Rabin Martin

Health Datapalooza brings together leading minds health and technology to improve outcomes.

This week marked Health Datapalooza IV, a conference organized by the Health Data Consortium that brings together data analysts, entrepreneurs, policy makers, investors, medical professionals and representatives from large health care companies to exchange ideas about the future of health data. The two-day event boasts a jam-packed agenda, with plenary panels, breakout sessions, a health entrepreneur boot camp, and a 48-hour Code-a-Thon, but perhaps the most interesting (and certainly the most interactive) component is the apps expo, which affords developers a chance to demo their products.

All of the products shown were fascinating, but a few stood apart from the pack. My top 5 for the conference are as follows:

1. PHRQL (“freckle”) Connect and Coach – links diabetic consumers to dieticians and nutritionists employed by supermarkets to help them learn how to eat better, then uses the data that consumers log to help supermarkets tailor stocking to encourage healthy eating.

2. Keona Health – triages patients online using industry standard telephone triage protocols to free nurses to spend more time caring for patients; automatically incorporates patients’ symptoms into their electronic health record so that nothing is inadvertently left out of the patient history.

3. MedWatcher –crowd-sources consumer data on the perceived side-effects of drugs to help the FDA track down unintended side effects sooner.

4. Athenahealth – applies Big Data to a wide range of problems, from helping providers receive reimbursement on a timelier basis to tracking physicians’ sentiments about the state of health care in the U.S.

5. Aidin  – “Yelp for post-acute care”; matches patients to post-acute care facilities based on outpatient needs and then provides patients and caretakers with robust info sheets on each facility that provide info on hospital readmission rates and patient/caretaker reviews.