The Approach

Think different

	“Healthcare players have trapped themselves in a zero-sum game, dividing up value instead of creating it. The cure? Shift to positive-sum competition that drives up value for customers over time, and has worked in every other complex industry.” Michael Porter & Elizabeth Teisberg Redefining Competition in Healthcare, Harvard Business Review

Much has been written on the state of healthcare in the US and the need for radical transformation. As strategic thinkers like Dr. Porter point out, a multitude of factors have contributed to the underwhelming performance of the US healthcare industry, including lack of coherent public policy, lack of the right kind of competition, and the lack of patient or customer-centric focus.

But the status quo is no longer acceptable. The momentum for change is gaining, along with a growing consensus that healthcare is quickly approaching a crisis stage, and action is needed.

Be different

	“The most fundamental and unrecognized problem in U.S. health care today is that competition operates at the wrong level. It takes place at the level of health plans, networks, and hospital groups. It should occur in the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of individual health conditions or co-occurring conditions. It is at this level that true value is created — or destroyed — disease by disease and patient by patient.” Michael Porter & Elizabeth Teisberg Redefining Competition in Healthcare, Harvard Business Review

Finding and creating new sources of value requires fresh perspectives. As the industry continues its inevitable evolution towards a patient-centric model, so will the IT landscape. Improving quality of patient care will require a coordinated effort to share data, information, and knowledge across multiple “silos” in the healthcare ecosystem including:

• Collaboration across multiple departments like Radiology, Pathology, Pharmacy, Imaging, and Billing, inside a provider organization such as a hospital or physician group
• Collaboration across provider organizations such as family practice, specialists,
  independent physician groups, and hospitals
• Collaboration across health plan participants including patients, employers, payors, and providers
• Collaboration across the healthcare supply chain from drug discovery to delivery and settlement that involves pharmaceutical companies, clinical research organizations, providers, and payors.