Wharton Healthcare Conference - 2010

I went to my 2nd Wharton Healthcare Business Conference last month. A couple of
points stuck out to me:

1. The regulatory process for medical devices is about to get a little harder. In the medical device panel there was talk of a tax on medical devices and a dissolution of the 510K approval process.

2. A lot of new healthcare IT and healthcare services companies are building businesses around the theme of 'Integration'. The Thursday keynote was delivered by the CEO of TriZetto, which is in the business of healthcare integration.

The Wharton Healthcare conference is one of the best conferences on campus. I think that this is largely due to the conference's large budget. Also, the conference has dedicated team members who help run it. Furthermore, proceeds from the Healthcare Conference finance many events in the Healthcare Management program at Wharton, so it's imperative that the conference go well.

Still, I do feel that more innovation could be applied to the conference format. I am a proponent of more interaction between speakers and audience members. Perhaps the case study format could be employed. Also, participants could pre-register for breakout sessions; these participants could be assigned prep work for the session. This would enable them to meaningfully participate in the sessions.