Megan Antonelli Spills the Tea on Orchestrating Purposeful Healthcare Technology Events that Drive Community and Change

[00:00:04] Welcome to the High Tea with Grace podcast, where we spill the tea on HIT. Today, I'm honored to welcome industry community builder, Megan Antonelli. Thanks for joining us, Megan. Hi, Grace. How are you doing? Oh, I'm just thrilled to be here. Our paths have been intersecting for so many years, so I'm excited to have some tea. I cannot wait for us to learn from you today. Tell me a little bit about your career journey that brought you to your current role in the industry.

[00:00:30] It's not that interesting, honestly. I wanted to be a doctor like a lot of Gen X women. I was either going to be a doctor or a lawyer. I was good at arguing, but I liked science and math more. I was working in public health, working at Columbia in New York, getting my master's in public health. I really liked healthcare. I was learning all about different things in healthcare and the policies, but I realized pretty quickly I didn't want to work in a hospital. Wanting to work in a hospital meant I couldn't really be a doctor. I also wasn't very good at organic chemistry, truth be told.

[00:00:59] So I decided it wasn't going to be for me, continued with my master's, really loved public health, leaned into epidemiology and hospital administration, but then got a job through the classifieds of the New York Times, if you can believe it. So to really date myself. But it was in conferences and it was about healthcare, doing health insurance events in Medicare and Medicaid at the time. It was around the inception of Medicare Advantage.

[00:01:27] And I started putting those conferences together and recruiting senators and CEOs of companies. And it was really fun. While I was doing that, I was also still at school. And I realized that the dialogue at school was very different from the dialogue in the real world. And I liked the real world a lot and kind of being able to drive that conversation.

[00:01:48] As you said, that storytelling, amplifying the good work that was being done, but seeing that there was so much to be done. So I ended up there. And for about 15 years, I tried to get out of events. I went to Kaiser. I worked at WebMD. I worked in healthcare, particularly at that intersection of technology. When I was at Kaiser, it was about responding to HIPAA legislations and integrating databases around things and still seeing the problems.

[00:02:16] And I just gravitated back towards events because I felt I could have a more holistic view of healthcare and bring more people together and ultimately have more impact. And Health Impact was born. Wow. So tell me, what is Health Impact? Just so our listeners can know, what are you building there? Yeah. As you said, it's really about the community. When we first started, we were doing regional events in every city, major metros, bringing together CIOs. It was around the time of EHR implementation.

[00:02:45] So a lot of hospitals responding to that. Finally, because I had been doing a lot of work around IT implementation and then finally the legislation came and there was a real momentum around that. So we launched this series of events where we bring the hospital executives together around that. And of course, that was over 10 years ago and things have evolved.

[00:03:08] We're still grappling with many of the same challenges, yet we've evolved and we've gone more virtual and bring people together virtually as well as having our podcast, Digital Health Talks. And then of course, we now do two major events a year and then have roundtables and dinners throughout. But it's really the community of learning pretty hospital centric, but we bring in the payers and the pharma voices because it matters.

[00:03:32] And especially, of course, the patients, because that is really where this all starts in terms of solving those problems in healthcare. That is so fantastic and so needed. And I'm just so excited to hear about what you're hearing from the ground. You're planning these events around key topics in the industry. You're hearing all the industry's greatest leaders then also talking about those topics. So what are some of the biggest challenges you're hearing at the ground level of folks facing that are facing the healthcare technology industry today?

[00:04:02] What are these big challenges? We just came off a great event in January, but it was really good to see we had the focus is so much. So much on AI and automation, but I wanted to lean into a little bit more of just the work that's been doing, particularly around virtual health hospital at home. And when it comes to some of the challenges, I think broadly the challenge that I see is value, right?

[00:04:26] Proving the value for patients through improved clinical outcomes when outcomes are hard to measure, right? And why are outcomes so hard to measure? Because healthcare isn't because it's not continuous, it's not connected, and it's not interoperable as much as we've been trying to get it that way for the last 20 years. So to measure the outcomes when all we're looking at is claims data or when all we're looking at the ability to do that is hard.

[00:04:52] So to prove value is difficult and then to change the system around to make room for that value or that new technology, it moves slowly, right? So what happens in that is that the technology companies don't make it, right? So you have death by pilot or whatever you want to call it. And it happens, of course, we're seeing it happen at smaller startups, but it happens broadly too. And so we're losing good innovation because it's hard to quantify the value.

[00:05:21] And I think that's like probably the biggest challenge. And then, of course, resources and the system in and of itself and that risk aversion that is well-placed because we shouldn't be implementing things in healthcare because lives are at stake. That balance is often hard to achieve. So you mentioned bringing patients into this conversation happening about healthcare technology. What inspired you to do that?

[00:05:47] What made you take the first step to make sure patients and caregiver voices were included in the conversation about what's going on in healthcare technology? Yeah, Health 2.0, Matthew Holtz and Indu Sabaya's event. One of the things they really did was amplify the patient voice, the patient entrepreneur, right?

