Dr. Joseph Coughlin, founder and Director of the AgeLab, served as the luncheon keynote speaker May 9 at the 2007 MIT Healthcare Industries Conference. Sponsored by MIT’s Industrial Liaison Program, the Conference hosted scientists, engineers and business leaders looking for ideas and perspectives on new technological contributions to a wide range of global health care applications from prevention to treatment. Dr. Coughlin’s presentation – Disruptive Demographics: Healthcare Innovation in a Consumer-Directed World – described the AgeLab’s research on how the new expectations of aging baby boomers will converge with new technology to produce novel markets in wellness, disease management, and eldercare services. Drawing upon examples from the European Union, Japan and the United States, he discussed how the evolution of IT-enabled healthcare innovation will be introduced by organizations more adept and agile in a consumer-directed marketplace, e.g., retailers, financial services, disrupting and displacing stakeholders that currently “own” today’s healthcare enterprise.