SAN DIEGO – At the Health 2.0 Conference in San Francisco from Sept. 22-27, Health 2.0 will organize the first ever Innovation Exchange for the Beacon Communities, a "match-making" event between technology innovators and health care organizations. Health 2.0 welcomes the interest and participation from the West Wireless Health Institute (WWHI) and Center for Technology and Aging .

On Sunday, Sept. 25, the Health 2.0 Innovation Exchange will connect the innovation community with six Beacon Community health care systems, which received funding from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in 2010 to demonstrate the potential of information technology to transform health care delivery.

"Because of Health 2.0's unique relationship with IT innovators, the Health 2.0 conference is the ideal place to match startups with the Beacons," said Indu Subaiya, Health 2.0 Co-Chairman and CEO. "The Health 2.0 Innovation Exchange is the first of its kind and we expect the partnerships formed will take health innovation to the next level and ultimately transform health care."

"We are planning this event with a basic idea: let's start with the clinical problem we are trying to solve, then figure out whether consumer eHealth companies can play a role in the solution," said Pierce Graham-Jones, a Project Officer for the Beacon Communities. "The health care systems are coming halfway. Now it's up to the innovation community to convince the Beacons that they can help them deliver better, more efficient care."

Each of the six participating Beacon Communities has developed a "Clinical Need Statement" that describes one or more challenges that could be addressed through the appropriate use of health information technology. Identified needs are in clinical areas such as diabetes care, chronic heart failure, emergency medicine, and pediatric care.

"We're looking to identify and seamlessly integrate eHealth applications into diabetic patients' lives, to engage them in better ways to track their condition and adjust their lifestyles by using technologies that in some way are already a part of their life," said Daniel E. Porreca, HEALTHeLINK Executive Director from the Western New York Beacon Community. "If someone has a great solution, we would love to learn more about it and potentially test it within our community."

To participate, innovators should review the Beacon Clinical Need Statements and then apply via http://www.health2con.com/conferences/beacon-communityhealth-2-0-matchma.... Health 2.0 organizers will screen applications and select five to ten companies and/or individual innovators to be part of the rapid-fire, "speed dating" style event on Sept. 25. The deadline to apply is Sept. 19.

"We're excited to be bringing together top innovators with health care systems, to help improve patient care and ultimately deploy highly cost-effective solutions for clinical practice," said Nicole Boramanand, Vice President of Clinical Systems Innovation at WWHI. "Health care innovation must be informed by real health care practice, so this is a great chance to match needs with the right solutions."

At the event, selected companies or individuals will have a chance to convince a Beacon Community that they have the right health IT solution for a specific clinical need. Beacon Communities participating in the event include:

    * Utah Beacon Community, Salt Lake City, UT

    * Central Indiana Beacon Community, Indianapolis, IN

    * Delta BLUES Beacon Community, Stoneville, MS

    * Keystone Beacon Community, Danville, Pennsylvania

    * Cincinnati Beacon Community, Cincinnati, OH

    * Western New York Beacon Community, Buffalo, NY 

"We hope this event will help spur the deployment of low-cost, practical and scalable solutions for use within clinical settings, with the ultimate goal of improving patient care," said David Lindeman, Director, Center for Technology and Aging.

This event is a special private session accessible to those companies who apply to present and who are selected to meet with representatives of the six participating Beacon Communities. The Beacon Communities visiting Health 2.0 represent an average of roughly $15 million each in total funding over 3 years from the Office of the National Coordinator. Implementation is well underway, but some Beacons are considering additional consumer eHealth technology deployments that will accelerate their interventions and align with their improvement objectives.

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 and is the premier [other options: original, best, foremost, number one] resource connecting IT innovators to established health care providers. Health 2.0 covers the technology revolution that is shaking up every sector of health care, including cloud, web, mobile and unplatforms.  

Health 2.0's fifth annual 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.

ABOUT THE WEST WIRELESS HEALTH INSTITUTE

The West Wireless Health Institute (www.westwirelesshealth.org) is the only medical research organization in the world focused on lowering health care costs through technology and innovation. The Institute was founded in 2009 by the Gary and Mary West Foundation, and is based in San Diego, California, the global center for health care innovation.

ABOUT THE CENTER FOR TECHNOLOGY AND AGING