Good morning.
I’m in Los Angeles at Fortune Brainstorm Health, where entrepreneurs, medical experts, and health executives have come together to share ideas on the frontiers of health care. Conversations range from high-tech wizardry—Eko CEO Connor Landgraf demonstrated an A.I.-powered stethoscope that can diagnose heart disease—to everyday reality—Chelsea Clinton talked about how little has been done to address the obesity epidemic in this country. Indeed, what makes discussions of the health care business both exhilarating and depressing is that there is so much that can be done to make it better. As venture investor Annie Lamont of Oak HC/FT put it: "There is unlimited opportunity. Health care has so many ways it can improve.”
The conversations here also underscore how profoundly the pandemic has changed health care. People have gotten more engaged in their own care, digitization has greatly accelerated remote access, mental health has gotten a much-needed new focus, and the scarcity of health care talent has become a persistent problem, fueled by caregiver burnout. Here’s CVS CEO Karen Lynch:
“Mental health is a huge issue in the U.S., particularly in children. We are seeing an enormous increase in the suicide of young adults. We’ve put counselors in some CVS locations, and we have vastly increased our telehealth services. There were 9,000 telehealth mental health visits a year pre-pandemic. Now we are up to 20 million…Your head is connected to your body. Until we think about this holistically, we are not going to be able to address the full issue.”
Elevance Health CEO Gail Boudreaux talked about the promise of A.I. in transforming health care:
“A.I. is changing every business model there is. How do we simplify the health care journey. How do we personalize it. How do we synthesize it. It gives us an incredible opportunity to use the massive amounts of data we have to provide better outcomes, but trust is incredibly important. Before we do anything…we have to make sure we build trust with the people we serve.”
I had the dinner spot at the conference, interviewing former Olympic skater Apolo Ohno, who talked about the challenges of making a “hard pivot”—a skating move, but also a description of his transition from skating to business.
You can read more from the conference on Fortune Well. And I’ll have more from here tomorrow. Other news below.
Alan Murray
@alansmurray
alan.murray@fortune.com
