When I don’t post for a while, I start to get antsy. There’s so much to talk about in the world I usually cover, but in the past few weeks, I’ve had precious little time to sit with it and think. There’s a good reason for my lack of posting: The third annual DOC is just around the corner, and I’ve been focused on preparing for what will be the most packed agenda we’ve ever produced. Here’s a quick preview:
- Show me someone who thinks the US healthcare system works just fine, and I’ll show you someone who’s getting rich off its faults. That’s my takeaway from the preparation we’ve done for our opening debate, which asks “Can we fix the healthcare system, or should we start over?” The debate is open to the entire room of 300+ physicians, scientists, entrepreneurs, policy makers, and investors, but it will be led by the founding dean of the US’s newest school of medicine, a senior official at ARPA-H, the Chief Medical Officer of a major wearables company, and a doctor who was instrumental in eliminating smallpox.
- For me, the highlights of DOC are the scientists who present, and then defend, their ground-breaking work. Next week, we’ll hear from Dr. Eddie Chang on brain computer interfaces, Dr. Laura Esserman on novel breast cancer trials, Dr. Nicole Gaudelli and Dr. Bill Peranteau on simply astonishing advances in gene editing, Dr. Rachel Sarnoff on the microbiome, and Dr. Shadi Kourosh on why and how the skin remembers. And that’s just a sampling. I always leave DOC astounded and hopeful, which to be honest, is pretty unique for an “industry conference.”
- This year we went deep on breakout sessions, with more than a dozen focused conversations on everything from women’s health to exercise as medicine. I’ll be leading several of them, including on exercise science, cell signaling, and the regulatory impacts of AI on medicine.
- DOC’s Living Room Lab is back and features more than 15 companies offering direct, experiential access to cutting edge diagnostics and therapies.
- Deep-dive conversations are another hallmark of DOC’s program, and this year we’ll hear from Dr. Alicia Jackson, who runs ARPA-A, Dr. George D. Yancopoulos, founder and CEO of Regeneron, and Divesh Makan, who founded Iconiq Capital. Each are standout leaders in three fields we love to mix together at DOC: Policy, entrepreneurialism, and investment.
- As you might expect, AI will be an integral part of the DOC program. We’ll have sessions on how the technology is impacting clinical practice, research science, regulatory frameworks, and diagnostics. And we’ll have a bit of fun with AI as well: We’ll be asking three AI models to judge our opening debate and declare a winner. Of course, the hand vote in the room will trump them all.
I’ll be mostly silent here next week, but when I return, I look forward to resuming my usual posting schedule. If you’d like to follow what we’re up to at DOC, you can sign up for our newsletter here, or connect with us on LinkedIn. Thanks for reading!