben Chao, President, Myriadd Solutions and Partner, MultiCare Capital Partners at MultiCare Health System remarked at the gathering “The discussion helped us further unpack some of the nuances and functional requirements necessary to stabilize healthcare’s dire financial statement. Investments in capabilities like autonomous robots and process automation are increasingly seen as essential to making permanent reductions in cost structure, as is the internal dialogue and forces to promote such transformation.” While Dr. Arun Mathews, Chief Medical Officer MultiCare Auburn & Covington Medical Centers added “We believe that modern healthcare is at an inflection point. I agree with June Altaras, our system Chief Nursing Executive, Quality and Patient Safety Officer when she states that unless we radically reinterrogate how nursing leverages and safely renders a combination of remote and bedside technologies, our patients and the systems of care that they need will evolve without us. I also believe that the nature of clinical documentation, thanks to AI, will fundamentally change also – with clinicians going from ‘primary documenters’ to ‘editors’ of documents dynamically generated by ambient intelligent systems.”
Two reference articles with additional takeaways:
https://www.jdsupra.com/legalnews/key-takeaways-from-the-2023-jp-morgan-4474069/
https://www.medtechdive.com/news/jp-morgan-medtech-takeaways-2023/640502/
