What can you expect when you enter a room full of Healthcare and Technology Executives to hear people opining on the state of technology in health care? As I entered the large room at the downtown Hilton to hear Steve Ballmer, CEO of
Microsoft, discuss this topic with three other distinguished Healthcare executives, I was thinking “how on earth does a panel discussion on the issues facing health care and technology apply to me and my customers?” and “what does Steve Ballmer have to contribute?” In short… plenty.
The format was simple: Bradley A. Perkins, M.D. and Executive Vice President for Strategy and Innovation and Chief Transformation Officer of
Vanguard Health Systems was to moderate a panel of 4 distinguished executives:
Steve Ballmer – CEO of Microsoft Corporation- Harry Greenspun, M.D. – Executive VP and Chief Medical Officer for
Perot Systems Healthcare Group - George Lazenby – CEO for Emdeon
- Glen Tullman – Chairman and CEO for Allscripts Healthcare Solutions, Inc.
“I can pull out my iPhone and order a burrito at the nearest Chipotle. Why can’t I do the same and lookup, then call the nearest Orthopedic physician that takes my insurance?” - Harry Greenspun
So began an engaging dialog, (and on a few occasions, debate) on the state of technology in the health care sector. Most of the questions and responses boiled down to 2 key points:
- Health Care is far behind most other industries regarding leveraging technology to improve performance and service and decrease costs.
- There is much hope for the future – the issue is not so much an issue of technology, but more a matter of human behavior and perspective. In addition, the government and private industry is pouring money into this sector more than just about any other sector.
Much money has been spent thus far on improving technology to reform healthcare coverage and payment processing. However, as Harry Greenspun stated, “the future is here… it is just not evenly distributed.” When Senator Kennedy had his first seizure (and later learned about his brain tumor), he was in Massachusetts. Rather than going to the nearest hospital like most of us, he was flown to Duke University Medical Center, in North Carolina. Quite a disparity. More must be spent on servicing the consumer.
Steve Ballmer pointed out that the healthcare industry is primarily a cottage industry. Many of the practicing providers are basically running small businesses and subsequently have not realized as much benefit in health care technology spending.
But what was really interesting to me is something Glen Tullman brought up. He said “this isn’t just about cutting costs, improving service, lowering insurance… this is about saving lives.” He went on to cite a statistic that over 7,000 deaths last year were attributed to errors in hand-written prescriptions. If we have technology that can support digital prescriptions (and we do), why do we not already have this in place? (Mr. Tullman is co-chair of the National ePrescribing Patient Safety Initiative.)
Each of the panelists ended by essentially making the same point: we are at the beginning of a period of unprecedented change. We should not be afraid of the issues facing us, like privacy of data, overcoming aging infrastructures, or cost of new systems. History teaches us in the ubiquitous nature of online credit card usage that these things can be overcome. Things were not always this way. We must embrace it… like eating an elephant, we must take one bite at a time. Hmm… I’m glad they served us chicken for lunch. I’ve always wondered… has anyone ever actually eaten an elephant?
by Ken Raetz, LBMC Technologies
