Innovation as a key to patient outcomes

“Innovation is key to evolving and thriving in any field, and we’re trying to foster that in gastroenterology,” Dr. Muthusamy said. “There are many good ideas in GI that probably never see the light of day simply because of real and perceived barriers to successful innovation. We’re trying to demystify and simplify that process.”

New this year will be a Wednesday preconference entrepreneur and innovator package session, in which innovators can meet one-on-one with experts – including intellectual property attorneys, physician innovators, venture capitalists, and payers – for personalized advice on how to move their products forward. An evening dinner reception for summit sponsors will feature a talk by Kevin Volpp, MD, PhD, founding director of the Center for Health Incentives and Behavior Economics at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, about the psychology of purchasing and how economic decisions are made in health care.

Also new for 2018 is a Thursday afternoon session on the evolving role of digital health in GI diseases. “We’ll look at where medicine is headed in terms of artificial intelligence, patient-driven mobile applications, and everything becoming digitally balanced,” said Dr. Komanduri, who will moderate the session. “We need to understand the space and how to utilize it on a more global aspect when it comes to innovation because there is a need for further education.”

The main summit will kick off Thursday with an address by Vadim Backman, PhD, the Walter Dill Scott Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Northwestern University, about nanotechnology and how it applies to gastroenterology. “We have a lot of entrepreneurs wondering what’s the next thing,” Dr. Muthusamy said. “I think Vadim is going to open up some new horizons and get us thinking about things that we haven’t traditionally thought of.”