OnRamp Interview by Shawna Bertalot

“It was life changing… business changing for sure!”

By Shawna Bertalot, CIC, ACI – WisMed Assure President

When I sat down – virtually – with Jennifer Schwartz, RN, to talk about OnRamp Healthcare, I quickly realized this wasn’t going to be a ho hum conversation.

She had just launched Conduct RM, her remote CIED monitoring business, when she went to the first OnRamp conference at Lambeau Field in 2019.

Here’s what she told me, “I went to OnRamp as a guest after starting my company and it was life changing… business changing for sure!

Seeing other companies using technology that was already available and repackaging it for a purpose – to meet a need that has been unmet or poorly met – confirmed I was on the right track. The people I met were brilliant at putting all these pieces together to make a difference.

During one of the breakout sessions, I made a connection with a Madison company (Redocs) that was instrumental in helping me learn about and then negotiate with a software company (Insight Connections Group). They helped my business get the technology it needed… we didn’t have to start from scratch.”

“…the opposite of normal events.”

As we ramp up for OnRamp Healthcare on August 19th, 2021, I asked Jennifer what she would say to any physician who was wondering if they should attend.

“Attending OnRamp is completely the opposite of normal events. Going to a traditional medical conference, you know most of the speakers, you’ve read their papers, books, journals… you know more or less what is on the agenda and what you will learn.

OnRamp is a dynamic conference and nothing is the same from vendor to vendor, start up to start up. Everyone has their own area of expertise that is outside the expertise of physicians.

You would never come across these people and these ideas. No one is pitching you, they’re informing and educating. Just listening to all this tech lingo is a great informal way to hear what is cutting edge.

For any physician, it is an awesome way to get ready to deliver in the future. It gives you an overview of the many options you can use to incrementally keep pace, a smorgasbord of ideas you can pick from and bring back to your practice.”

“It is hard to change when you are nose to the grind stone…”

During our conversation, Jennifer and I agreed that even before the pandemic, the good people delivering healthcare were being challenged as never before. OnRamp is an opportunity to find new ways to meet today’s challenges and to be prepared for the inevitable new challenges we will see in the future.

“It is hard to change when you are nose to the grind stone… it even feels guilty to go away from your practice. But, you do not know what you are missing if you don’t know it exists. At OnRamp, you learn that there is a whole group of people out there trying to deliver care better – more easily, more economically and better for everyone.”

It’s clear that attending OnRamp changed one business’s future, and that business has since been changing people’s lives for the better.

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