ViVE 2024 continues to project the unique voice of the CHIME and HLTH collaboration.  While some industry gatherings are measured by scale and others by their tight-knit tribe, ViVE has sought to be the home for people tired of the health industry’s dysfunctional and fragmented approach to care delivery.  But the 8,000 or so attendees don’t come to ViVE to complain – they come to change. They are leaders and innovators, idealists and disrupters. More importantly, they are centered around collaboration to make a difference.

In the first three days of this Los Angeles gathering, I’ve had the chance to pop in on countless sessions, swing by exhibits that occupy large and small footprints and chat with C-Suite voices from some of the nation’s most prominent health players and most promising start-ups.  But as Sheba Medical Center’s Chief Innovation Officer, Eyal Zimlichman, MD, MSc, thoughtfully reminded a filled-to-capacity room during one session: “Sometimes the challenge is not the technology or innovative approach.  It can be in the implementation.”

Several companies caught my attention during three days at ViVE.  Unexpectedly, the most impressive are enterprises that aren’t swinging for the bleachers of change but those who make incremental improvements in the health ecosystem, leading to better patient care and putting a lid on spiraling costs. More and more, there is a need for meaningful changes now.  What happens tomorrow is theoretical. Keeping the health system chugging ahead translates into keeping doors open to patients who might not have access to care.

What should readers do with this information?  Follow these companies.  Listen to what their senior executives say about how their approaches impact the health industry. Use their information to benchmark the “right now” that lays the groundwork for successful technologies that too often capture the buzz and have yet to show. As the adage goes, the “proof is in the pudding.”  These are companies that have a presence within the sector and demonstrate momentum.

Companies at the Forefront of Health Information and Innovation

Several companies invited Medika to swing by their exhibits or attend panel sessions.  These companies are working hard to help health systems improve workflow – recognizing that repetitive tasks can and should be automated. Highways have moved from coin-taking toll attendants to EzPass transponders. The benefits are clear – reduced traffic and smog. Give thought to eliminating hospital bureaucracy that burdens providers and consumers. 

The companies on the ViVE exhibit floor acknowledge that physician time – a precious resource – can be better used in patient care.  Others realize that the changes in technology and information systems are happening so fast that hospital systems must embed outsourced staff to keep current with transitions.  Innovation is only meaningful if used – otherwise, it’s merely conversational and conceptual.

ViVE is doing something needed and practical. It’s bringing together prominent players in health, companies that can make information valuable, and start-ups looking not to disrupt but positively evolve time-test but worn approaches. Here are some companies that caught my eye:

• The consumer appliance giant Best Buy presence at a health industry conference may seem out of place. They don’t have in-store clinics – they have gadgets and wearables. They have a Geek Squad ready to set up your home entertainment studio.  But they’re the perfect partner for hospital systems looking to discharge patients to heal at home and remain connected to their providers.  They are experts in helping seniors overcome the challenges of setting up and using remote monitoring technologies that incorporate blood pressure monitoring or ECGs.  They are pros in addressing tech questions virtually.  If aging and home care are to become a standard of care, Best Buy is ahead of the curve in helping health systems make it a possible leap.

• Technology should reduce workflow – not add to the headaches chief technology and information officers manage. Health systems must streamline repetitive operations and care processes. CereCore is a leading provider of IT services that help hospitals and health systems chart a course through the operational IT labyrinth. The company works with hospital systems to prioritize patient care and information streamline processes. Its “get it done approach” includes IT staffing, application support, technical professional and managed services, IT advisory services, and EHR consulting.  With more than 700 employees across the US, its workforce includes clinical and technical experts supporting 450 hospitals and implementing IT solutions across 4,000 care settings.

• Corti is a startup specializing in AI-enabled decision support tools for clinic and first responder environments. Corti develops solutions to improve efficiency and experience by analyzing emergency conversations using ambient clinical voice and real-time clinical discussions. Like large language models (LLMs), Corti trains on thousands of actual patient calls and clinical consultations, listens alongside professionals, and converts this learning into insights and suggestions using proprietary speech recognition and natural-language processing. Published data show that AI outperforms human call-takers in sensitivity and predictive accuracy. This advancement augments call-takers ability to triage and ensures faster and more precise emergency response.

• DigiCARE is an early company addressing a long-targeted goal of improving brain disease care.  Based on Indiana University research, a machine-learning algorithm powers its promising AI platform with an 80% performance accuracy and a one-year prediction horizon to detect all forms of unrecognized dementia. The platform mines already-collected data from electronic patient health records and sorts through structured and unstructured data, including patient demographics, diagnosis, medication history, and vast medical notes. The company is already working with health systems to deliver routine brain care for a growing aging population. Early detection of diseases such as Alzheimer’s treatments will accelerate new approaches to drug discovery and development.

