Agenda – 2018 Health & Life Sciences Conference

Friday, November 2, 2018 at the Boston University Questrom School of Business

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8:00am Registration in Atrium
Coffee service and light refreshments will be provided. Please arrive by 8:30am to allow adequate time for check-in and seating.
9:00 – 10:00am Opening Remarks & Keynote (Questrom Auditorium)

“Healthcare Transformation and the Imperative to Integrate”

Keynote address by: Dr. Michael Wagner from Wellforce

The US health sector is undergoing a fundamental transformation, marked by medical and technology advances, changing models of care, and massive disruption facing stakeholders on all sides of the industry — all against a backdrop of unsustainable costs. What does this mean for healthcare delivery systems? How can these systems adapt and evolve to succeed in a changing environment, while continuing to achieve and improve upon their mission of serving patients?

10:00 – 10:25am Coffee & Networking Break in Atrium
10:30 – 11:20am Breakout Panels & Workshops – Session 1

  • Panel: Platform Based Technologies: Responding to Increasing R&D Costs (Questrom Auditorium)
    • Description: Ballooning R&D costs within the pharmaceutical space have led firms to pursue the development of platform-based treatments. This strategy can diversify risk across multiple development candidates by limiting the costs associated with researching multiple unrelated drug candidates. Concurrently, firms hope that the approval of one method of treatment using a platform technology will ease regulatory requirements for its use toward other diseases, producing cheaper and faster-to-market drugs. This panel will bring stakeholders from the biotechnology industry, investors, insurance companies, and regulatory professionals together to speak about the challenges to this strategy and how they can work to achieve positive outcomes for both patients and shareholders.
  • Panel: Business Development: Partnerships & Collaboration (Metcalf Trustee Center Ballroom, 9th Floor)
    • Description: As more and more firms in the healthcare space consolidate, organizations are beginning to see the value in partnership for the sake of business development. Though many small biotechnology firms license out to big pharmaceutical companies in the interests of commercialization, the trend is showing that partnerships are spanning industry borders. This includes insurance companies leveraging the booming technology industry, and drug companies seeking a way to cushion the fall from their approaching patent cliffs. This panel will seek to explore how stakeholders pursue these partnerships, from the execution of due diligence to the negotiation of profit-sharing, and whether this consolidation is driving the innovation society needs.
  • Panel: Changing Approaches to Mental Healthcare (Kenmore Room, 9th Floor)
    • Description: There is increasing awareness and conversation around the insufficient care for mental health disorders in the US. While the US healthcare system is looking for new ways to provide mental healthcare and seeking to close the gap in available resources and services, there is an ongoing debate about how to provide these services and pay for them. Our panelists will discuss the ways in which behavioral health is being integrated into our healthcare delivery system, the progress made in improving mental health services, and the remaining gaps and barriers that require the focus of healthcare professionals moving forward.
11:30 – 12:20pm Breakout Panels & Workshops – Session 2

  • Panel: The Art of Aging: New Ideas for Older People (Kenmore Room, 9th Floor)
    • Description: With the Baby Boomers reaching retirement age, there is increasing concern around how our society will care for the growing elderly population, and with it the increasing incidence of chronic disease. The question on the horizon is how services and technologies, ranging from continuing care to medical devices, can be more seamlessly integrated into the process of aging to improve quality of life from retirement through the end-of-life. Our panelists will discuss how their organizations are working to transform the experience of aging, while perhaps also capitalizing on the business opportunity to provide solutions for a generation seeking to age comfortably in their homes and communities.
  • Panel: Precision Medicine: Personalizing Treatments (Questrom Auditorium)
    • Description: With access to genetic information becoming more affordable, stakeholders are looking to customize their treatment offerings in an effort to achieve greater positive health outcomes for their patients, while distinguishing themselves from their competitors. While utilizing biomarkers comes with the promise of connecting patients to innovative treatments and the possibility of one-off treatments for conditions previously considered terminal, this cutting-edge technology remains far too expensive for scalable application. This panel will consider if and when these revolutionary therapies will be delivered, and subsequently how drug developers, patients, and payers will reconcile these factors with their associated costs.
  • Panel: An Elusive Goal: Driving Adherence & Engagement (Metcalf Trustee Center Ballroom, 9th Floor)
    • DescriptionPatient non-adherence to medications and other therapies is associated with poor health outcomes, disease progression, and estimated billions in avoidable costs. But with the advent of connected and advanced technologies, companies and innovators across the healthcare ecosystem are developing creative ways to engage patients and improve treatment adherence, whether by integrating technology with a pharmaceutical to create a digital pill or personalizing patient education. Approaching this intractable challenge from varied perspectives, our panelists will discuss new approaches to incentivize, motivate, and maximize patient adherence and engagement through their business’ core competencies. 
12:30 – 1:50pm Luncheon & Networking Session Sponsored by Philips 

Lunch in Metcalf Trustee Center Ballroom (9th Floor), 12:30pm

Dessert & Networking  (Atrium), 1:15 pm

2:00 – 2:50pm Breakout Panels & Workshops – Session 3

  • Panel: The Realities of AI in Healthcare (Questrom Auditorium)
    • Description:The advent of new technologies, from those still nascent, such as blockchain, to those more mature, such as health-focused wearables, have firms scrambling to leverage the data they are collecting to create further buy-in to their ecosystems. Among these new technologies, AI has been gaining traction for its potential to inform decision-making without direct human input. Patients provide the data, analytics firms analyze the data, and physicians allow the results to inform their treatment options. Our panelists will discuss how they expect to engage different parties in the face of hot-button topics like patient privacy and the role of physicians moving forward, and the challenges of changing AI technology’s image from a machine that simply crunches data to one that can create novel treatments.
  • Panel: Defining the Value in Value-Based Care (Metcalf Trustee Center Ballroom, 9th Flor)
    • Description: In theory, Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) incentivize better coordinated and integrated patient care as a means to both improve outcomes and increase efficiency, while at the same time containing costs. As more healthcare delivery organizations move into ACOs and other risk-based payment models, what effect is this shift having on patient care and outcomes in practice? Are these new structures truly creating a more integrated and beneficial experience for patients while simultaneously delivering their promised cost savings? In discussing the current shift towards value-based care, our panelists will address the barriers to effective implementation, progress towards improved patient care, and topics ranging from the political climate to the Massachusetts Medicaid ACO.
3:00 – 4:00pm Closing Remarks & Keynote (Questrom Auditorium)

“Moving to the Third Curve of Health Care”

Keynote address by: Dr. Harold Paz from Aetna

With systemic and demographic challenges on the horizon, disruption in health care is imminent. As we push forward into a truly personalized delivery model – a “third curve” of health care – we will see that the traditional doctor-patient relationship, precision medicine, big data, artificial intelligence, and innovative digital technologies will be leveraged to create a new and improved patient experience. This new model will provide greater transparency into health care costs, quality and clinical insights, empowering patients to take charge of their own health.

Closing Remarks and Alumni Award Presentation delivered by Ned Rimer, MBA, M.Ed, Faculty Director, Health Sector Management Program, Boston University Questrom School of Business

4:00 – 5:00pm Evening Networking Reception in Atrium
Join the speakers and industry professionals for a networking reception. Light appetizers and refreshments will be served.