Join me at MedCity ENGAGE: Unlocking Patient Engagement through Innovation, June 5-6, in Washington DC

Digital Patient Engagement (DPE) is a subject that’s been getting a great deal of attention these days, notably because MU Stage 2 specifically mentions DPE as a requirement for the next generation of certified EHRs. Personally I believe Patient Engagement is still confusing to most people and is probably in the Peak of Inflated Expectations phase of the Gartner hype cycle (another way to think about it is that the DPE noise level is probably much higher than useful signals coming out of the industry). The reason there’s more hype than reality around DPE is that it’s terribly difficult to define and build standardized workflows around; all useful digital systems in healthcare have some standard workflows that can be repeated and then automated.

We’re still trying to get our arms around what digital patient engagement really means and until we have a good idea about what it is so it’s easy to see why there’s so much confusion. The nice folks at MedCity reached out to me a little while ago to join them at their ENGAGE conference in DC (my hometown) to help determine what DPE is all about and alleviate that confusion. The MedCity ENGAGE Unlocking Patient Engagement through Innovation conference is taking place on June 5th and 6th at the The Westin, City Center.

The agenda and objectives looks very promising:

• A shared understanding of the current care environment and the major policy and market drivers behind care innovation
• Perspectives from federal policy leaders on future government support of patient engagement
• Perspectives from health leaders on the business case for exceptional patient engagement
• Panel sessions dedicated to ACOs, patient-centered medical homes, chronic disease management, as well as employer wellness and behavioral change
• Insight from engagement experts from a variety of different fields and how to apply those principles to healthcare
• Access to innovators “in the trenches” and demonstrations of the latest technology platforms to communicate with and encourage patient behavior

I look forward seeing old friends and making new friends at the conference. Please join us if you can to talk about this (currently) confusing but very important topic.