Today we hear from Peter Hermann of BreatheAware. The company has a platform designed to help individuals change their behaviors to manage stress and improve health, leading to better individual lives and reduced burdens on the health system. He says some interesting things about the importance of trust in patient engagement, about collecting data to actually use it and get a result out of it, and, importantly, the value of just showing up sometimes. He says, “taking care of yourself is about showing up and doing something,” not necessarily hitting every metric put in front of us every time. It's a good lesson for us as patients in managing our own health and for providers thinking about how to best engage their patients and support them in their healthcare.

What happens when you wake up after living a life that revolves around movement...and you can barely move? This is where Banning Bouldin found herself one morning, and it sent her on a powerful, personal health journey. Banning is the founder of New Dialect, a contemporary dance company in Nashville. She was recently diagnosed with an early stage of multiple sclerosis and has been working her way back from the consequences of the disease on her body. She uses her story to show how important it is to be your own patient advocate, to search and research treatment options, and to build a network of health professionals that will help pull you through. Her story is a reminder that even in the midst of all our 21st-Century technology, a personal approach to medicine and healthcare is still the most important thing.

Today we hear from Jill Sonke, Director of the University of Florida Center for Arts in Medicine. Her work is a unique type of healthcare innovation, as it revolves around research into how art, dance and music directly affect patient care and outcomes. You’ll hear about some data showing that, in fact, music can actually induce the same pain-killing effects as some narcotics. The implications of the work Jill and her colleagues are pursuing are significant, pointing towards some intriguing ways to improve outcomes and control costs, as well as potentially make a difference in the opioid crisis. This conversation points to the merger of science and evidence-based medical care with the arts - something that is core to our humanity. Especially here in Nashville, we hear so much about musicians, celebrities, coming to entertain patients during their hospital stays. Jill’s work shows how important those types initiatives can really be, and how expanding them into actual treatment modalities makes a measurable difference in patients' lives.

From August 22-25, 2017, we will all gather in Nashville, Tennessee to build - and celebrate - the future of health. This is the annual Health:Further Festival, and event for people who are committed to building a more affordable, sustainable health system. We will have healthcare entrepreneurs, payers, providers, health IT, policymakers, students, healthcare industry executives, artists, and more, all talking about the most innovative ideas in health. In this Festival preview, we hear from 12 of the speakers at this year's festival, covering everything from blockchain in healthcare to art in medicine.

What’s the difference between a car and a physician? It’s not a matter of importance. It’s a matter of information, or a lack-thereof. EZDoctor seeks to close the void in physician data by providing “car facts” for doctors. The company gathers quantitative and qualitative information like malpractice history, pricing, prescribing habits, and ratings and reviews from across the web to generate a comprehensive report on individual physicians. According to CEO David Marsidi and CIO Howard Khan, the goal of EZDoctor is to bring consumers the “whole picture of a doctor.” These reports empower consumers to take more ownership of their health care. As startup founders and healthcare entrepreneurs, Marsidi and Khan and taking an existing approach and applying it to healthcare. That counts as innovation in patient engagement and healthcare data analytics.

Litesprite is bringing gamification to mental health. It's an innovation in healthcare that allows patients dealing with mental health issues to obtain therapy outside of sessions with mental health providers, while giving feedback and data to those same providers. In other words, Litesprite is providing a stronger connection between patients and providers in the mental health space, where empathy and personalized treatment are crucial. Creative Director Sean Watson describes how Sinesprite the company's primary game, allows patients to do things like journal, reflect, and decompress with evidence-based relaxation techniques when they have a mental episode. The platform then provides clinicians with data through an interactive dashboard, allowing them to understand what’s going on with the patient in between appointments. Clinicians can even push questions that are particularly relevant to the patient at hand. The game becomes a conversation where the patient can relate to the avatar that pulls them through the game. It's patient engagement in the most literal sense.

Jennifer Sclar, Co-Founder and CEO of Clear Health Analytics, knows what it's like to shop for health insurance. Trying to get a plan that will cover all healthcare needs at the right price is a painful process. the feeling. That’s why she became a healthcare entrepreneur and founded a company dedicated to healthcare consumers trying to navigate the labyrinth that is health insurance. Clear Health Analytics works to combat the tendency to over-insure by providing healthcare technology that assists people in finding a plan that best meets their individual needs and budgets. It produces customized estimates of total costs and can tell people if certain doctors are in their network or if certain prescriptions will be covered.

Armand Lauzon founded Belle, a health, wellness and beauty, to bring personal care services to people. It's in-home care for anyone. What he found early on was that one of his strongest markets was in elder care. Being able to provide in-home services to seniors meant they could look and feel great, without having to struggle to get to appointments. Like any good healthcare entrepreneur, Armand began shifting his company's focus to the elder care market. In addition, he built a platform that helps providers offer their services while still making a good living. Belle is a health and wellness company that is designed to serve both it's clients and it's service providers, bringing a simple yet innovative approach to in-home care.

Part 2. Chad Blackburn - and his company eDoc4U - is working to change the fact that only about 1 in 9 Medicare patients have ever had a wellness visit. The consequences of that, in terms of health and financial burden, is huge. By combining technology and human interaction - in the form of physician extenders who can offer wellness visits - eDoc4U is increasing patient engagement and interaction, as well as making the process easier for individual patients put together a health plan in the context of those visits. It’s a great example of a healthcare company that is offering a service that helps with value based care and reducing the burden on our healthcare system while also improving outcomes and patient engagement.

Chad Blackburn - and his company eDoc4U - is working to change the fact that only about 1 in 9 Medicare patients have ever had a wellness visit. The consequences of that, in terms of health and financial burden, is huge. By combining technology and human interaction - in the form of physician extenders who can offer wellness visits - eDoc4U is increasing patient engagement and interaction, as well as making the process easier for individual patients put together a health plan in the context of those visits. It’s a great example of a healthcare company that is offering a service that helps with value based care and reducing the burden on our healthcare system while also improving outcomes and patient engagement.