Some of the most compelling learning to come out of AdvaMed's Annual Meeting didn't have to do with health care -- at least ostensibly.
To wit: Peter Zeihan's breathtaking tour of the world, in which he held forth on all manner of 
cultural, political, economic, geographic, military, diplomatic, and -- especially -- demographic forces crisscrossing the globe. The presentation was quite literally a tour de force, and its message on the U.S. -- "Retirement Now" -- finds resonance in matters as immediate as new Medicare budget and expenditure information out of CBO in the last few days.
Dean Kamen and Jim Collins provided the meeting with yin/yang punctuation, Kamen extolling the unpredictable, uncontrollable, unmanageable process through which true innovation occurs, while Collins (he of "Good to Great" fame) weighed in with the need to build flywheel momentum, but within thoughtfully structured managerial systems. A bit of tension here -- left brain, right brain -- but one that mimics tension in the world at large (to pick one example: moving, mutating technology versus stable, sometimes-sluggish health insurance systems).
In all, a great meeting, not only for topics obviously tied to health care, but also for the larger framework within which health care (and much else) must play out.
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