Participants from the Liberation 2019 Clinical Executive Summit share their insights from the conversation.
In October 2019, a talented team of clinically focused thought leaders gathered at Liberation 2019’s Clinical Executive Summit to discuss the topic of digital health innovations. This session discussed the impact that these cutting-edge technologies have today—and could have in the future—on the quality of care, especially regarding the improvement of clinical health outcomes. Here are some thought-provoking sound bites from our esteemed Clinical Executive Summit members that bear repeating:
“We look at value (value being quality over cost). We look at our spend, achievement of various costs, one being a reduction in variability. We’re meeting quality endpoints and limiting the cost of care for our population.”
Terri Steinberg, MD, MBA,
Chief Health Information Officer, Vice President, Population Health Informatics, Christiana Care Health System
“The issue of profitability factors in as you evaluate the efficacy and costs, since someone has to pay for it. It can’t just be about esoteric health outcomes devoid of cost implementation. Let’s say I came up with a perfect digital tool—would I get the same information in doing a survey? We need to compare it against delivery system, costs, etc. Our role is to deliver better value, but the cost and benefit of innovation has to be factored into the value of the equation.”
Matthew Fontana, MD
DSVP & Chief Medical Officer of Pharmacy, Health Care Service Corporation
“Whether interventions are digital or non-digital, you have to have a reason to do it.” You have to have ROI (above 3:1) and be able to impact effectiveness and efficiency.”
Richard Popiel, MD, MBA
Advisory Board Chair, Medecision
“Primary care is all about access. We need to be increasing engagement with members that have social determinants of health, building strategy around that and trying to adopt digital teams to deal with that as way to remove barriers to health.”
Alex Antoniou, MD, MBA, MA
Medical Director of Innovation, CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield
“If I send physicians in the network information that is not actionable, they’re just going to really be irritated with me as they are already. Because I’m asking them to do lots of things and capture lots of information for all the requirements we have under various plans, and they’re trying to figure out why that makes any difference at all. And if I then in turn collect a lot more data and feed it back to them in some format that doesn’t have an action associated with it, we’re going to lose the hearts and minds. I know that if we get real-time data, it will certainly be easier to close gaps and do other things that we are supposed to do when that happens. So I think this is really about hearts and minds.”
Mack Mitchell, MD
VP, Medical Affairs & Chief Medical Officer, UT Southwestern
“It’s like the skiing analogy—if you want to stay warm, don’t get cold. We can’t be focused on illnesses to the complete detriment of preventive care as it’s remarkably cheaper and more effective. Unless we get a handle in terms of prevention, there will not be enough money anywhere to take care of sick people.”
Paul Handel, MD
Board Member, Medecision
This session’s attendees represented some of the leading experts in their respective fields: Dr. Don Casey of the American College of Medical Quality, Dr. Joseph Gonnella of the Center for Research in Medical Education and Health Care and Jefferson Medical College, Dr. Alex Antoniou of CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield, Dr. Laura King of Health Care Service Corporation, Dr. Mack Mitchell of UT Southwestern, Dr. Matthew Fontana of Health Care Service Corporation, Dr. Roderick McVeety and Beth England, RN, of DaVita Medical Group, Dr. Steven Goldberg of Quest Diagnostics, and Dr. Terri Steinberg of Christiana Care Health System. A special thank you goes out to all of these engaging participants as well as the other moderators from Medecision including Drs. Richard Popiel, Paul Handel and Tamara Cull.
About The Author: Medecision
Medecision® is a digital care management company whose solutions and services are used by leading health plans and care delivery organizations to support more than 42 million people nationwide. Aerial™, a HITRUST CSF®-certified, SaaS solution from Medecision, seamlessly connects the healthcare ecosystem to powerful data and insights that drive meaningful consumer engagement while creating efficiencies to reduce costs and support effective care, case and utilization management. Aveus, our professional services division, helps business leaders solve complex challenges and drive better performance, leaving organizations more capable.
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