They've put together a solid slate of panels and talks. I'm looking forward to attending a diverse array of panels, to learn more about ways hospitals are thinking about virtual care, RPA and digital engagement.

We framing our program around the "market forces" in health care. Where are the market forces shifting? What market forces need to shift? And how do we as a community shape the direction of digital health creation, adoption and scale around the country. Panels and speakers range from local ecosystem builders to national thought leaders. I'm excited to learn from all of our impressive speakers and partners about how they are working with market forces to create change.

I love how our sessions integrate public and private stakeholders, showcase small and large organizations, and provide opportunities to engage in active dialogues that turn into real actions.

The ROI, security assessment, and ecosystem mapping projects all stemmed from these summits, proof that the collaboration model is working!

All great questions. Mainly ecosystem builders are involved in Together.Health but that is evolving. We have multiple companies that have engaged through our events as well as have signed up for our newsletter. This information can be found on our website: together.health. At this stage of formation, engaging with us depends on what you are interested in getting out of the collaborative. We are trying to break down barriers faced by multiple entities through the BAA process, mapping ecosystems, connecting likeminded innovators, etc. There are no costs to participate.

Steering committee members participate through social media and through our quarterly steering committee meetings. At this point, I think the best way for small startups and physicians to engage with T.H is to share their ideas on what needs to change to accelerate digital health and give us feedback on projects we are currently working towards.

What Maura said!

A great example of Together Health helping to break down barriers is the collaboration we received from companies, health systems, accelerators, care team members, physicians and patients to contribute to the AMA Digital Health Implementation research and Playbook. We'll be looking to the group to provide additional thoughts as we expand to the next solution intervention (e-visits) in the coming months and are currently working with MassChallenge Health Tech, EggStrategy and many participants from Together Health on digital health ROI research. Overall, our ability to easily find stakeholders and leaders across the ecosystem willing to raise their hands and contribute has been vastly expedited as a result of TH.

It would be helpful to understand the process by which a small innovative companies can participate in a way that breaks barriers. What are the criteria for inclusions? What are the costs to join and other out-of-pocket expenses to participate? How are proprietary methods and content handled? How do members communicate with each other and share ideas or products? Are there any voting processes and for what? Do all stakeholders have equal say? What's its relationship with the AMA?

Hi Stephen,

Right now the best way is to engage with a regional ambassador. You can find them at the bottom of the home page. These are organizations at local or national levels. They can help share insights from the network and also get you plugged in: together.health

We also have two public events per year, one at HIMSS and the other at HLTH. We’d love to have you at HLTH in October: hlth.com/together-health/

Right now security (or risk) assessments are a major barrier to innovation. While it’s critical to protect patient information, there are inconsistent approaches to implementing best practices. These inconsistencies can lead to 3-6 month delays for projects getting implemented.

We are working alongside several state and national organizations both public and private to address this issue directly. We’ve made a lot of progress and aim to share our recommendations at HLTH this fall.

I was inspired to join and launch Together.Health both as a startup founder and ecosystem activator because I noticed how:
1. Painful it is for startups to identify their product requirements due to inconsistencies across companies and regions
2. People and organizations in an ecosystem that work together can streamline processes, but it’s often challenging to scale outside of the smallness of their ecosystem. Trust has a tendency to erode over distance

I wondered if we could create an ecosystem of ecosystems that could go to their regions (where they have trust) and implement consistent processes and knowledge sharing. The time it took to bring innovation to market (in part because of security hurdles, bad business planning or requirements, ROI confusion, etc.) was killing companies. I believed a high level of collaboration across ecosystems could establish the infrastructure for a less fragmented implementation environment for new solutions (i.e digital health startups).

I’m enthused by how many people shared this outlook and desire to align on a common set of objectives, helping grow Together.Health into what it is today (with over 30-40 member ecosystems). If we truly continue to work together, our ability to advance the industry is massive.

It was born out of necessity. We were all at a conference in Boston, and through facilitated discussion, realized that there were a TON of ecosystem issues that were repeatedly happening in cities and regions across the country. Same issues in Boston, New York, Columbus, Seattle, LA, Denver, etc. I give Nick and Stephen credit. Instead of just moving on to the next conference, they said, let's do something about it. And Together.Health was born.

Agree with Omkar - we all appreciate the value of conferences and in person summits, but it can sometimes feel like an echo chamber because the majority of the participants know what the problems are, but the difficult part is working to collaboratively overcome the hurdles. With Nick and Stephan's leadership, Together Health was a great way to turn theory into practice by allowing those interested to actually get involved to tackle common problems by developing work groups and project teams on topics such as ecosystem mapping and developing a common BAA. More than anything, it's been extremely helpful to identify collaborators - especially those willing to roll up their sleeves - for research and projects so that we all aren't duplicating efforts, but instead aligning to work towards common goals.

Hi Dr. Danish,

We have a community here on the Physician Innovation Network that’s dedicated to AI: innovationmatch.ama-assn.org/g... In the AI in Healthcare community, we have virtual panel discussions about topics relating to AI in healthcare, you can view and download resources, and you can also connect with like minded stakeholders. I would highly recommend visiting the "Resources" section of the AI in healthcare community, where all of the AMA’s resources relating to AI live. Here’s a link to an introductory AI module crafted by the AMA’s Ed Hub: edhub.ama-assn.org/provider-re...

Let me know if you have questions about any of the above and thanks for your participation.

Thanks Amanda! Together.Health is an all volunteer run collaborative made up of roughly 40 likeminded ecosystem builders from across the country. It was founded by Stephen Konya from ONC and Nick Dougherty from MassChallenge HealthTech. Stephen and Nick realized that there was an opportunity to accelerate digital health innovation through connecting ecosystems. We are roughly a year and a half into the formation of the collaborative and have already seen great success. Partnerships have been formed, projects are being tackled, and digital health innovators can now find a single spot to help get connected to resources across the country. Our main goal is to use the power of community to accelerate the development and implementation of digital health solutions.

We can get so much done through working with each other, learning from each other and collaborating with each other. It's a great group for individuals or organizations who are focused on improving the healthcare innovation ecosystem, locally, regionally or nationally.

Together Health has been an invaluable collaborative that I feel proud to be a part of. It has brought different perspectives and stakeholders from across the ecosystem together to have open conversations about what's working, what's not working and opportunities to overcome challenges that are keeping digital health from its full potential. Now, more than ever, we need solutions inside and outside of the practice environment to improve outcomes and experiences - for patients and physicians. No one group can accomplish this alone. All the more reason conversations such as this ...and discussions through Together Health are needed to make improvements.

Much like what we learn in the sciences, for technology to be valid, it has to be reproducible and replicable. Together.Health does many things, but one of the values it lends is that of offering this. If an organization has a need for chronic care management in Denver, it is very likely that this same problem exists elsewhere. Together.Health has provided a medium for success to be scaled across not only the country but various stakeholders. Together.Health has also stood up an infrastructure that is working on lowering the technological barriers that exist today to bring a higher quality of care to patients.

Presently, the Together.Health Collaborative is working across the adoption continuum, from creating the common curriculum for accelerators to use (education and credibility for stakeholders), ROI evaluator (to show viability), streamlining the BAA process (to build trust), mapping innovation ecosystem and activators across the country (for scalability and impact).

A wonderful initiative! I look forward to learn more and the process for getting involved.