“I’m afraid I underestimated you guys.” In their dreams, this is what President Trump says to U.S. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and U.S. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries before launching into a great discussion about how to end the government shutdown. But we are not living that dream right now. Instead, we are living in what looks more like a really bad movie, which is why that line from Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle is helpful. In that really bad film, there is a lot of silly behavior by great actors despite a serious mission, which is just like the HLTH event in Las Vegas – the theme of the One Thoughtful Paragraph below.
Other HLTH-related news that could not be considered silly, given the money involved:
- The AMA launched a new digital health center and GE Healthcare announced its new AI Innovation Lab projects.
- Check out these new AI platforms / tools: hc1 IQ (uses AI to analyze health data to reduce unnecessary or outdated laboratory testing, among other things), Hinge Health (uses AI-powered features to track musculoskeletal care outcomes and offers patients a companion chatbot named “Robin” to help manage pain flare-ups), and Optum Real, (helps providers understand their patient’s health insurance benefits to validate coverage before they prescribe or perform services).
- And for regular people, these are interesting, new consumer-facing digital health tools: Oura ring’s “Cumulative Stress” feature, Oscar’s “Oswell,” and “Verily Me.”
“You all fine… but you’re crazy.” In this context, “fine” means good-looking, amazing professionals and “crazy” means foolish, senseless — the loss of rational thought. Thank you to Charlie’s Angels for a quote that so nicely captures the scenario at HLTH in Las Vegas this week. About 10,000 sharp, well-coiffed, and serious health care experts came together in the smoke-filled, alcohol-fueled, playground-for-adults town of Las Vegas to engage in important health care discussions. There was a lot of yelling, but not the kind we are used to in Washington, D.C. – we just couldn’t hear each other over the loud music and noise. One of the things I heard pretty clearly is that companies are tackling the prior authorization problem using smart technology; you can check out the announcements by Surescripts and IKS Health, and Jeremy Friese, MD of Humata Health was featured on a panel called “Prior Auth 2030: From Faxes to Intelligence.” Did we need to go to Las Vegas to learn how tech can help simplify the painful process of pre-authorizing payment of health care services? Maybe. It may help to bring levity to very serious things every so often. So if Surescripts calls its serious technology “Touchless Prior Authorization” – maybe the company could think about how to evoke that scene in Charlie’s Angels, Full Throttle when they dance to M.C. Hammer: “You can’t touch this.” See? This could work.
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