Five Good Things with Janae Sharp and Megan Antonelli: A rapid-fire segment highlighting positive developments in digital health. Janae and Megan share insights on recent innovations, successful implementations, and emerging trends that are driving progress in healthcare technology.
Megan Antonelli, Chief Executive Officer, HealthIMPACT Live
Janae Sharp, , Founder, The Sharp Index
Welcome 0:01 Welcome to Digital Health talks. Each week we meet with healthcare leaders making an immeasurable difference in equity, access and quality. Hear about what tech is worth investing in and what isn't. As we focus on the innovations that deliver. Join Megan Antonelli, Janae sharp and Shahid Shah for a weekly no BS, deep dive on what's really making an impact in healthcare.
Megan Antonelli 0:30 Hi, welcome to digital health talks. This is Megan Antonelli, and I'm here with Janae sharp, founder of the sharp index, for our monthly favorite segment, five good things. Yes,
Janae Sharp 0:40 we get to talk about good things. There's so many. I feel like a lot of the good things in my life now are also snacks. But let's talk about five good things in healthcare, I guess.
Megan Antonelli 0:51 Yeah, well, it was a busy month. We spent a lot of time at HIMS. There was a lot of sort of recovery time, a lot of follow up. We saw a lot of great people, and that was a great thing. And we did ask a lot of people what their favorite thing about hims was, and we got a lot of great responses that we'll be publishing over the next couple of weeks on our social but overall, the the energy was super high. Attendance seemed back to pre pandemic levels. I think the number I heard was 28,000 so it was quite, quite a kickoff to the month, and now here we are, almost halfway through March, coming out of the news. Just last week, we avoided government shutdown and embedded in a you know political brouhaha. Was the extension of telehealth until September of 2025 which is great, right?
Janae Sharp 1:46 Yes, I think everybody seems like this happens all the time, like before, the first time I heard about a government shutdown, I was worried, but now I'm like, Oh, this is just how they do things. They like, run out until they're about to run out of money, and then they're like, Fine, we'll do it.
Megan Antonelli 2:02 It does. It does. It does. Seem like this is sort of standard operating procedures, although not a lot going on feels like that. So maybe that the comfort is that this has happened before.
Janae Sharp 2:16 Yes, and they kept it going. I was thrilled to see the announcement that they're going to continue to cover telemedicine, and that's something that we started during the pandemic. I loved it. I love being able to meet with doctors virtually, and in some areas there is no care. So we know that it can improve health. Not everybody likes likes the virtual care, but I think the option is fantastic, and I'm glad that it's going
Megan Antonelli 2:48 to get paid for, yeah, and that it was included, and the extension was included, means at least it's on the it's on the docket for the future considerations, and they didn't want to let it expire on, you know, unattended to. So that's good. There's still, you know, I imagine it will be used politically, somehow, to to continue, yeah, but it ultimately, while it remains a little uncertain, we have, we know that telehealth remains until September, so that's a good thing, both for all of the, you know, providers and patients that have been using it. So that's great, right? Also at HIMS, but a little, you know, just in the news, one of the things that I kind of walked away from it with is that there seems like there's a heating up, you know, sort of competition in the EHR space.
Janae Sharp 3:38 Yes, I feel like through the years, we hear about people getting into health and getting out of health, like Apple, Google. They're like, they're in, they're out, they're gonna, everyone's gonna build me HR. Then they're like, just kidding, cancel, cancel. But at HIMSS,
Janae Sharp 3:54 yeah, people are doing it. They're real
Megan Antonelli 3:56 big players who have been in it for a long time, but, but certainly, the talk was, and I heard a lot of buzz about both the Oracle EHR system and the inter systems EHR that they have, you know, really trying to re envision it in a new world, as opposed to fixing old problems, fixing new problems, new ways. I think
Janae Sharp 4:16 new problems new ways I the thing I love about this is
Megan Antonelli 4:20 that's what Seema Verma said, yes, the thing I love about it
Janae Sharp 4:23 is so many people that we talk to, like when we talk about physician well being and and physician burnout, their technology is always identified as a source of stress. And, you know, there's been that conversation like, that's just a proxy for the broken healthcare system. But one thing that people say is we need to build it from scratch, like we need to start over. And it sounds like that's actually happening. We have people who have experience in building that clinical architecture and that security looking at it from a new lens. I think. Possible we'll be able to come up with something positive.
Megan Antonelli 5:06 Well, I think that that, that idea that, you know, no one ever said, if you take this EHR away from me, I'm going to quit. And now you're hearing people say, if you take my ambient scribe away, I'm out like I they like that. So these are EHR systems that are going to be built with AI at their core. You know what exactly that means? I don't totally understand, but we will
Janae Sharp 5:29 sometimes it means bad verbal summaries and a lot of weird emojis,
Megan Antonelli 5:33 right? We'll see. Hopefully that's not what it means. Chris Gibbons says
Janae Sharp 5:37 it means hallucinations. It could mean a lot of things. It could also mean something good.