• e4health fills expertise gaps in IT, HIM, coding, and CDI. When provider organizations face management issues and bandwidth concerns, the company provides expert resources to complete projects and achieve departmental goals on time and within budget. From legacy data conversion for new EHR implementations to staffing vacancies, e4Health delivers the highest levels of healthcare expertise alongside a relentless commitment to integrity and data accuracy. Their teams ensure consistent quality, accuracy, and productivity for the customers served.

• Like the “smart home,” eVideon is championing hospital smart room technology and digital workflow. The company’s flagship product, Vibe Health, automates clinical workflow, facilitates enhanced communication, and transforms care environments into personalized and interactive spaces. The solutions include an in-room Smart TV, digital whiteboard, digital door sign, and bedside tablet, redefining traditional care settings. These technologies integrate with the hospital’s Electronic Medical Records (EMR) system and other technologies, making real-time information accessible to patients, families, and the care team. Medika Life readers can access their Smart Room Technology Playbook— to understand how technology saves nurses time and improves the care experience.
• HCTec provides IT services to over 1,500 academic medical centers, health systems, community hospitals, critical access hospitals, and other healthcare provider organizations nationwide. HCTec teams offer health information technology expertise across clinical and business applications, data, security, and other technical services. With some 500 team members and decades of combined health experience, HCTec is highly KLAS-rated, providing healthcare IT staffing, managed services solutions, and EHR services.

America has a significant obesity challenge – a public health epidemic that is a tipping point to heart disease, diabetes and stroke. New medications called GLP-1 are a new class of medications and a partial solution – they address weight-key symptoms of the problem. They do not address the underlying diseases or modify the patient’s mindset long-term. Some other pathway is needed! Enter Intellihealth, a startup software solution that effectively scales obesity management and tackles weight management, risk management, comorbidities, diabetes, cancer, and heart and respiratory disease impact. The American Medical Association classifies obesity as a disease, but the US health system is no match for its prevalence.

• The “value-based care” buzzword continues to enter the health economics conversation.  Interwell Health, a kidney care management company, has impressive roots – formed from the merger of the value-based care division of Fresenius Medical Care North America with Cricket Health – and may be among the better examples demonstrating how information can guide physicians and staff to prioritize care decisions for people with chronic kidney disease care to end-stage kidney disease.  So far, the company has proven its ability to improve outcomes and deliver better quality of life for people while reducing the cost of care for payer partners and providing the resources physicians need to navigate a value-based world – all at scale.

• We need more information. TED Founder Richard “Saul” Wurman describes data dilemma perfectly in his bestselling book titled “Information Anxiety.”  The US healthcare system places tremendous weight on the shoulders of health providers to obtain, manage, and share clinical data. If health professionals need a remedy for their anxiety, MRO understands data exchange challenges between providers and payers.  MRO has been a key clinical data exchange player for some 20 years, modernizing health information analog and manual processes. The company is lightening the load for customers, and the proof is that it connects more than 200 EHRs, 200,000 providers, 35,000 practices, and 900 hospitals, drawing data from more than 1.3 billion clinical records.

NourishedRx is a purpose-centered digital health and nutrition company that has become a public health voice working to improve outcomes, lower medical costs and advance health-equity goals. Diet-related chronic conditions account for almost 20% of all US health care costs—particularly for people facing food insecurity and diet-related health conditions that can be tracked through blood pressure and HbA1c, NICU admissions and LBW births, pre-term births, depression, and more. Mission-centered NourishedRx is not a food bank! Its highly personalized model structures service through the lens of “food as medicine.” Its operating system is also a call to action—health and health equity—one meal, one individual, and one community at a time. Its customers are surprising—savvy payers who recognize that without access to healthy nutrition, vulnerable people at risk for non-communicable diseases are almost certain to tip into the abyss of illness.

Lauren Driscoll is the founder and CEO of NourishedRx and a Medicare Advantage expert. She founded NourishedRx in 2019 to support health plans’ efforts to address their members’ most actionable and critical non-clinical needs — nutrition and social isolation. Information can be linked to life-saving interventions. NourishedRx demonstrates that possibility.

There’s no clear consensus on whether ADHD is over- or under-diagnosed. However, it is universally understood that timely and accurate assessment can prevent emotional and academic struggles among children and teens.  Getting it right is hindered by a lack of standardized diagnostic tests. Qbtech is transforming objective ADHD care through a technology-first approach that augments professional care. Like many ViVE attendees in the busy hallways and crowded exhibit halls, Qbtech takes a practical solutions approach to health-sector challenges.  Its Food and Drug Administration cleared for marketing computer-based tasks monitoring system brings new perspectives to evaluation and treatment, and decision-makers welcome the 15-20 approach to initial assessment.  The system has been adopted across 43 US states and by organizations such as the NHS in the United Kingdom. Outcomes data appears in over 35 independent studies.

