Information technology and the ability to share health information are key to transforming the broken - and costly - U.S. healthcare system to one that keeps costs down by putting the patient and wellness at its core, IBM speakers emphasized during a Web seminar Wednesday.
"We won't have a healthcare system until we have a way to share information," said Robert Roswell, MD, former under secretary for the Health Department of Veterans Affairs and one of the IBM presenters at the Webcast.
IBM used the Web forum to deliver a summary of its new study "Healthcare 2015: The Future of Care Delivery" and promote discussion about treating what ails the existing system.
IBM called on U.S. and international health systems to collaborate in defining, measuring and delivering healthcare value and helping consumers become increasingly responsible for their own healthcare.
The emerging care delivery models must focus on promoting wellness and preventing illness rather than reacting to disease, the IBM study states.
"Today in the United States we have a sick care system, not a healthcare system," said Jim Adams, executive director of the IBM Center for Healthcare Management. The cost, he said, is about $2.1 trillion a year.
Globalization, consumerism, changing demographics and lifestyles, diseases that are too expensive to treat and new medical technology will force a move away from this model of "unsustainability," Adams said. All stakeholders will have to change.
"In other words, everybody's cheese gets moved," Adams said.
"Status quo is not an option for healthcare systems in the U.S. and many other countries," said Dan Pelino, general manager of IBM's Global Healthcare and Life Sciences Industry. "Ultimately, the transformation of healthcare systems will require commitment and follow-through on coordinated, collaborative efforts among key stakeholders, particularly CDOs (care delivery organizations) and clinicians at the epicenter of efforts to create more value-focused healthcare."
"Historically, care-delivery organizations could declare broad and abstract targets or even attempt to be all things to all citizens and still compete effectively," Adams said. "But in the future, we believe it will be harder to maintain an undifferentiated service-delivery model, whether it be a public or private healthcare system model."
The use of information technology and the ability to share healthcare data are critical to creating new care delivery models for new consumer demands, Adams said.
"It's hard to imagine we can accomplish anything in a paper-based world," he said.
How has your organization begun to change its care delivery model? Send your comments to Editor Bernie Monegain at bernie.monegain@ medtechpublishing.com.