Health Innovation Think Tank focuses on forging a path toward value

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The Health Innovation Think Tank, Adoption and Policy at a Crossroads, held at the UPMC Center for Connected Medicine in Pittsburgh, on October 10th, discussed how healthcare organizations can truly embrace value-based care.

Value-based care is quickly approaching the tipping point – and is pegged to become the dominant model of care in the not-so-distant future. The big question: Are healthcare organizations ready to leave fee-for-service behind and fully embrace this new model?

This issue was addressed during The Health Innovation Think Tank, Adoption and Policy at a Crossroads, which was held at the UPMC Center for Connected Medicine in Pittsburgh, on October 10th. Co-hosted by Lenovo Health, Justin Barnes Advisors, Center for Connected Medicine (CCM), Inventiv Health and HIMSS Media, the event brought some 50 healthcare delivery system, payer organization and healthcare IT vendor thought leaders together to offer their insights on a variety of pressing industry issues.

Under value-based care models, healthcare organizations need to improve outcomes and patient satisfaction while delivering care in a cost-efficient manner – as opposed to simply providing a greater volume of services. As such, “many hospitals and physicians will be operating at risk. And, that is something they might not be prepared for. So, they need to reinvent themselves in the context of delivering value-based care,” said Tom Foley, director, global health solutions at LenovoHealth.

To succeed, the primary care physician should take the lead in managing care, according to Daniel Brooks, co-founder of CURA Management. “You need the provider’s perspective. The primary care doctor is often best qualified to manage care,” he said.

Putting the physician in the driver’s seat, however, requires significant cultural change. Holly Miller, MD, chief medical officer at MedAllies, pointed out that this transformation requires provider organizations to become more patient centered, participate in team-based care and implement continuous quality improvement programs.