Dr. Joseph Kvedar is Vice President of Connected Health at Partners HealthCare, and Professor of Dermatology at Harvard Medical School. He is also co-chair of the American Medical Association’s Digital Medicine Payment Advisory Group, and lead author on two recent books: The Internet of Healthy Things (2015) and The New Mobile Age: How Technology Will Extend the Lifespan and Optimize the Healthspan (2017). In an interview recorded at IGHPE 2018 at Kuala Lumpur, Dr. Kvedar talks about the subtle art of developing new healthcare technologies for an ageing population, early work on the CareSage web-based risk assessment system, and how healthcare professionals must learn to let technology do what it’s good at to free them up for those parts of medicine only humans can do.
Dr. Kvedar’s long-standing interest in moving healthcare out of the doctor’s clinic and into the daily life of the patient has dovetailed with the development of mobile technology capable of monitoring many aspects of patients’ physiological functioning and activity, such as heart rate or exercise. At Partners Connected Health, Dr. Kvedar has been instrumental in launching mobile health programs, virtual care initiatives and clinical research at affiliated hospitals, including Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital. The major aim has been to develop a new model of healthcare delivery to help patients and their healthcare providers better manage chronic conditions, maintain their health and awareness of their health, and improve adherence to healthcare programs.
Dr. Kvedar is Program Chair for the Connected Health Conference, an industry-defining event co-hosted by Partners Connected Health and the HIMSS Personal Connected Health Alliance (PCHAlliance). He is a member of the PCHAlliance Board of Managers, a strategic advisor at Flare Capital Partners, Wave Edge Capital, PureTech Ventures and Qualcomm Life, and a member of the board of b.well Connected Health. Dr. Kvedar is a member of the Board of Xcertia, a collaboration between AHA, AMA,DHX Group and HIMSS dedicated to improving the quality, safety, and effectiveness of mobile health apps.
IGHPE was very pleased to have Dr. Kvedar presenting at our Kuala Lumpur 2018 meeting on the general topic of “How is technology changing workforce needs?”