By Rahul K. Parikh, MD
There is plenty to criticize in our bungling trek toward health reform. Leaders on the right, left and at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue have sidestepped the crucial conversation of controlling the cost of care, in favor of partisan rhetoric about “death panels” and “rationing care.” Worse, the entire focus of reform has centered on spending billions of dollars on technology solutions that will only make marginal changes in the cost and quality of care Americans get.
I want to refocus the debate on what matters most: relationships. Let’s reinvest in the sitting down with, listening to, empathizing with and touching patients. America has the most advanced healthcare system in the world. But in our haste to research, develop and invest in high-tech medicine, we have lost site of the very basics of good doctoring.
The first things we learn in medical school are: ask, listen and touch. Doctors do not do enough of this any more. As has been made painfully clear, most doctors are rewarded for doing all manner of procedures. This is true from the earliest moments of our career. As a medical resident ...
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We recently hosted our 2nd Innovation Salon. This time our dinner party debated the utility of modern diagnostics: When are diagnostics most valuable for improving quality of care? When are diagnostics cost-effective? And what is the value to the healthcare system in the evolving industry for "personalized medicine"?
It was another great evening with a very lively discussion. Below we share the first two of our latest series of salon video interviews. They were conducted by our very talented colleague, Amy Ziari, of the Bateman Group.
First up is Adam Bosworth. Late of Google Health, BEA and Microsoft, Bosworth is now the founder and CEO of KEAS, a consumer health and wellness platform -- about which you will soon be hearing much more. Here's what Adam has to say about the role diagnostics will play in the transformation of healthcare:
Next up is Greg Went, founder and CEO of Adamas Pharmaceuticals, which is presently focused on developing diagnostics to cost-effectively address pandemic and seasonal influenza...
"One of the neat things about healthspottr is you bring together a fairly diverse group of people, with very different perspectives on diagnostics -- from a patient perspective, to a healthcare system perspective, to a scientific perspective and a medical perspective, " Went says. "There are folks who know a tremendous amount about it from a physician's standpoint, but have no idea about the economic realities underlying it. So it was a very good discussion."
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What:
A web based software application that allows physicians to electronically notify an emergency room of an incoming patient, and advance case-critical patient stats--the "expect report"--to the urgent care team.
When:
Initial pilot launched, April 2008. Phase II, which will integrate ExpectED with EMRs, is currently underway.
Where:
Northwestern Memorial Hospital, an affiliate of the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University, in Chicgao, IL.
Who:
Created by Dr. Lyle Berkowitz, a practicing internist with Northwestern Memorial Physicians Group (NMPG) in Chicago, IL. He is also a future health 100 member.
Why:
Replaces the time consuming and error prone tradition for "handing off" a patient to the ER: a doctor-to-doctor phone call and lots of manual notetaking. Web based ExpectED reports are easy for referring docs to produce. Sent electronically, they are also a efficient way to deliver critical patient data to a trauma team without interrupting ER workflow. Asynchronous communication between doctors improves quality; the patient report is produced when the information is fresh to the referring doctor, not an hour later in a call with the ER doc. The report is also accessed only when the ER doc is ready to focus on it; no interruptions, less confusion. This equates to more efficient and higher quality care. ExpectED's next pilot will experiment with integrating ExpectED reports directly with Northwestern Memorial's EMR platform (Cerner-based). Phase I ExpectED software is open source and available for free by contacting Dr. Berkowitz. Any doctor can try it -- we encourage you to do so.
Cost:
free
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Today we are pleased to announce the creation of the healthspottr fellows program. As part of our commitment to foster the transformation of healthcare through innovation, healthspottr is launching this annual fellowship program through which outstanding entrepreneurs will be awarded prizes of up to $250,000, each, to accelerate their endeavors.
We are debuting the program as part of our participation in The Third Rail of Health Care Reform: Cost, a national healthcare summit hosted by RAND Health in support of its health policy research program, COMPARE. The summit takes place Saturday, August 29, in Nashville, Tenn., and is co-sponsored by Vanguard Health Systems, The Martin Foundation and healthspottr.
Details of the healthspottr fellows program: We have assembled an independent committee of industry experts to select our award winners. Candidates will be evaluated for their past accomplishments, as well as for their future potential to make a genuinely innovative contribution to the transformation of healthcare in the United States. Such innovations will be judged by their likely ability to expand access to care and to improve the efficiency and quality of care, within two to five years.
We welcome your nominations. Terms of eligibility follow...
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