At The MedTech Conference, I’ll be looking for what makes innovation work in care

By Rohit Mahajan

Co-Host, The Big Unlock Podcast

I’ll be in Boston this October for The MedTech Conference, where leaders across medical technology, healthcare delivery, and digital health will meet to discuss what comes next. As co-host of The Big Unlock podcast, I’m looking forward to conversations with the people building new tools and the people responsible for making them work in care.

The conference agenda spans AI and digital health, diagnostics, commercialization, patient access, and the economics of care delivery. These subjects are closely connected. A promising technology may perform well in a demonstration, but its impact depends on whether clinicians can use it in their workflow, patients can access it, and health systems can sustain it. 

That is the question I’ll bring to Boston: What does it take to move a useful innovation into everyday care?

Where AI meets the clinical workflow

AI is becoming part of the medtech conversation in tangible ways, from connected devices and continuous health data to tools that help clinicians interpret information and make decisions. The conference’s AI and digital health programming reflects that breadth.

I’m especially interested in what happens after a tool proves it can perform a task. Who receives its output? Does it help the care team decide what to do next? How does it fit into an existing process, and who is accountable when the process changes?

Those questions matter to health systems facing pressure on staff time and resources. The strongest applications of AI will be the ones designed around a real care need, with a clear role for clinicians and a way to measure whether the experience improves.

Adoption depends on the whole system

On The Big Unlock, we often hear different perspectives on the same challenge. Innovators focus on what technology makes possible. Health system leaders ask how to put it into practice. Clinicians want to know whether it helps them care for patients. Each perspective is essential.

I’ll be listening for examples of medtech companies and care delivery organizations working through those questions together. How are they building evidence? What makes implementation easier for clinical teams? How are they thinking about access, payment, and long-term value?

The conference’s discussions of provider economics and AI adoption should make for particularly useful conversations. A solution has to address a meaningful problem for the organizations and people expected to use it. (The MedTech Conference)

Conversations I hope to bring back

Events like this are most valuable when the ideas on stage lead to candid conversations off stage. I’m looking forward to meeting medtech leaders, clinicians, health system executives, and founders who can speak openly about what they have learned, including where implementation has been difficult.

I’ll share the insights and conversations that stand out through The Big Unlock. Are you at The MedTech Conference? I would love the chance to connect. What are you seeing that is making a measurable difference in care, and what is still getting in the way?