The MedCity CONVERGE conference at the University City Science Center June 19 in Philadelphia will be the scene of a dynamic series of conversations around cancer treatment, precision medicine, value-based care and investment trends. It will spotlight industry experts, presentations from innovative startups and collaborations.
It feels like we’re on the cusp of great things in the development of cancer treatments. A wave of immunotherapy and gene therapy approvals could point the way forward in treating and curing certain forms of cancer. Pharma and technology companies have embarked on collaborations to harness machine learning to identify targets for drug development. Health tech companies and healthcare organizations are developing tools spanning drug delivery to prescribing digital health apps and supporting value-based care.
At the MedCity CONVERGE conference at the University City Science Center June 19 in Philadelphia, these and other themes will be an integral part of the conversation. Here are some of the highlights, but you can also follow this link to view the agenda.
A panel discussion will explore how precision medicine can be the key to population health. Experts from Cancer Treatment Centers of America, Color and other organizations will talk about the synergies between precision medicine and population health and how scaling the former can ultimately boost the latter.
A keynote from Insoo Hyun, Associate Professor in the Department of Bioethics at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine will focus on the ethics of human germline editing for reproduction. Kim Goodsell, an author and rare disease patient, will give the closing keynote on data-empowered patients and the need for greater empathy in medicine.
A panel will highlight how connected health can improve the patient experience and will include:
- Roy Rosin, Chief Innovation Officer, Penn Medicine, University of Pennsylvania Health System;
- Michael Vennera, SVP, Chief Information Officer, Independence Blue Cross;
- Rakesh Mathew, Chief Innovation Officer & Senior Director of Technology, HealthShare Exchange
- Dr. Bhagirathbhai Dholaria, Assistant Professor, Department of Hematology-Oncology, Vanderbilt University Medical Center;
- Deepti Jaggi, President and CMO, Clinako
The challenge of addressing unstructured data to scale artificial intelligence applications will also be the focus of a discussion which includes:
- Christopher Boone, Vice President, Head of Real World Data & Analytics, Pfizer;
- Dr Nate Nussbaum, Senior Medical Director, Flatiron Health;
- Dr. Gaurav Singal, Chief Data Officer, Foundation Medicine;
- Janak Joshi, SVP, Chief Technology Officer and Head of Strategy, Life Image
Cancer treatment in the context of value-based care will also be a topic of conversation at the conference and could be one of the most thought-provoking discussions. With groundbreaking new cancer treatments hitting the marketplace, does the value of these treatments justify their high cost? Among the speakers on this topic will be:
- Alaric DeArment, Senior Biopharma Reporter, MedCity News;
- Jim Caggiano, CEO, Dendreon Pharmaceuticals;
- Julie Kennerly-Shah, Assistant Director of Pharmacy, Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center-James Cancer Hospital;
- Dr. Hiroomi Tada, Chief Medical Officer, Notable Labs
There will also be startups presenting their varied approaches to addressing cancer treatment and precision medicine such as respiratory drug delivery business Quench Medical; a search engine for identifying personalized cancer treatment SEngine Precision Medicine; digital medicine platform Rx.Health; and precision oncology startup Strata Oncology.
