Stanford Medicine X-Health Care and Emerging Technologies

The Medicine X initiative is a catalyst for new ideas about the future of medicine and health care. The initiative explores how emerging technologies might advance the practice of medicine, improve health, and empower patients to be active participants in their own care. The “X” is meant to encourage thinking beyond numbers and trends—it represents the infinite possibilities for current and future information technologies to improve health. The Stanford Medicine X conference, funded by AHRQ from 2012 to 2014, is dedicated to the exchange and promotion of Medicine X ideals.

The specific aims of the Medicine X conference were as follows:

• Explore the potential of innovative technologies to improve patient care and ease the burden of disease from a patient-centered perspective, emphasizing tools that empower patients to be involved in their own care. 
• Provide a collaborative forum that promotes discovery of technology solutions through innovative, interdisciplinary research among health care stakeholders. 
• Disseminate knowledge relevant to major areas of emerging technology and their application to clinical medicine. 
• Integrate the patient voice and the patient-centered design philosophy into health care through the use of emerging technologies. 
• Identify those measureable outcomes that are most meaningful to patients and to advocate that researchers incorporate patient-centered design and outcomes into their research. 

Each meeting was held in September and was a combination of keynote speakers, panels, and hands-on sessions. The 2012 meeting included sessions on personal health self tracking, emerging technologies for the networked patient, and mobile approaches for behavior change and health promotion. The 2013 meeting held sessions on social media strategies for health care, delivering patient-centered care using health IT, and the evolving role of the engaged patient. Sessions from the 2014 meeting included harnessing data for better patient involvement; social media, games, and wearables; and medical education.