• Sendero is a management consulting firm that guides strategic planning, digital transformation, and organizational effectiveness. Sendero healthcare practice was developed to help clients navigate the industry’s complex and frequently changing operations, experience, and technology enablement challenges. The consulting group brings objective thought combined with years of experience to clients from project ideation through implementation so that health systems can maintain their focus on essential high standards and adapt to deliver solid patient experience, support employees, and engage in evolving waves of innovation. Objectivity and knowledge are precious resources.

• Prof. Eyal Zimlichman, the Chief Transformation Officer and Chief Innovation Officer at Sheba Medical Center, was on hand during VIVE.  Sheba is Israel’s largest medical center and a top-ranked Newsweek hospital. Dr. Zimlichman is the founder and director of the Sheba ARC (Accelerate, Redesign, Collaborate) Innovation Hub. This global innovation ecosystem aims to redesign the health system through digital health innovation. Here, Sheba was wearing a different health system hat. ARC is creating innovation communities worldwide and in locations where, beyond transformation, innovation can address social determinants of health, such as economics, education, and life experience. 

Sheba is also a “paperless-wide” health system: no faxes or massive file systems.  The health system can impact more than physical health. They can inspire young people to pursue careers in technology and reduce the carbon impact of hospitals to improve the environment.

• Tegria is a global healthcare consulting and services company partnering with provider and payer organizations to unleash their potential to contribute to a healthier future collaboratively. Like others, it delivers end-to-end solutions to help clients avoid economic strife that is too common among health systems and secure growth. But here, they are not wishes or empty words.  Tegria has over 1,500 professionals with technology expertise working alongside 500 clients in North America and Europe.

“When we invest in technology, we invest in partnerships and define our priorities,” said Ray Gensigner, MD, Tegria chief medical officer, responding to Medika Life. “Technologies must demonstrate a clear potential to benefit patients and healthcare providers simultaneously. To be on my investment radar, technologies should have credible validation and promise to make a tangible difference,” he added.

• The financial reports of the hospital system reflect the growing number of struggling care systems. Information is the lifeblood of patient care – but it’s also the navigational tool for hospital executives to build sustainable systems. ViVe was the setting for breaking news.  TruBridge is a new player on the scene with a heritage that spans four decades.  Numerous companies joining legacy company CPSI as acquisitions have united under this new brand identity.

While the name is new, the company continues to offer highly regarded revenue cycle management (RCM) solutions that enhance productivity and integrate financial operations across acute to post-acute and ambulatory settings. But rallying all its companies under one corporate identity clarifies for customers how TruBridge services, products and talent weave together and project the scale and strength of a mega sector player.

• On the go? 98point6 Technologies. has refocused its talent and time, making its AI-powered technology and software available to providers to expand access to care and improve patient engagement since the sale of its Care Delivery Division a year ago to Transcarent. In many ways, this renewed business focus secures 98point6 place as one of the nation’s leading virtual care platforms for patients and their physicians to connect when on the move. Its flagship 98point6 Technology Platform provides cloud-based software combining augmented intelligence with automated practice standards and EHR integration.  

At a time when primary care services are needed more than ever to stem the tide of non-communicable illnesses, 98point6 Technologies are a needed bridge between brick-and-mortar physicians’ services and consumers who now think hybrid and expect the world to respond to their flexible needs.

• Viz.ai harnesses the power of artificial intelligence (AI) to improve patient outcomes. Its FDA-cleared algorithms analyze medical imaging data, including CT scans, EKGs, and echocardiograms, and have the potential to provide real-time insights that accelerate diagnosis and treatment. The Viz Platform autodetects possible disease presence across therapeutic areas, including neurovascular, cardiovascular, trauma care, and radiology. Diagnosis sits at the heart of treatment – do that faster and more accurately, and physicians can do their best work with greater confidence and less stress.  This is not a “success is just around the corner technology.”  Already, Viz.ai has been adopted by more than 1,500 US hospitals – perhaps on its way to becoming a sector standard.

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The concept of the future is always inviting and exciting. Futurists are rarely wrong.  It isn’t easy to judge what remains intangible. The difference between invention and innovation is scaled customer application.  AI, ChatGPT, and GenAI applied play to the strengths of the curious and bold. Using these technologies democratizes information for humanity’s benefit. The tools can improve care, increase workflow efficiency, and lower spiraling health costs.  This is all happening right now. 

The companies included in this ViVE summary are helping the health system and their customers deliver transformational health technology today. That may seem less “edgy” than tomorrow’s shiny object, but all ideas are judged by their impact and sales. Follow these companies who are paving the way for improved care delivery.