OSU offers international conference on innovation and entrepreneurship in health

Monday, February 20, 2012

The International Conference on Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Health is scheduled for March 5-6 at the Reed Conference Center in Oklahoma City. It is presented by Oklahoma State University’s School of Entrepreneurship, the Center for Executive and Professional Development in the Spears School of Business, and the Center for Health Sciences at Oklahoma State University.

The conference combines academic presentations from healthcare entrepreneurship scholars from across the globe with practitioners representing well-known healthcare organizations in the United States.

This inaugural conference reflects a growing need to transform today’s functional healthcare systems into one in which creative and innovative solutions will lead to better health and healthcare delivery. Rubin Pillay, Daniel White Jordan Chair in Entrepreneurship and Creativity for the School of Entrepreneurship at Oklahoma State University, is the chairperson and host of the conference.

“The hosting of the annual International Conference on Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Healthcare, coupled with other exciting initiatives, is a reflection of OSU’s commitment to the transformation of the healthcare industry in this country and across the world,” Pillay said.

Day one of the conference will feature scholars in the healthcare entrepreneurship field who will present ideas and innovations in health. Keynote speakers for March 5 include Douglas Wood, Director of Strategy and Policy Center for Innovation at the Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn.; Arlen Meyers, President and CEO, Society of Physician Entrepreneurs, Denver, Colo.; William Paiva, Manager of Oklahoma Life Science Fund and Partner of Sevin Rosen Funds, Tulsa, Okla., and Michael Morris, Professor and N. Malone Mitchell, Jr. Chair and Director of the OSU School of Entrepreneurship.

Featured speakers addressing information technology in the transformation of healthcare on March 6 will include Terry Cline, Oklahoma Secretary of Health and Human Services and Oklahoma Commissioner of Health; Bruce Lawrence, President and Chief Executive Officer of INTEGRIS Health; Kersey Winfree, Chief Medical Officer at St. Anthony Hospital; Bert Marshall, President of BlueCross BlueShield of Oklahoma; Dick Flanigan, Senior Vice President of Cerner Corporation in Kansas City, and Martin Harris, CIO and Chairman of the Technology Division, Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, Ohio. Other speakers in the region are featured and include Jay Condry, Benefits Consultant of CFR in Tulsa, addressing Benchmarking Oklahoma in the Healthcare Area.

Additional topics that will be presented on March 6 include “Innovative Funding and Financing Mechanisms for Healthcare,” “Process Innovation: Improving Performance through Operational Excellence,” and “Healthcare Reform: Opportunities for Innovation.”

Several hundred people are expected at the conference. Participants have already registered from six countries including Australia, Denmark, India, Slovenia, South Africa, and Trinidad. It also is attracting participants from across the United States, includingAlaska, Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Oregon, and Tennessee.

Registration for the two-day Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Health International Conference is $450. Sponsorships are also available. Current sponsors are: Platinum – Cox Business and PatientLink; Gold – BlueCross BlueShield of Oklahoma, and Silver – Chesapeake Energy, CFR, INTEGRIS Health, and Stillwater Medical Center.

For more information regarding sponsorship or to register, visit ieh.okstate.edu/register or contact Mandy McKinney at405-744-5208 or 866-678-3933 or by email at mandy.mckinney@okstate.edu.