[00:06:05] So if that was, I don't remember exactly when it launched, but I want to say 2009, 8, maybe even earlier, where I started attending that and hearing from patients who were being those entrepreneurs. And now we have Susanna Fox, who's written the book on it and given the name of Rebel Health. I went back and forth being on the pharma side.

[00:06:25] So seeing kind of the pharma industry being very interested in patient data and what was going on there, and then seeing a few companies like patients like me and a couple of the advocacy groups giving patient voices. But for the purposes of research within pharma, not necessarily from the operational side.

[00:06:45] So it's always been an area that's been really interesting to me and important, but also as an event, it is hard when people take time out of their day to come to a conference. They've got to have incredible value and there is no shortage of patient voices. So what's been really great to see is the patient voices who really are able to speak to the industry in a way that they can understand how they have to affect change, right?

[00:07:15] So folks like Grace Cordovano and yourself to talk about it from in the reality of what healthcare is because it's incredibly complex and it's very easy to have a patient experience and think, oh, I'm going to fix healthcare. This is broken. Let's fix it. But it's so complicated and we all know it. That's why all these companies often get into trouble is because if you come at fixing healthcare from one of the many legs on this three-legged or four-legged table, it doesn't work. You have to fix at least three of them or the table falls down.

[00:07:45] Yeah, it's so true. It's like patients being able to understand how their diagnostic journey might be informative to the types of people that would be attending your audience is really critical. So I'm wondering, in addition to including that patient voice and hearing a lot of the conversations around value, what are some emerging innovations or trends that are exciting to you that you've been hearing more and more at your conferences or when people submit speaker proposals? What are those trends that you're like, oh yeah, that's awesome and that would be amazing?

[00:08:15] There's so much and there's so many things that are coming that are so exciting and that you're seeing real outcomes and impact for. Automation in general has so much potential. When you look at things like social determinants of health and how we collect data and how we respond to it, having the automation there to alleviate the administrative burden of what that means to apply that data is amazing.

[00:08:38] And I think the potential is huge. And then I think virtual health and hospital at home and those movements that make healthcare both continuous and accessible are incredible. And obviously, all of those things create more data and then that need for automation is there. So I think broadly, those are the two things that when they get to that maturity of both value and operations, it'll be amazing.

[00:09:05] Oh, absolutely. It's like when you think about planning an event, what goes through that process for you? How do you work with your team to figure out what topics are the most important topics to focus on? Or do you come up with a focus for the event itself and then go from there? What's the process you go through? It's a little bit of research, right? And that's where we really... When I trained in all of this, it all came down to listening to our customers

[00:09:30] and going back to the audience and saying, what do you want to know? What do you need to know? What do you care about? What is going to make you take two days out of the office to understand? Where are the problems? What can we fix? I listened to the sessions a lot over and over again to see where the next topic is, right? So that we're not rehashing the old. But a lot of it is like this last one where I was inspired actually quite a bit by Susanna's book

[00:09:58] and that rebel theme of how do we do this and how do we do it together, right? So I get into a theme and then take it from there in terms of the topics, what people are doing within their health system that is worth amplifying and that they need to know. As we look to June, AI remains the hottest topic. And it's just where is it being applied? And when are we going to really be able to talk about the value, right?

[00:10:25] And we were doing a virtual event with Healthcare Now Radio about measuring the impact of AI in healthcare. So again, getting to that kind of value of how do we decide what to do because it's making that impact? Hmm. So true. And something we all should really be thinking about in our own areas of influence in the space. I always say that healthcare has a B2B problem. It's boring to boring, right? Boring problems, boring solutions. It's tricky.

[00:10:50] And as an event planner, I'm sure you're constantly battling this fight between boring and not boring. We know it's saving lives and every piece of it is important, but making it interesting and relatable and that it's educational, but also fun. So what are things that you do to infuse life into the event to make people keep coming back? Because the more I see your events, the more I see more people coming back. What is that recipe? What is it?

[00:11:16] Having good partners because we are a small organization on a small budget. And a lot of this is a labor of love, but we have great partners who tell great stories. This past event, we partnered with an organization called Road Recovery that does mental health programs for teens and adolescents through music. I love music, but I also have teens and have mental health issues.

[00:11:42] And so I was inspired by this group, but this group actually on their board are musicians, including DMC from Run DMC and Simon Kirk from Bad Company and a bunch of other musicians. And they have a great board and they were so kind to actually have us have Simon Kirk come to a performance at this last event. So he sang some original songs about his journey with addiction and journey with that.

[00:12:08] I think that the patient stories often bring the life to what we do, right? Everyone who works in healthcare works in healthcare to help patients, whether you're pharma, insurance or hospitals. Sometimes it's easy to forget that and it's easy to throw blame. I ended up doing events in the oil industry. They are not there to help patients, right? They are a different breed. Even in insurance, they're there to help patients. And same certainly with pharma and of course hospitals.

[00:12:37] So when those patient stories that you can tell through the event offer that springboard and that inspiration. So that's really one of our key things. And finding patients who, as I said, tell that story. So we had Ed Marks and Grace this year. He's written a book with Chris Ross about their patient experience as leaders of a healthcare organization, what that was like.

