Dr. Leslie Saxon Speaks on Future of Healthcare at Consumer Technology Association (CES) Panel

Published: January 22, 2024
Category: News
CES 2024 Poster

Dr. Leslie Saxon, Executive Director, Centre for Body Computing, spoke at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) on “Revolutionizing Health Through Home Innovation.” The panel, which took place on January 11th 2024, also included Hon Pak, VP, Digital Health Team, Samsung Electronics; Jared Conley, MD, PhD, MPH, Associate Director, Healthcare Transformation Lab, Massachusetts General Hospital and Ed Miller, CTO, Center of Medical Interoperability.

Dr. Leslie Saxon talking at CES 2024

Reporting on the event for HealthLeaders Media, Senior Editor Eric Wicklund wrote that the key takeaway from panelists was that “As more healthcare services are accessed in or delivered to the home, health systems and hospitals will have to make significant changes to take full advantage of that setting. For while the technology is in place to deliver care, healthcare executives have to rethink how they collect and use data from the home and interact with consumers.”

Wicklund noted that Dr. Saxon called this “a profound cultural drive” when she made the point: “Traditional medical care [providers] have to believe that the patient is the consumer. … And the people who are going to drive this market are the patients.”

Health systems and hospitals are very good at delivering healthcare, Dr. Saxon continued, but they aren’t skilled at working with consumers to manage health and wellness. 

Dr. Saxon described how – and why – she set up the Center for Body Computing, describing the medical and technological landscape back then, and contrasting it with today’s advancements. 

“Sixteen years ago, I started the Center for Body Computing to pursue multidisciplinary research. It started off as science fiction –  and became science fact, due to devices, networks, ubiquitous computing platforms, cellphones and so on. We did research on big data, through people being connected all the time. That evolved to human performance research, because I love elite performance in the military and with athletes, and continues to evolve our influence within healthcare itself.” 

“But it’s not just medical care anymore,” Dr. Saxon told the gathered healthcare professionals and technology experts at CES. “It’s life care.” 

The full CES panel video can be accessed here: https://videos.ces.tech/detail/video/6344813113112/revolutionizing-health-through-smart-home-innovation