eHIPP Rounds, April 19, 2012: Health care, technology, and startup culture at #sxsw. Recording Available.

At this month’s professional development eHIPP talk, Dan Hooker, Marketing and Communications Coordinator at eHealth Office, presented a recap of the South by Southwest conference that was held in early March. South by Southwest Interactive is an annual conference that encompasses a large sector of technology-minded individuals, including developers, marketers and community managers.

As health care and eHealth technolgoies have ventured into social media, as well as become to be seen as a viable investment opportunity for venture capitalists (particularly in the United States), there has been a growing amount of sessions devoted solely to health.  This year’s conference saw an entire track devoted to technological developments in health and education, with more sessions than one person could attend spread over the 5 days of the conference.

Dan described some of the sessions he attended and highlighted some key themes from his experience. Notably was the repesentation of startup companies app companies in Health Care which sparked much debate and discussion around the eHealth Office. The business of health technology development is an interesting space that represents simultaneous interest in improving the health of consumers who may use the apps in question, with a desire to make them widely consumable in order to provide a worthwhile return for investors. Dan also discussed some noticeable differences between startup and academic environments, and shared some take-aways that could prove beneficial to both spheres.

The video recording of this eHIPP session is:

The eHealth Investigative Partnership Program (eHIPP) is a series of monthly professional development lectures, generally taking place on the third Thursday of every month.