Caspar Health at the Data Natives Conference 2019

The Data Natives conference – as the name suggests – is all about data. Launched in 2015, DNC provides a platform for anyone with a serious interest in the data boom and the potential of data for individuals, businesses, and society as a whole. Throughout the year, Data Natives hosts more than 50 “key tech hub” mini-conferences around the world, before coming together for one big annual conference, held in Berlin each fall.

Caspar was involved again this year, represented by Anna, Head of Operations, and Ivana, Data Scientist. “This was my third DNC,” explains Ivana, “and it gets more exciting each time. There are more and more talks, the program is more varied and there are new speakers every year.” Ivana is not alone in her enthusiasm – over 2,000 participants attended the conference this year. Talks and sessions were divided across five main topic areas – Future, Tech, Impact, Startup, and Data Science & Developer (DSD) – and took place every 30 minutes on four stages. With such an exciting program, visitors were engaged, inspired, and challenged all the way through.

Anna Lipkina - Head of Operations at Caspar Health

Anna spends a lot of time talking with Caspar’s clients and knows all there is to know about the digital transformation of the healthcare market. If you ask her about DNC 2019, be ready to see exactly what unadulterated enthusiasm looks like: “It’s just a beautiful conference. Kühlhaus Berlin is a fantastic location and the event was spread over six floors. The focus this year was on what kind of data society actually needs, which is a really exciting topic for Caspar.” One of the most frequently discussed topics was blockchain, Anna reports: “Blockchain is such a ubiquitous term – everyone is talking about it, but outside of the tech bubble, no one really knows what it means. In the healthcare market, where we operate, there’s just so much potential. Just think about it for a moment – there are still doctors out there dictating their reports to real people who then write down what they say. I thought those days were long gone.” At the same time, however, Anna is convinced that many of Germany’s doctors are open to innovation. All that’s holding them back is that they still don’t understand how a lot of new technologies work. “That’s why people need more information – and it’s our job to give them that information.”

Ivana has also learned a lot about the importance of having access to information – in the form of the data collected by apps. As a Data Scientist, Ivana is responsible for analyzing incoming data at Caspar. “Yes, we need data to improve our services. At the same time, we know that we need to use it responsibly. There is a lot of experimentation and discovery going on in certain countries right now because they don’t have such effective data protection laws. That might be good for developing and optimizing new technologies, but the same can’t be said for personal rights and privacy. In Germany, personal data are well protected. As a company that processes data, we are well aware of our responsibilities toward our customers. And we have to think about how we can use data to benefit our users without compromising their rights. That’s our ultimate goal and it’s something I got a lot of new input on at DNC 2019!”

Ivana Draco - Data Scientist at Caspar Health

What was new at the DNC this year? “There were a lot more women at the conference this year than I’d seen in the past,” Ivana reports. “That’s great, because diversity rules! How can we possibly aspire to develop a product that’s diverse if we’re not diverse ourselves? We want to make our corporate culture as inclusive as possible. We want employees from different countries and cultures, with different professional backgrounds. And we want gender equality. We’re definitely on the right track at Caspar, although there are still only two women on the IT team – so there’s still some room for improvement!” One of the most inspiring program points at this year’s DNC was the talk by the founder of Careerfoundry, Raffaela Rein on the topic of corporate culture, which, Ivana says, provided lots of takeaways and plenty of food for thought.

So our Data Natives attendees gained a lot from the conference and we can’t wait to incorporate all of their new ideas into our company and our products. “After all, we’re still a very young company,” says Ivana, “but if we can succeed in implementing the right processes and features now, we’ll be able to offer more and more advanced technologies to our users in years to come.”

If you would like to read more about the Digital Natives Conference, you can find additional information on the conference website: https://datanatives.io/