[00:12:59] And once you have that insight and you can make it relatable to both the CEO at the organization, but also the sales person at IT company too. They all are moved and are driven by that purpose. And so that helps tie those stories together that often in the middle get a little boring. Yeah, it's interesting because I think some people think, oh, it's entertaining. So it's funny or it's hilarious or whatever.

[00:13:28] Sometimes entertaining is being purposeful and just speaking to the heart of somebody. Like drawing people through purpose and drawing people through their heart that you know is there because you have it too. And so people being inspired and wanting to keep learning and growing together. It's a really interesting way to think about community building in the healthcare space of being one that's built around purpose. Yes.

[00:13:53] That was the core of when I started the event side. I called it purpose because historically, having worked for a lot of more commercial event companies, it was very financially driven. And so I wanted to build the events around purpose. So that's actually where the name of the company comes from in terms of purpose events. But to your point on comedy, comedy is also good.

[00:14:20] And I was looking for a hook last night, actually, for some of the things we're going to do at Vive. And sometimes I get very ambitious and I thought, neighbor Gautze lives in Nashville. Maybe he'll do it. He costs $700,000. So maybe Vive will have him someday. Oh, wow. But not me. Comedy is expensive, it turns out. Wow. I think we're probably on the road to getting there, but we'll start with purpose and lead to humor.

[00:14:46] Our members really, the people that listen to Hi-T, want to learn about you as a leader too. Thank you so much for sharing your insights on the industry. But we also want to hear about things that you do to work your best and make a difference. So do you have any habits that keep you at the top of your game, keep you organized, that you feel others would really benefit from learning from? No, I make a lot of lists. It's probably how I... That's a huge thing. Yeah, it's how I keep myself organized. And I have a lot of them.

[00:15:13] And I'm an inbox clearer and a list crosser offer, right? So I just... I have a lot of different projects and programs. And I think the lists are what keep me both at home and at work. That makes a lot of sense. I'm wondering, what are some strategies that you've implemented in your personal life when personal challenges come or career challenges? Like how do you stay resilient? What are things that you do to just stay focused when things are not so great around you? Is wine not the right answer?

[00:15:42] No! Or yes, maybe. Maybe for some. No, less so now as I've gotten older. The wine hurts a lot more than it helps actually. But I take time with my kids and I take time with my family. And the great thing about working in events is that travel and people. And I just... I like people. And I've worked from home for a long time. So getting out and enjoying whether it's friends, family, or actually going to events.

[00:16:11] Interacting with folks is really what keeps me going and keeps me inspired. I have recently picked up Small Boating Habit. So I really like boating. And I just... We just got a little membership to the Freedom Boat Club. So we are doing that, which is super fun. Yeah, super. It's just... Getting out on the water. Getting out on the water. Oh yeah, it's wonderful. It definitely got us through January.

[00:16:37] Oh, I can only imagine being in California in January of 2025, how critical it was to get out and to be able to just enjoy nature and ground during that time. I'm wondering if you could give a piece of advice to your younger self. Like what would that advice be? If you could look at young Megan studying public health, trying to figure out what's going to go on in the future, what would you say to her? It could be personal. It could be professional. Whatever you think. Don't sweat the small stuff.

[00:17:04] I think there was a point when I was working in events for a company, it was very competitive, it was very stressful, and it was very bottom line driven. There was a day going in where I knew my budget numbers weren't lining up, the event wasn't going to be profitable, that sort of thing. I was in a panic. And I remember... It must have been around 2009 because it was when the economy was crashing.

[00:17:28] And I just remember seeing the guys from Wall Street on the news during their hearings thinking, well, you know what? My day is not as bad as that guy. Sometimes when it seems like the world is ending, people forget about the hiccups or the dips, and they remember the highs. And I think that's where to focus on the highs and to focus on the wins and skip over the losses. Yeah, it's about perspective. So to finish this conversation off, where can our listeners find you online?

[00:17:58] We have pretty much everything. HealthImpactLive.com is our gateway to both our events and our podcast. But DigitalHealthTalks.com is where you can find the podcast as well. That's terrific. I brought coffee. Aha. Tell me about your mug. It is a Yeti that says El Segundo on it. I'm in Hermosa, but last year, the El Segundo baseball team won the Little League World Series.

[00:18:25] So these were like a big promotion and we bought them. So I'm repping El Segundo, which is also where you leave your wallet sometimes. And there's a new pickleball facility opening up that I'm involved with called Cali Smash. Even though I'm a Hermosa girl, I'm repping El Segundo today. That is wonderful. And also, we're going to have to play pickleball sometime, maybe at the next conference. Super fun. I would love that. That's too good. Thanks so much for joining us, Megan. Oh, thank you, Grace. A pleasure. I love what you do here.

[00:18:55] And thank you for elevating women's stories in healthcare IT. Appreciate that so much. And thanks to you folks for joining us too. Check out the Hi Tea with Grace podcast for more interviews with great guests like Megan today. Like a Girl Media is more than a media network. It's a community. We want to meet you and amplify your voice and the voices of outstanding women innovating in healthcare. Interested in starting your own podcast or hosting an event near you? Connect with us online or in person.

[00:19:24] We're here to support and empower you. Thank you.