Over 400 senior healthcare executives dedicated to innovation from 200 companies across 38 states and 12 ecosystem sectors will join forces in Chicago from September 16 to 18 for this year’s seventh annual Oliver Wyman Health Innovation Summit, titled Building for Impact: Designing the Healthcare Landscape. Influencers, C-suite executives, and thought leaders will convene to discuss where and how healthcare's seen revolutionary change thus far, and who's driving this transformation. Over three days, they'll collaborate to accelerate market impact across industries. 

Here's an overview of what to expect at this year's Summit, and how to watch and follow along from wherever you are.

Launch of New Research Reflecting the Firm's Latest Industry Insights

Live from the Summit, we're releasing The Oliver Wyman Health Innovation Journal: Volume 3, an 86-page anthology reflecting the latest collaborative perspectives from 26 thought leaders in Oliver Wyman’s Health & Life Sciences practice, and contributors including American Express and Health Evolution. We'll also publish this full research here on Oliver Wyman Health for our readers. Our third Journal edition explores how healthcare's leaders can build for impact and redesign tomorrow's healthcare landscape. Peruse our 2018 and 2017 Journal editions.

Perspectives from Pioneers and Visionaries 

A rich array of expert speakers will deliver mainstage keynotes, share their insights in executive sessions, record podcast episodes during the Summit, and more, including:

• Gaurov Dayal, MD, President of New Markets and Chief Growth Officer, ChenMed

• Rina Shah, Group Vice President, Specialty and Retail Pharmacy, Walgreens

• Jesse Ehrenfeld, MD, MPH, Chair, Board of Trustees, American Medical Association

• John Kao, CEO, Alignment Healthcare

• Sean Lane, Co-Founder & CEO, Olive

• Grace Terrell, MD, President and CEO, Envision Genomics

• Horst Schulze, Co-Founder and Former Chief Operating Officer, Ritz-Carlton

• Jill Tietjen, President, American HerStory

• Todd Van Tol, Senior Vice President, Health Care Value, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan

Other companies speaking later this month include Humana, Samepage Health, Clover Health, Canaan Partners, Florida Blue, Omada Health, OhioHealth, Highmark Health, Privia Health, Epiphanyrx, Christiana Care Health System, Intermountain, Livongo, Clover Health, Amino Inc, Carrot Health, and Sutter Health. See our full roster here.

Topics this year's speakers will be presenting and speaking on include personalized medicine, Medicare Advantage, value-based care, digital treatments, specialty pharma, food as medicine, interoperability, consumer experiences, connected health, consumer data, and how to drive impact.

'Inspiration Tours' Offer a Glimpse into Chicago Innovation

Summit attendees will take one of four on-site, interactive tours to learn first-hand how some of the Windy City's most cutting-edge, innovative healthcare facilities are transforming the healthcare market. They'll visit Apple / Vitality to learn how design fosters lasting customer relationships, Mattersight to learn about the power of personality connections, the Shirley Ryan AbilityLab to learn about holistic healing, and Salesforce Ignite to learn how design thinking promotes better productivity. Attendees will explore what these local innovators are doing so they can potentially mirror what inspires them most back at their own organizations. Check back here shortly on Oliver Wyman Health for recaps of these tours.

A Deep Dive into Why We Think the Way We Do

For most people, New Year’s resolutions rarely stick. In organizations, we watch “the way it’s been done” trumping innovation and more creative solutions. It can feel messy, frustrating and fruitless trying to drive sustained behavior change for our consumers and our employees. Attendees will learn more about why this is in an experiential, interactive workshop – Mindsets & Molecules: The Art and Science of Behavior Change. This workshop dives deep into the neuro- and behavioral factors that influence individual, team and system dynamics, as well as practical, human-centric wisdom that helps change stick and new patterns emerge. 

From September 17-18, We're Streaming #OWHIC Live

You can watch the Summit unfold in two ways. First, Oliver Wyman and MedCity News are partnering to highlight insights from today's healthcare leaders via real-time interviews. Throughout the Summit, Kevin Truong will chat with attendees about their strategies to drive real industry impact. Watch this space here for these exclusive interviews.

Second, check out Oliver Wyman's Facebook live stream of the Summit. Here's an overview (in Central time) of the sessions we'll be featuring, and when:

Tuesday, September 17th

8:15 am - Horst Schulze of the Ritz-Carlton | Puttin' on the Ritz: Creating a Culture of Service > Nearly 40 years ago, Horst Schulze took a storied, but languishing brand, and built the world’s perhaps best-known luxury hotel chain. By investing first in people and culture – “ladies and gentlemen serving ladies and gentlemen” – Horst created a service experience that was second to none. Yet service was only half the story. Along the way, Ritz-Carlton won two Malcom Baldrige National Quality Awards and trained over 50,000 executives across industries, and Horst turned his attention to healthcare by joining the board of ChenMed. We’ll learn from Horst how to create the delightful healthcare experiences that consumers deserve.

8:45 am - Designing with Empathy: The Practice of the Future Chris Waugh – Chief Innovation Officer, Sutter Health > When asked what weekday healthcare represents, many patients say “Monday,” or worse, “Monday, after a three-day weekend.” With consumers viewing healthcare services with such dread, how can we create exceptional experiences? Applying cutting-edge approaches to design thinking, Chris helped create a “Practice of the Future” that meets patients where they are. He’s helped make measurable strides towards a healthcare that’s “simpler, more engaging, more human, and more affordable”.

