With a weekend to recover, here are the quick takes from the WCI Conference in Orlando.
The ‘Headline’ keynote – Kathleen Madigan – was terrific. Glad I didn’t have to follow her; my “Industry Keynote” didn’t inspire many grins or guffaws, but did generate some outright hostility from the physician dispensing/repackaging folks.
Good.
Liberty’s physician meeting was very well attended; word is there were almost a hundred physicians at the get-together, a credit to Jean Feldman, their local Florida managed care exec. Kudos to Liberty for reaching out to treating physicians to strengthen relationships.
Saw an interesting piece of technology from CORA rehab – an iPad-based tool that serves as a teaching tool, enables patients to record and document their home exercise, and communicates w the PT and others involved in the case. Will be in use in January; they’ve invested a great deal of thought into the app and it looks promising.
The emphasis on broadening the conference’s appeal to a national audience looks to be paying off. There were attendees from everywhere, including Hawai’i, and topics of interest to people from all around the country.
Progressive Medical’s analytics capabilities are pretty impressive – that’s the report from a couple folks who attended their luncheon.
One of the strengths of WCI is a bit of a shortcoming as well; the plethora of audience-specific tracks (regulators, judges, medical issues, claims, etc) means there are not nearly enough “cross-stakeholder sessions” where judges hear from doctors and regulators and vice versa. This is a medical-legal system, and the more perspective we have on the various pieces and parts of the “system”, the better.
Definitely a younger and hipper crowd than at other conferences, but that’s to be expected when adjusters make up a big percentage of the audience. I have no idea how women walk in those five inch heels, but there were lots who somehow managed. And what’s with all the shirt tails out?
I know, showing my (advanced) age…
Overall – a LOT of information available, many excellent sessions, plenty of opportunities to party in the suites; need more cross-stakeholder discussion and better attendance at some really solid presentations.
Aug
27
