I was fortunate enough to be at the Health 2.0 conference in San Francisco last week.

And what a conference it was; the place was buzzing with over 1,500 delegates and a plethora of both start-ups and established health technology companies presenting and discussing new ideas, and fresh takes on old ideas.

California certainly seems to at the heart of a vibrant health technology community looking to harness our now ubiquitous internet connectivity to improve the healthcare experience for all.

One of the main areas of focus during the 3 days of the conference was the electronic health record (EHR), and specifically a new breed of cloud based software as a service vendors of these solutions. In a way it is not surprising that the EHR is such a hot topic at the moment. The US federal government are offering hefty incentives for medical practitioners to start to use electronic records. Interestingly, only about 30% of providers to date use one, with the majority it would appear still preferring pen and paper records. Undoubtedly this will change, just as similar types of products have changed the lives of HR professionals and sale people over the last few years. There's one company that is even giving away its EHR for free, so keen are they to drive adoption.

Another area that warrants mention is the relatively nascent "patient engagement" market. In an extension from the now well established employer sponsored health management approach, new players are taking some of these solutions and repositioning them for doctors to use in engaging their patients in discussions around medical condition management and lifestyle choices. What is becoming clear is that there is likely to be greater connectivity with regard to health data. There is a growing movement to connect workplace health initiatives with medical records and health and fitness apps, with the consumer holding the key and granting access where needed.

These are interesting time in health technology and there's a real feeing that we now have the technology to make some big leaps forward in the coming years.