9:15 am - Sean Lane of Olive | Your Next Employee Won't Have a Resume > The World Economic Forum predicts that by 2025, machines will perform over half of human workers’ tasks. Will chatbots run the world? Is artificial intelligence the next big thing, or just the next big money pit? A former National Security Agency operative, Sean Lane is optimistic. Implemented appropriately, AI lets humans become more human, focusing on creative, collaborative, and meaningful work. But how do we use AI wisely, not wastefully?

4:05 pm - Jorge Conde of Andreessen Horowitz | Time Really is Different: Our Innovation Inflection Point > There are plenty of reasons to be pessimistic about healthcare. Costs keep rising, we keep having the same debates, and, for the first time in more than a century, the average lifespan in the US has declined each of the past three years. Yet we’re also experiencing an unprecedented era of innovation around health. From progress in engineering biological systems, to software "eating" care delivery, we’re now at an innovation inflection point. Venture capitalist, Jorge Conde, is betting that the health system of 2040 will be virtually unrecognizable from the system we know today. If he’s right, how do we start getting ready now?

4:30 pm - Jennifer Schneider, MS, MD of Livongo & Jesse Ehrenfeld, MD, MPH of the AMA | The Encounter is Dead! Long Live the Encounter > New patient appointment. Follow-up appointment. Wellness visit. Test. Procedure. Encounter, encounter, encounter. For all of the changes we’ve seen in the healthcare system, for most physicians, the practice of medicine is still episodic, discrete, and reliant on patient “pull.” We know this model leads to patient dissatisfaction and physician burnout. New technology can fundamentally change the way we monitor, treat, and engage with individuals. How do we make this switch happen – and how can we help physicians, and their profession at its core, be part of the solution? 

Wednesday, September 18th

8:10 am - Josh Michelson of Oliver Wyman | It's Time to Drive Impact > Healthcare transformation. What so much energy and so many initiatives have focused on over the past decade in the US. Every sector has experimented with innovative models that promise an improved industry outlook. The innovation economy has funded hundreds of businesses attempting to redefine healthcare’s status quo. And many incumbents realize traditional business models are no longer compatible with demographic realities, consumer needs, and – holding up a mirror – company mission. Stepping back, we see a healthcare industry saturated with breakthrough solutions – but have we really succeeded in moving the needle on impact?

8:40 am - Sarah Iselin of Florida Blue | We're from the Government, and We're Here to Help. Really. > From ERISA to the ACA, and from value-based care to Medicare Advantage, more often than not, when a step change happens in our industry, the government is responsible. Yet too often healthcare leaders view government simply as “the regulator” or “the biggest payer” – a force to be managed rather than embraced. Sarah Iselin has built a career taking a different view, treating government as a partner and making real innovation happen as a result. How could the system be different if we all took Sarah’s approach?

9:05 am - Janice Nevin, MD, MPH of Christiana Care Health System | Buckle Up: Embracing Transformation Head On > Transformation is hard in any organization. Community health systems, however, are in a league of their own. Longstanding cultures, community pressures, and commitments to shared governance far too often turn best-laid plans from transformational to ploddingly incremental. As CEO of Christiana Care, Janice Nevin didn’t let these typical obstacles stand in her way as she pivoted her system to value while improving quality, customer satisfaction, and leadership diversity. How did she do it? And what can we learn about what to do – and not do – as we tackle our own transformations?

11:05 am - Julie Grant of Canaan Partners, Jeff Eberle of Truveris & Rina Shah of Walgreens | It Was the Best of Times, It Was the Worst of Times: Pharmacy's Problems and Potential > Every day, it seems another part of the drug industry is publicly pilloried. Pharmaceutical executives are being called to Capitol Hill, the value of pharmacy benefit managers is questioned, retail pharmacies are facing the double whammy of retail and healthcare industry transformations, and everyone is struggling with skyrocketing drug costs. But in the face of these challenges, we’re seeing consumer-friendly innovation — from investors starting pharma companies, to retailers expanding access, to new data solutions leveling the price playing field. How can innovations become scalable, and what’s the true potential of pharmacy affordability?

11:35 am - Duane Reynolds of the AHA | A Quantitative Solution to a Moral Problem > Health inequity still persists at alarmingly high rates. The healthcare playing field remains uneven, with healthcare inaccessible and unaffordable for many in our communities. How much progress have we really made if our innovations aren’t available to everyone? Duane Reynolds has spent his career figuring out how analytics can improve health equity, creating healthier humans, healthier organizations, and healthier bottom lines. He’ll explain how to bring health innovation to those who need it most.

Follow #OWHIC from Wherever You Are

Follow the event live by:

• Searching for the hashtag #OWHIC on our Twitter accounts: @OliverWyman and @OWHealthEditor
• Watch our Facebook Live stream @OliverWyman and our exclusive interviews on the MedCityNews Insights Lounge,
• Watch Oliver Wyman’s YouTube channel
• Follow our 2019 social media ambassadors (American Well's Ali Hyatt, Omada Health's Carolyn Jasik, Baylor Scott & White Health's Haala Rokadia, MD, Carrot Health's Kurt Waltenbaugh, AbleTo's Reena Pande, MD, and Grand Rounds' Renya Spak) who will all be Tweeting live about the broader Summit conversation
• During the event, we'll be publishing daily recaps here on Oliver Wyman Health
• Also, in coming months, we'll publish new podcast episodes highlighting key takeaways from the Summit's executive sessions on topics like Medicare Advantage, digital therapeutics, behavioral health, and consumer data on The Oliver Wyman Health Podcast