Digital health companies and investors\u00a0flocked to Nashville, Tennessee, this week for the second annual ViVE conference. Hot topics among the crowd of 7,500 included worries about being “creepy,” the economy and whether ChatGPT\u00a0is as good as its buildup.\u00a0Here were five takeaways.<\/p>\n

1. ChatGPT is all people want to talk about.<\/h2>\n
The potential of generative AI applications like ChatGPT and GPT-4 in healthcare<\/a> was the dominant topic of conversation. Attendees had two schools of thought on the potential of ChatGPT in healthcare, which was summed nicely by Micky Tripathi, chief of the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think all of us feel tremendous excitement and you also want to feel tremendous fear,\u201d Tripathi said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Michael Hasselberg, chief digital health officer at University of Rochester Medical Center in New York, said he is a believer in the power of generative AI. The\u00a0large language AI models from ChatGPT developer OpenAI are \u201clight years ahead\u201d of what he\u2019s seen in the marketplace from various startups automating healthcare administrative and revenue cycle processes.<\/a><\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s so easy to use. I have no formal training as a computer scientist and I can program with OpenAI,\u201d Hasselberg said. \u201cI can spin up an application pretty quickly that can solve a lot of the problems that are sitting on top of my workforce right now. Before I was looking at all of these companies to try to solve [those problems] for me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Both Hasselberg and Steve Kraus, partner at venture firm Bessemer Venture Partners, said AI models have a lot of potential to automate processes like prior authorization.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But there was a fair share of skepticism<\/a> and even fear of generative AI models. Tripathi said that when inappropriately used, algorithms can perpetuate health equity and quality issues. Tom Cassels, CEO of the advisory and consulting arm of Rock Health, agreed.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat\u2019s dangerous are [digital health companies] who touch clinical practice and are thinking about bringing in big data models by using existing biased medical guidelines and information,\u201d Cassels said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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2. The economy hurts<\/h2>\n
Macroeconomic headwinds are hurting the bottom line for digital health startups and health systems. Health systems are suffering from their worst operating income years ever<\/a>, which means they must be more prudent about digital health investments. Digital health startups are dealing with the worst funding environment in five years<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The economic realities are unavoidable, said Craig Richardville, chief information officer at Salt Lake City-based Intermountain Health. The health system recorded net operating income of $121 million in 2022\u2014 an 81.6% plunge from 2021<\/a>.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re not immune to the macroeconomics that’s happening within our industry and in other industries,\u201d Richardville said. \u201cWhat it has caused us to do is raise the bar of what we invest and how we proceed or how we don\u2019t proceed.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Hasselberg said he can\u2019t afford to add more digital health software applications that are only addressing\u00a0a single issue\u00a0within the health system. \u00a0<\/p>\n
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3. FOMO\u00a0is over<\/h2>\n
Fear of missing out is no longer part of the conversation at health systems<\/a> looking to adopt tech solutions. Getting evidence from companies has never been more important, said Aaron Miri, chief digital and information officer at Jacksonville, Florida-based Baptist Health.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Startups need to prove they are providing quality care and generating return on investment. \u201cCompanies need to do a good job of not selling hype,\u201d Miri said. \u201cWe don’t clap for hype. We clap for results. Prove it to us or put your money where your mouth is.\u201d
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4. Fear of being creepy is real<\/h2>\n
Creepy is a word that came up regularly during conversations. Health systems and digital health companies are acutely aware of data privacy issues that have come up in the industry.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In the last two months, digital health companies GoodRx <\/a>and BetterHelp <\/a>were fined by the Federal Trade Commission, which said the companies shared\u00a0the personal health information of millions of consumers with advertisers like Facebook. Health systems have been hit with class-action lawsuits for allegedly sharing patient data with Facebook.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Sophy Lu, chief information officer at New Hyde Park, New York-based Northwell Health, said the health system is trying to use data to personalize experiences for consumers but doesn’t want to do it in a\u00a0creepy way.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the end of the day it\u2019s the person\u2019s personal data, not our data at Northwell and not data in the public domain,\u201d Lu said. \u201cWe make sure there is consent.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Baptist Health’s Miri said he doesn\u2019t think any health system is purposefully trying to spy on its patients. Instead, what happens is the organizations don\u2019t look as closely as they should on whether the tech solutions\u00a0they\u2019re adopting track and share\u00a0patient data with third parties.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have to do your due diligence and make sure nothing really creepy is going on,\u201d Miri said.\u00a0
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5. No interest in an American GDPR<\/h2>\n
Companies don’t have much of an appetite to adopt Europe\u2019s General Data Protection Regulation. Telehealth company Amwell CEO Roy Schoenberg said government oversight is warranted but he called the GDPR laws in Europe \u201cdraconian.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not just digital health company leaders that feel this way. Tampa General Hospital Chief Information Officer Scott Arnold said the privacy law would mean costly investments in cybersecurity.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“We are very careful with the European companies that we do business with because who wants to be subject to GDPR? It’s a whole new set of investments in cyber that aren’t necessarily bad, but it’s expensive. And we don’t have a lot of experts on European law,” Arnold said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
This story first appeared in Digital Health Business & Technology.<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n
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\n Gabriel Perna<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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4. Fear of being creepy is real<\/h2>\nCreepy is a word that came up regularly during conversations. Health systems and digital health companies are acutely aware of data privacy issues that have come up in the industry.\u00a0<\/p>\n