Health-care innovators converge in Philly

Philadelphia is home to a new conference — one that aims to bring together innovators from across health care and the life sciences.

MedCity Converge bills itself as the destination for health-care innovators. The one-day summit is expected to draw over 300 health-care entrepreneurs, executives and government officials.

“Innovation in health care is distributed — and it’s siloed,” said Chris Seper, CEO of MedCity Media, the Cleveland-based online news outfit hosting Tuesday’s event. 

“This is the only conference in the country where you’re going to get all the different sectors together,” Seper said. “[You’ll] really get the most accurate picture of what health care and life-science innovation is across the board.”

Why Philly?

Seper says Philadelphia is establishing itself as one of the nation’s top cities for health-care innovation.

“We had a few options on where to host this conference,” Seper said, “and the feedback we got, even as we were talking to stakeholders in California, was that Philadelphia is really where it’s at.”

Seper says the Delaware Valley has the academic chops, a solid base of established health-care companies and a growing pool of investors.

“All of those organizations are coming together and this a hotbed for it,” Seper said of the Philadelphia area. “So this is where deals are done and this is where innovation is happening.”

Still, turning more of those innovations into products that will better the lives of patients across the country remains a challenge, says Seper.

The summit will tackle an array of topics — everything from the promise of Big Data, to the role of venture capital, to the impact of health-care reform on medical device makers.

MedCity Converge kicks off Tuesday at 7:30 a.m. More information can be found on the MedCity Converge site.