SXSW 2016: Here’s every (healthcare) event you need to attend

Lucky number seven! 2016 marks our seventh consecutive year attending SXSW, and this year we’re especially jazzed to have our co-founder and Managing Director Halle Tecco take the spotlight in a featured talk with CNN’s Sara O’Brien to discuss the past five years of Rock Health and digital health! As usual, we took the guesswork out of planning your schedule, and compiled a list of can’t-miss healthcare events for you while you’re “getting weird” in Austin.

Don’t forget your badge!

Saturday, March 12th

A New FDA: A Partner for the Digital Future
12:30pm – 1:30pm at JW Marriott (110 E 2nd St), MedTech Stage

Bakul Patel, Assoc. Director for Digital Health at the FDA will provide insights into the FDA’s current and future plans for regulating digital health and answer questions you were “afraid to ask.”

SX Health and MedTech Expo
10am-6pm at JW Marriott, 2nd floor

The second annual SX Health & MedTech Expo is your go-to spot to mingle with the digital health crowd, with showcases, exhibitions, and discussion topics led by thought leaders like Tim O’Reilly, Wen Dombrowski and Bryan Sivak.

Digital Health and Outcomes: Where’s the Evidence?
3:30pm – 4:30pm at JW Marriott, MedTech Stage

Despite thousands of apps and devices emerging in the digital health universe, the sad fact is that most have no demonstrable outcomes—they don’t clearly improve anyone’s health, and they haven’t proved they can reduce costs—ultimately leading to a lack of viability. It’s time for the sector to mature and start demonstrating its value.

The Future of Medicine: Where Can Tech Take Us?
5pm – 6pm at JW Marriott, MedTech Stage

Dr. Daniel Kraft will discuss how emergent fields like genomics, the digitization of health records, crowd-sourced data, molecular imaging, wearable devices & mobile health, synthetic biology, robotics, AI, nanotechnology, 3D printing and regenerative medicine, and more, will change the face of healthcare.

Sunday, March 13th

Hacking for Healing: MedTech and Chronic Disease
12:30pm – 1:30pm at JW Marriott, MedTech Stage

Is it time to shift from precision medicine to precision prevention? Results from a pre-SXSW survey of “quantified self” tracking among healthy and chronic disease participants will kickoff an interactive conversation among participants and panelists.

Imagining the Future of Personalized Medicine
3:30pm – 4:30pm at JW Marriott, Room 201-202

It’s time to reach higher and start solving the harder problems in healthcare. But how? Swing by to hear this discussion about the best path forward toward more engaging and personalized healthcare.

How to Raise Capital for Your Healthcare Company
3:30pm – 4:30pm at Hilton Austin Downtown (500 E 4th Street), Salon D

Raising a round? Then head over to the Hilton to hear this panel of healthcare investors discuss current market trends, best practices in pitching & the importance of looking beyond funding to find a partner that can help you build a profitable business with a compelling market advantage.

Dell Medical School’s Health & MedTech Wrap
6pm – 9pm at 3TEN, ACL Live (310 Second Street)

The Dell Medical School at The University of Texas at Austin has big plans for SXSW’s second annual Health & MedTech Expo — including a #HealthHiveevent that will crowdsource and amplify big ideas for improving health and healthcare.

Health Disruptors Dinner with Canaan Partners, Mad Pow, Alliance Health
7:15pm – 10pm at Swift’s Attic (315 Congress Avenue)

Swing by Swift’s Attic for an evening of networking, inspiration and good eats. This will be an evening celebrating shared efforts to make healthcare better through technology, creativity and grit.

Monday, March 14th

Impact Pediatric Health
9:30am at Hilton Austin Downtown Salon B

The Impact Pediatric Health Startup Pitch Competition is an opportunity for up-and-coming digital health and medical device startups to pitch their innovation to a panel of medical executives and investors.

MIT #HackMed: Barracuda Bowl Startup Pitch Fest
9:30am – 10:30am at JW Marriott, Brazos Room

Entrepreneurs will get 15 minutes “in the bowl” to pitch their ideas to a panel of judges. Can you swim with the sharks?

Chicks in Charge: Making Healthtech Meaningful
12:30pm – 1:30pm at JW Marriott, Room 203-204

How can the female ethos, values, and leadership drive a revolution where healthtech feels more relevant, useful, even sexy – and have greater impact? This panel packs a punch.

Invest for Health: Curing the Pain Points in Healthcare
2pm – 3pm at JW Marriott, Griffin Hall

Jonathan Bush, CEO of athenahealth, along with Sue Siegel of GE Ventures and Chris Coburn of Partners HealthCare, will discuss the crappy, disconnected state of health care, issues that plague the industry and the climate that has allowed them to thrive, and what the blueprint for the future looks like.

Learnings from Five Years in Digital Health
3:30pm – 4:30pm at Austin Convention Center (531 E 4th St), Room 18ABCD

Rock Health co-founder and Managing Director Halle Tecco will take the stage with CNN’s Sara O’Brien for a candid discussion about digital health, and how she tackled challenges while building the first venture fund dedicated to the space.

Tuesday, March 15th

Inhale and Exhale: The Future of Health Data APIs
3:30pm – 4:30pm at JW Marriott, Room 201-202

Where are the healthcare APIs? They’re coming. A generation of startups are taking on the enormous task of building simple, portable APIs for health data. Find out how at this discussion.

PRO TIP: Feeling extra social? Sign up for automatic RSVP’s (for a $30 fee) to some of the festival’s hottest parties in town. And don’t forget to sign up for SXSW’s own Guest Pass here.