New Polsky Center series fosters discussion on innovation

Making health care more cost-effective

Many of the panelists said that they saw great potential in technology to solve some of the biggest challenges in health care, namely increased out-of-pocket costs and less accessibility to quality health care.  

“The trajectory of cost for health care is unsustainable—this has to be changed, and the only way to do that is with technology,” said Conkright. “How to drive technology into health care to make the cost more effective is the challenge of the day.”

For Lindau, a practicing physician, her passion for health care also stemmed from her care for patients. “I am less passionate about health tech than about health and about people. However tech creates transparency, connecting people to the right resources, and to the community,” Lindau said.

The panelists noted the slow adoption of technology in the health care industry. Lindau said that government regulations such as HIPAA laws make it difficult for patients to have control over their own medical information, and can prevent health data from being integrated together. Therefore, many health care providers are not able to leverage advanced data management platforms to provide better care for patients.

However, Dolin pointed out the possibility for improvement. “Health care tech is hard because we allow it to be too hard. But the FDA is embracing technology. They’ve made changes in the last few years to embrace innovation.”

Similarly, Conkright felt very hopeful about a future of tech-enabled health care. “Six years ago, we proposed the idea to use AI on physiological data. Nobody we talked to trusted it or else they were very negative about it. It got to the point that we had to start saying ‘machine learning’ instead of ‘AI’ because at that time, no one really understood what machine learning was.”

The panelists felt that the success of the event showcases the burgeoning entrepreneurial scene at the University of Chicago and Hyde Park.

“The Polsky Center has prepared incredibly high-quality events, and they clearly are nurturing entrepreneurial talents at the University of Chicago,” Ahmad said. “Having been an undergrad and grad student at the University, I can see how the focus and initiatives of the Polsky Center have really helped to drive the entrepreneurial scene in Chicago.”