Megan Antonelli 5:41 It could. And, you know, and I think obviously, Oracle's had a long journey with their EHR system for the VA. They have, they seem to be ramping up their effort to get that into more health systems and working in more places across the VA. And they've made some announcements around that this month too. So you know, positive momentum there, and that's exciting to see competition in a space where we certainly don't think the current is perfect is a good thing, right? Right? What else? What's What else was on our list?
Janae Sharp 6:19 Well, since we love featuring things about women, female founders, women's health, we should give a shout out to the ink 100 female founder, 500 especially since our friends are on it. Yes, right. Congratulations, friends, yes.
Megan Antonelli 6:38 The female founder, 500 and I think they had Abby levy was on it from Prime Time partners, who has been at health impact the last two times. Kristen Valdez, the founder of be well, also Kate rider from Maven clinic, Toyin ajahi from city block health. Lots of big names in women's health. But then there were also 495 new you know, women coming into the space. I mean, not all of them were new, but maybe just I didn't know them. But lots and lots of women there, you know. So look for them on the show, and the next says, well, we'll be excited to interview them and amplify the work that they're doing. I saw a lot of, you know, menopause products, a lot of women's health products, but also, you know, more broadly, in the consumer tech space and and other healthcare arenas. So good stuff, and it's great that Inc does that and amplifies those female founders as well.
Janae Sharp 7:41 Yes, it's nice to know that we're still allowed to highlight those and just it's also been good for me to see like women are making such great changes, and women are really supporting each other.
Megan Antonelli 7:55 Speaking of another good thing is health impact as we're getting ready, well, you know, we've got a very full agenda for 2025 and what's coming up? We're going to be at sway health with our friend John Lennon San Diego. Then we're going to be at health impact in June. We're also helping with the him SoCal event that's coming together for the CXO Forum, which is in May, and the him to Utah event. When is that April? It's in April in Park City. Right April in Park City. Ours is at the Nixon library in yerba buena, California, and that's in May. So busy, busy. And then, of course, we're back at health impact in June. So we've got a bunch of different events happening this. Q2, April, May, June, exciting.
Janae Sharp 8:43 One good thing that I've seen is that Gita Nayar, Dr G, she's spoken at health impact. She's an expert. I love her. She was asked to write more about misinformation, and I feel like that is so timely right now. Everything, everywhere in the news, you read stuff and it's like, first of all, it's like, opposite day. Second of all, you're like, This is a twilight zone. And I can't tell if we're just like, losing some security thing with people who are trying to make us all nuts like this. There must be something there. This is a national like my our lack of ability to get great information is actually a risk to our health and to our lives. It
Megan Antonelli 9:31 sure is. And her first work was great, and it's just exciting to see quickly that they are, you know, asking her for sort of that next edition. So dead wrong. You know, really written coming out of the pandemic. And, you know, I think maybe probably a little bit surprised that we're here. We are again. We haven't forgotten. We've re elected, and we are here, and there's a heightened misinformation. And, right? So, no, there. Is a no shortage of a need for better, better information around healthcare, and it's sort of a critical time. So I'm excited you have her tomorrow on the book club. Everyone has
Janae Sharp 10:10 to join. It's free. Come. She's going to tell us about about misinformation. Really, people are dying, and beyond that, people are speaking past each other, and they don't know how to judge the value of, you know, Kathy on Facebook versus the National Library of Medicine. It's a very difficult time.
Megan Antonelli 10:38 Gita participating on the book club as well as we're doing the rewrite of the or is this, is it the second edition? I don't want to get that wrong. Okay, everyone,
Janae Sharp 10:47 yeah. Final summary, we're getting an update, and I'm hoping it's going to be about juicy politics and about international operatives fighting against Americans ability to literally just even
Megan Antonelli 11:08 know the truth about health or any other information that is out there. So, but good on Dr G. I also saw, I think it was a pretty prominent speakers bureau endorsing her. So I just like that she's getting, she's getting the word out and getting attention, and hopefully she'll come back to health impact soon and tell us. Tell us what that next update is going to be about,
Janae Sharp 11:32 right, right? And you'll be able to see her Friday, that's tomorrow, or you can watch it on demand. Awesome.
Megan Antonelli 11:40 Well, that is what we have for five good things. Thanks. Janae, thanks everybody, and thank you. Dr Kagan Patty, Hayward, Dr Stephanie lar and Raju Joshi for joining us today on health impact live. Thank you to our listeners. Please continue to subscribe, follow and amplify all of us on channels, and thanks so much. That's Megan Antonelli and Janae sharp signing off on digital health talks.
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