Past Forum: 2015

“We need a clear, cohesive vision of how to link the fruits of innovation with the patients who should no longer have to suffer through painful lives or fear a premature death. We need to bring the best minds in health care together to address how we can encourage and incentivize new neurological discoveries and how we can leverage innovation to make our world a better place.”

With those words, Partners HealthCare CEO David Torchiana, MD opened the first annual World Medical Innovation Forum, an event that led many of health care’s most important leaders and transformative thinkers to converge in Boston this April to share their visions of neurological medicine’s future. The Forum was unique among the nation’s calendar of health care conferences and summits, in the breadth and depth of subject matter discussed as well as the senior standing of those participating. The Forum gathered nearly 1,000 clinicians, researchers, investors, entrepreneurs and health care industry leaders from 25 states and 18 countries. Together, they provided and absorbed information on game-changing technologies, devices, drugs and therapies that will elevate the way we diagnose, treat and care for neurodegenerative and psychiatric disorders.

Snapshots from the Forum include:

• U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell shared information with Forum participants on the Obama Administration’s new initiative on precision medicine.
• The active participation of leading CEOs from the health insurance, health information technology, pharmaceutical and medical device industries, including Jeff Immelt of General Electric, Robert Bradway of Amgen, Mark Bertolini of Aetna, Mike Mahoney of Boston Scientific, Jeff Leiden MD, PhD of Vertex Pharmaceuticals and George Scangos, PhD of Biogen, who shared details of his company’s exciting progress on treatments for Alzheimer’s Disease.
• Many of the nation’s top journalists served as moderators, asking the probing questions of speakers and panelists that led to illuminating insights. Moderators included former NBC News Chief Medical Editor Nancy Snyderman, MD, Kyra Phillips, CNN Correspondent, John Roberts, Senior National Correspondent, Fox News, Meg Tirell, CNBC Biotech and Pharma Reporter, Alice Park, Writer, TIME Magazine, Jonathan LaPook, MD, Chief Medical Correspondent, CBS Evening News and Michelle Cortez, Reporter, Bloomberg Businessweek.
• Former First Lady of Massachusetts Ann Romney not only discussed her own experience as a multiple sclerosis patient, but also the hope and promise embodied in the new Ann Romney Center for Neurologic Diseases at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.
• Medicine’s premier thought leaders, like Brigham and Women’s Atul Gawande, MD, discussed how today’s health care systems can accommodate and encourage emerging, evolving scientific knowledge.