SAN FRANCISCO, June 30, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- The fifth annual Digital Health Summer Summit (DHSS) produced by Living in Digital Times and co-located with BIO International Convention brought together leaders, influencers and entrepreneurs from the biotech, pharma and digital health industries, offering provocative content and networking events to learn more about the most pressing issues at stake and a greater understanding of the opportunities digital health can offer their businesses.  The two-day conference was held June 6-7 in San Francisco.

"Our attendees had access to the brightest minds who are pushing digital health forward in such areas as virtual reality, deep cognitive learning, personalized medicine, digital diagnostics and therapeutics, wearables and more," stated Jill Gilbert, producer of the Digital Health Summer Summit.  "This year, by teaming up with BIO, they also had unprecedented access to decision makers at biotech and pharmaceutical companies who attended the BIO International Convention."

Some of the hot topics addressed at the Digital Health Summer Summit included:

Augmented and virtual reality in teacher training:
Imagine a world where doctors were no longer constrained by geography or politics, lack of resources, transportation or communication in order to train themselves and improve local medical standards. There are potential global implications when the worlds of medicine and virtual reality meet.

"I invited the world into the operating theatre to make the world a smaller place, train people on a bigger scale across the globe and connect people with what I do," said Dr. Shafi Ahmed, Medical Realities.  "We began to innovate, do something different and teach and train in a virtual world.  Using Google Cardboard, I was able to demonstrate how a low-cost technology can help many people around the world and utilize the internet to improve teacher training and ultimately clinical practice."

For more information, please check out The Immersive Future Reborn–Medicine + VR Meets the World session.   

Upping the digital health game:
The Golden State Warriors have utilized technology to understand individualized training, helping to develop the team's overall performance and avoid injuries.  The same technology can have a profound impact off the court.

"Based on heartbeat data we can provide meaningful information for consumers," said Joni Kettunen, CEO, Firstbeat Technologies Oy.  "We can go deeper into physiology to find out what's actually happening in the body – what's your stress level, what is the effect of training on your fitness level, are you recovering enough, what is your sleep quality. We're not only going into more detail but also making the data more meaningful."

To hear more, please visit the session Game On: Digital Health Takes On NBA Champs Golden State Warriors

The big invasion:
Digital health is evolving with technology that is addressing some of today's greatest healthcare challenges.  The wearable market for example is pushing the boundaries of non-invasive care, generating a wealth of information that can profoundly improve patient outcome.

"We can now monitor key biochemistry inside the body in a way that's as easy as putting on a Band-Aid," said Ben Hwang, CEO, Profusa Inc.  "Unlike looking at things like how many steps you've taken, we're gathering information in real time that is clinically relevant and one that physicians can make a medical decision on."

For more information, please visit the session An Exposé: How Five Innovations Are Changing the Game.

Cognitive learning advancing care for patients:
Today's cognitive systems that can understand, reason, and learn are transforming the healthcare industry today.  By tapping into vast amounts of data, cognitive technologies can help people expand their knowledge base, improve productivity and deepen expertise. 

"We've evolved from the eras of organizing data and programming data to a cognitive system that helps us to think, draw insights from data and make better decisions," said Jeff Beeler, vice president of Product Information at Merge eClinical, IBM Watson Health.  "Through the system's ability to continuously reprogram themselves, as more data comes in, the answers and hypotheses it is giving in the end, actually changes, which is phenomenal." 

To watch the entire session, visit Cognitive Learning in a Cognitive Era

Radical solutions to tackle mental illness:
With 1-in-5 adults experiencing some form of mental illness, the need for new and effective mental health solutions is crucial.   Innovations in drugs, devices, software and treatments, enabled by digital, are creating radical solutions and tackling today's biggest challenges.

"Pharma has not been traditionally known as being on the forefront of technology because we are a regulated and conservative environment, but that is changing," said Dr. Amir Kalali, Quintiles.  "Today we're more open minded about how to leverage technology which is the right thing to do to reduce cost, to be more patient centric and improve how fast and how well we can develop technology and treatment for patients."

For more information, watch the entire session Mental Health Check: The Full Court Press.

Provocative content, innovative strategies and in-depth discussions all came together providing a comprehensive look at the innovations and industry leaders pushing digital health forward.  For more information, please visit.

About Living in Digital Times:
Founded by veteran technology journalist Robin Raskin, Living in Digital Times brings together the most knowledgeable leaders and the latest innovations impacting both technology and lifestyle.  It helps companies identify and act on emerging trends, create compelling company narratives, and do better business through strong network connections.  Living in Digital Times produces technology conferences, exhibits and events at CES and other locations throughout the year by lifestyle verticals.  Core brands include Digital Health Summit, Digital Money Forum, FitnessTech, Baby Tech, Kids@Play, Family Tech Summit, TransformingEDU, MommyTech TV, Beauty Tech, Wearables and FashionWare runway show, Mobile Apps Showdown, Last Gadget Standing, Robots on the Runway and the KAPi Awards. 

The company also works with various foundations and manages the Appreneur Scholar awards program for budding mobile entrepreneurs, as well as the 10 Under 20: Young Innovators to Watch awards recognizing student STEAM innovations in New York City. 

For more information, visit www.LivinginDigitalTimes.com and keep up with our latest news on Twitter, Linkedin and Facebook.

Media Contact:
LKPR, Inc. for Living in Digital Times
Linda Krebs 
LK@LKPublicRelations.com
646-484-4539/ 646-824-5186 (cell)

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160629/385045
Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20150713/235492LOGO

SOURCE Living in Digital Times