5 Highlights of the 10X Medical Device Conference

Some of the top innovators in the medical device field will be in the Minneapolis area this week for the 10X Medical Device Conference, held by the Medical Device Group on LinkedIn.Qmed's senior editor Chris Newmarker plans to be at many of the sessions, so please say hi to him if you're around. Click here to register for the conference. The location is the DoubleTree by Hilton Minneapolis-Park Place, at 1500 Park Place Boulevard in St. Louis Park.Here are five highlights of the 10X conference:

1. Keynote Presentation: An Introduction to Exponential Thinking--Tuesday, May 13, 8:15 a.m.

"Stanford and Harvard trained physician-scientist, inventor, entrepreneur, and innovator Daniel Kraft, MD, kicks off this year's 10x Medical Device Conference with an eye-opening presentation how medical device innovations are growing exponentially in technologies which leverage health information. How can you leverage it?"

2. IBM's Watson and Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare--Tuesday, May13, 9 a.m.

"Can you imagine having all of human knowledge at your fingertips in the operating room? Marty Kohn can. Until his recent move to Jointly Health, he was IBM's Chief Medical Scientist on the IBM-Watson Medical Team. This talk will open your mind to the possibilities."

3. Applying an Entrepreneurial Mentality to Medical Devices--Tuesday, May 13, 5 p.m.

Richard M. Satava, MD, is a professor of surgery at the University of Washington Medical Center, and senior science advisor at the U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command in Fort Detrick, MD. He was the surgeon on the team that developed the first surgical robot, and developed the first virtual reality surgical simulators. He plan to ask why there are some innovative medical device concepts that were developed 20 years ago, and still not widely used. "Why? And can you make a difference?"

4. Cocktail Hour--Tuesday, May 13, 6 p.m.

"If you can't make the entire conference, you're still welcome to join us for drinks and networking! You'll meet guests from around the world in for the 10x Medical Device Conference." Click here for cocktails hour admission.

5. Heartbleed, Privacy, HIPAA--and Hacking Medical Devices!--Wednesday, May 14, 9 a.m.

"Rebecca Herold asks, "Are you complying with all HIPAA Security Rule requirements, in additional to applicable HITECH Act and HIPAA Privacy Rule requirements? Are secure against Heartbleed? Is your organization in compliance with all requirements? Are there challenges in getting into compliance? And Shelby Kobes will describe and show how easy (and frightening) it is to exploit the vulnerabilities of a pacemaker!"

Chris Newmarker is senior editor of MPMN and Qmed. Follow him on Twitter at @newmarker.