Some may remember Hambrecht and Quist (H&Q) the boutique San Francisco based tech focused investment bank that democratized the IPO market via ‘Open IPO‘ offerings including Overstock.com, Salon Media Group and Ravenswood Winery.
In a previous decade of ‘urge to merge’ in the sector Chase Manhatten acquired H&Q the legendary tech focused firm circa 2001, see: ‘Culture shock — J.P. Morgan jolts Hambrecht & Quist‘ then fused with JP Morgan. In the merger mix was the prized asset of the Annual H&Q Healthcare and Life Sciences Conference.
Since then driven by ‘do more to earn more’ fee-for-services incentives healthcare, life sciences and technology innovation including the exploding (retail) digital health market have fueled massive sector expansions, the ‘gathering of men in suits‘ (see classic 2011 post ‘Alas, No Line for the Ladies’ Room via Lisa Suennen aka @venturevalkyrie) in Union Square has grown and some may say ‘metastasized’ with B and C team events clustered in and around the primary conference venue for parties, networking and ‘business intel‘ acquisition.
As principally a blogger, twitter aficionado and digital content producer and someone who’s been a the table of a deal or two in the health system, medical group and health plan world I like to follow all three of these industries with an emphasis on innovation in the public’s interest.
Recent pharma price gouging revelations and the ‘perp walk‘ theater of former Turing Pharma CEO Martin Shkreli frames the potential for self dealing, opportunistic exits and over the top hubris in all three sectors absent anchorage to the ‘greater good‘ or sustainable healthcare economy.
For three out of the last four years I’ve registered the ‘unofficial’ hashtag #JPMxx for the conference which peeps in social media use to tag, archive and report their impressions, reach and engagement metrics. Many more will be in this space this year touting their deep dive slicing and dicing analytics capabilities given the widespread attention placed on this august assembly.
One of the really cool features of the event is JP Morgan streams via the web some of the presentations and Q&A sessions (which I understand is by client or presenting company election) which come in handy if like me you want to be in more than one place at a time. Some examples from last year were posted to ACO Watch, a sister publication of Health Innovation Media, on the health plan and non profit sectors. Previously on my dance card was reporting by Universal American from the ACO space, see: ‘Universal American: A ‘Healthy Collaboration?’’ and ‘Universal American: A Sign of Things to Come?‘ As an ACO management company in addition to their presence in the Medicare Advantage (risk) market, watching their entry, selective exits and strategy tweaks along the way has been insightful as the ‘accountable care’ market continues to grow, mature and evolve.
This year we’re starting to see some of the company webcasts and Q&A’s posted including Allscripts, Amedysis, Athena Health, Universal American, Centene (HealthNet suitor), Molina Healthcare, Magellan Health, Tenet Healthcare, LabCorp, CVS Health, Walgreens Boots Alliance, Healthsouth, Cigna, Mckesson (including U.S. Oncology), Genomic Health, Pacific Biosciences, Inovalon, Illumina and more.
The principal portal for registration to access the livestreams is available here (not yet populated at the time of this post).
Stay tuned! This event is a likely bellwether for macro movement in the year to come and beyond. I am always interested in what gets put together in the ‘non-profit‘ track.
Here some of the largest ‘tax exempt’ health systems – often the gatekeepers of innovation uptake – give clues as to where they see the market going and how they i
ntend to position their complex and often legacy inertia driven enterprises to thrive in the volume-to- value shift and underlying ecosystem transformation.
For context, a summary post of the flair from last year is here. In 2014 Aetna Chairman, President and CEO Mark T. Bertolini outlined the value proposition of ‘the network’ given the massive shift underway in value based healthcare, I summarize in ‘It’s All About the Network‘.
Health Innovation Media will again be on the ground with my colleague and co-host Nick Adkins (@NickisnPDX). We’ll be interviewing selectively and occasionally dispensing ‘pinksocks‘ to those with a genuine interesting story to tell.
Finally, if you intend to be in the square join some of us at ‘un-official’ TweetUp: details and registration here.
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