Future Health - 9/3/20
Delivering care in the new virtual world…
The Future is Here! – Over the last century, health care has been professionalized to the point where there are stipulations, requirements, conditions and other similar requirements related to the delivery of health care services. These requirements apply to providers such as physicians, nurses, pharmacists and other clinicians as well as to institutions such as hospitals, emergent care centers, surgicenters, long-term care facilities and the like. We are at the formative stages on the consumerization of health care and it is accelerating. To make the point, I offer up this email I received from the Autoderm.com website.
Dear Friends, A quick update on our end. We have integrated our artificial intelligence (AI) API, named Autoderm into the messaging app Telegram as a skin search bot. From just a photo our AI can screen for 43 skin diseases. It will then give you an instant answer on what your skin ailment is likely to be. No signup required, just download Autoderm bot and snap your skin. We have also launched our bot on Product Hunt, check it out and ask us anything.
Seems clear enough…
Driving Quality for the Future – The National Quality Forum released an important but under-reported set of recommendations designed to foster and support high-quality care for every person in the U.S. by 2030. The actionable steps were identified through the work of about 100 leaders from across the industry and represent important next steps for “making health care better”. The ten steps include:
- Implement a single-person identifier to match people to health records across all care settings.
- Standardize quality data to enable improvement and outcomes analysis.
- Adopt population health-based payment as the primary payment model.
- Standardize data and interventions to reduce disparities and achieve health equity.
- Create actionable intelligence to better educate and engage healthcare consumers.
- Ensure advanced technologies improve safe and appropriate outcomes.
- Integrate virtual and innovative care models into the delivery system.
- Improve access to optimal care by recognizing clinical licenses across the U.S.
- Accelerate adoption of leading practices.
- Cultivate workforce competencies in safe, appropriate, person-centered care.
Other Invitation – In my last blog I indicated that the President should invite a number of key leaders to The White House to convene an expert panel for solving the pandemic – and, I asked the question: Besides Bill Gates and Anthony Fauci, MD – who should be invited? There were a lot of responses. Here is a listing of the suggested invitees as part of a starter kit:
- Governor Larry Hogan (R-MD) – Chair, National Governors Association
- Andrew Cuomo (D-NY) – Vice Chair, National Governors Association
- Tim Storey, Executive Director – National Conference of State Legislatures
- Delos Gosgrove, MD – Former President/CEO, The Cleveland Clinic Foundation
- Ron Williams, Former Chairman/CEO, Aetna
- Mary Wakefield, RN, Ph.D. – Past Deputy Secretary, US-DHHS
- Senator Bill Frist, MD (R-TN) – Physician and Former Senator, the State of Tennessee
- Richard Besser, MD – President/CEO, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
- Karen Daley, RN, Ph.D. – Past President, American Nurses Association
- Ernest Grant, RN, Ph.D. - Current President, American Nurses Association
- David Shulkin, MD – Former Secretary, Veterans Administration
- Derrick Johnson, President, NAACP
- Catalina Experanza Garcia, MD – Physician and Founder, Dallas Women’s Foundation
- Leanna Wen, MD – Health Commissioner, City of Baltimore
- Maura Healy (R-MA) – Attorney General, State of Massachusetts
- Kevin Vigilante, MD – Executive Vice President, Booz Allen Hamilton
- Sally Super, RN – Front Line Health Care Worker, San Diego
BUT, THESE ARE JUST SOME INITIAL THOUGHTS. I’m absolutely positive there are others that should be added to the list AND, I’m confident that these leaders would be responsive to a call for “help”. After all – it would be the President of the United States calling :-) . Who would not want to receive such a call – from any President…regardless of your political perspective! It’s our duty as American citizens. And, finally – don’t be offended if you’re not on the above list. More later…as always!
