Stanford Med X 2015: It's a wrap!

This year I was fortunate enough to have the weekend off to fly back to California (#dermlife! all the way) for the annual MedX conference held at Stanford. This conference is near and dear to my heart, not only because it is about how to use emerging technologies to shape the future of healthcare, but also because it is the first place I gained experience as an on-camera host back during my journalism fellowship year. Being a part of the Global Access Team, bringing the conference to anyone around the world with an internet connection, was so cool and I was thrilled to attend the conference again this year! Not to mention, I love any opportunity to visit my alma mater of 9 years 😛

Zooey, Dr. Chu's beloved bulldog, was the mascot of this year's conference — Zooey, Dr. Chu’s beloved bulldog, was the mascot of this year’s conference

In the past I felt lucky to interview people I’ve admired for their bold moves in healthcare such as Anne Wojcicki of 23andMe and Dennis Boyle, founding partner of Ideo. This year was no exception. I was a little starstruck when I interviewed Dr. Eric Topol, brilliant cardiologist at Scripps, author of over 1000 peer reviewed articles (is that even possible?!?!), editor in chief of Medscape, and author of “The Patient will See You Now.” He ended up being totally down to earth and even knew our camera crew from a shoot they did for Rock Center a few years back with my former boss Dr. Snyderman. He had a really interesting perspective on the potential of mobile apps for healthcare use, bringing patients and docs together in a collaborative approach to improve diagnosis and treatment. I will update this post with the link of the video once it is uploaded on the MedX youtube channel.

A big part of the conference, as before, centers around involving patients in their own care, whether it is through personal health trackers or EKG’s on mobile phones that can read rhythm strips. I think this is a great idea, but it takes education on both ends – the doctors and the patients – to make this new model work. We as physicians need to learn how to work with patients who bring data to us for interpretation and patients need to learn what kind of information can be harnessed from their own tech devices. Dr Larry Chu, the organizer of MedX, is leading efforts to bring about reform in the medical education space as well, kicking off the first year of MedX Ed, a two day endeavor exploring critical issues and holes in medical curriculums today.