Health 2.0 Annual Conference Sets Stage for Industry Transformation

SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 16, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Health 2.0 announced today that more than 1,000 of the nation's leading health care and technology innovators will convene at the Fifth Annual Health 2.0 Conference to preview the latest health care information technology innovations. This premier forum for launching technologies to fuel the transformation of the health care system takes place Sept. 25-27th in San Francisco during Health Innovation Week and attracts a diverse group of attendees representing nimble start-ups, global technology companies, major HIT vendors, payers, providers, venture capitalists, software developers, government agencies, patient advocates, and more.

Participants look forward to show-and-tell demonstrations of cutting edge technology; lively discussions; the opportunity to network, exchange ideas and explore funding opportunities; and the "let's get down to business vibe" that has become the hallmark of Health 2.0 conferences.  Attendees and others can follow hashtag #health2con on Twitter for conference updates.

"When Health 2.0 was launched, some viewed the organization, our goals and the conference as 'way out there', almost on the fringe," explained Matthew Holt, co-founder of Health 2.0, a community of hundreds of organizations and thousands of innovators. "It's been extremely gratifying that our mission to provide a forum to showcase innovative solutions, approaches and ideas to promote positive change in health care delivery for the various health care industry stakeholders has been embraced so broadly."

The four-day conference will feature:

• A keynote presentation by Mark Smith, president and CEO of the California Health Care Foundation, a nonprofit philanthropy that awards approximately $40 million in grants each year to support projects to improve health care for all Californians. Smith will outline his vision for how the country can improve quality, efficiency and cost effectiveness of care.
• Nearly 30 pre-conference workshops and educational and breakout sessions exploring business and technology trends and developments affecting hospitals, physicians, insurers, employers, pharmacies and others. Presentations will include "Employers, Payers and the Great Health 2.0 Awakening" by Mark Bertolini, chairman, CEO and president of Aetna and George Halvorson, chairman and CEO of Kaiser Permanente.
• Live demonstrations of new technologies including Withings' WiFi body scale that wireless uploads and tracks weight and body mass index; Diabetic Connect's online community supporting diabetics; BodyMedia's armband for tracking activity levels to encourage weight loss; and Zeo's personal sleep coach that assesses sleep patterns and makes recommendations for improvement.
• Winners of the six current Health 2.0 Developer Challenges will be announced during the conference. First-place winners will receive cash prizes ranging from $5,000 to $25,000 for these competitions in which developers, designers and other stakeholders collaborate to develop and improve health-related applications.

About Health 2.0

Health 2.0: The conference. The media network. The innovation community. The Health 2.0 Conference is the leading showcase of cutting-edge innovation transforming the health care system. Since its beginning in 2007, Health 2.0 has served as a community resource for search and online tools to help consumers manage their health and connect to providers. Now that the industry has caught up, Health 2.0 covers the entire cloud, web, mobile and unplatforms technology revolution that is shaking up every sector of health care.

Health 2.0's next conference is on September 25-27 in San Francisco, the culmination of Health Innovation Week, with Health 2.0 Europe in Berlin on October 27-8, 2011. The Health 2.0 organization also operates the Health 2.0 Developer Challenge competitions, the Health 2.0 Advisors Market Intelligence Service, the Health 2.0 News Media and TV Network and the Health 2.0 Accelerator Industry Consortium. For more, visit www.health2con.com. For the latest Health 2.0 updates, follow us on Twitter, Facebook and join our LinkedIn group.

SOURCE Health 2.0