PCI attended the 36th JP Morgan 2018 Healthcare Conference in San Francisco for our first time!

The JPMHC conference brings together the top public and private Healthcare/Life Sciences companies in the world to present an overview of their business’ prior year, and provide insight regarding their future.

The topic that dominated this years conference was the integration of Technology industry capabilities into the business of Healthcare & Life Sciences – allowing for Healthcare & Life Sciences companies to access, share and analyze data faster and more convenient than it’s ever been able to, with the goal of ultimately reducing the time to bring treatments and drugs to market and improving the capabilities of patient care.

PCI attended JPM as part of our overall strategy to develop relationships within the Healthcare & Life Sciences business community, and continue our education of the industry as a whole.  As an IT company, here’s a few key takeaways from the conference:

• Digital Transformation is the new “Cloud”: If a company in this industry doesn’t have a Digital Transformation strategy, they’re likely developing one.  Without converting its mission-critical data and systems to digital format, companies will fall behind of the curve, unable to take advantage of the many technology platforms available (or coming) that enable patient care to be better, faster and cheaper.
• Regulatory Compliance is as important as ever: There is widespread uncertainty regarding current and future Regulatory Compliance guidance that governs critical patient data access and transmission.
• Science can match (and even exceed) the pace of Technology: Similar to the Tech world, it’s the early adopters and first-to-market that dominate the Healthcare/Life Sciences market.  In order to meet the demands of investors and the patients they’re helping, companies are bringing treatments, drugs and cures to market faster than ever before.

Overall, the Healthcare & Life Sciences industry is in an enviable position – the access to capital, science and technology is unmatched.  In consideration of the industry and our observations at JPMHC, PCI has a few recommendations:

• Your Digital Transformation strategy should be designed and deployed with a blank slate: Establish a secure, flexible and scaleable infrastructure in which to deploy your Digital Transformation with –  ensuring you have the capabilities within your infrastructure to meet Regulatory Compliance and protect patient data in a cost-effective manner is critical.
• Uncertainty in future Regulatory Compliance guidelines means adherence to existing regulations isn’t enough for your critical systems architecture: Capacity, capabilities and planning are necessary.
• Walk before you run: In keeping up with the pace of Science and Technology, its easy to cut corners or lose sight of the value that proper policies, procedures, recovery and response can provide in protecting your business and reducing potential interruptions of progress.