Innovative Healthcare Systems For The 21st Century

This book presents the latest in decision-making tools, techniques, and solutions for policy makers to utilize in overcoming the challenges faced by healthcare systems. With contributions from experts world-wide, an array of healthcare management models, techniques, and integrative solutions are presented, drawing on econometric, system dynamics, and agent-based models as well as state-of-the-art empirical studies. As total healthcare spending (both total expenditures on health as a percentage of GDP and average spending on per capita) increases across most of the world’s economies, healthcare systems continue to face challenges in terms of cost, quality, and access, as a result of its fragmented nature. Consequently, healthcare managers and policy makers require innovative integrative approaches and solutions to better manage complex, dynamic healthcare systems. This volume offers researchers and policy makers an insightful and critical review of the state of the art in healthcare modeling, with a particular focus on system dynamics, agent-based models, and modern empirical studies. It will be of interest to those in the fields of health, business management, and information systems.

This report explores how data and digital technology can help achieve policy objectives and drive positive transformation in the health sector while managing new risks such as privacy, equity and implementation costs. It examines the following topics: improving service delivery models; empowering people to take an active role in their health and their care; improving public health; managing biomedical technologies; enabling better collaboration across borders; and improving health system governance and stewardship. It also examines how health workforces should be equipped to make the most of digital technology. The report contains findings from surveys of OECD countries and shares a range of examples that illustrate the potential benefits as well as challenges of the digital transformation in the health sector. Findings and recommendations are relevant for policymakers, health care providers, payers, industry as well as patients, citizens and civil society.

The facts are hard to ignore: rising rates of chronic disease, epidemic obesity and diabetes, a widening longevity gap between rich and poor, health care “reforms” at odds with patient interests. In response, Policy Innovations for Health argues that a nation’s well-being mirrors the health of its citizens—and calls not only for improvement in our health care systems but for a complete reconceptualization of health and social policy, starting with expanded, interrelated roles for health care providers, consumers, and policymakers. The long-term strategies outlined in this book emphasize a stronger balance between public and individual health goals, and collaborations between cost-efficient, streamlined medical care and innovative therapeutic research and technology—values that have been traditionally been considered in conflict. Examples are included of new care models and groundbreaking programs from Canada, the EU, and Australia that bring together the community, consumer, governmental, and corporate sectors; bridge the gaps between prevention, health promotion, and practice; and improve core health determinants such as living conditions, education, and social supports. These social, political, medical, and technological advances, assert the authors, are crucial to meeting the challenges of the decades ahead. Among the topics covered: Health as a central economic and societal force. New directions in the monitoring of health and well-being. “Integrating Health in all Policies” programs and how they can be implemented. The democratization of health knowledge and the expanding role of patient participation. Closing the financial divide in public health priority-setting. Policy Innovations for Health adds important new voices to the health care debate, and its vision will inspire professionals in health policy, health administration, health economics, and global health, as well as graduate students planning to enter these rapidly changing fields.

Drawing on the work of the Roundtable on Evidence-Based Medicine, the 2007 IOM Annual Meeting assessed some of the rapidly occurring changes in health care related to new diagnostic and treatment tools, emerging genetic insights, the developments in information technology, and healthcare costs, and discussed the need for a stronger focus on evidence to ensure that the promise of scientific discovery and technological innovation is efficiently captured to provide the right care for the right patient at the right time. As new discoveries continue to expand the universe of medical interventions, treatments, and methods of care, the need for a more systematic approach to evidence development and application becomes increasingly critical. Without better information about the effectiveness of different treatment options, the resulting uncertainty can lead to the delivery of services that may be unnecessary, unproven, or even harmful. Improving the evidence-base for medicine holds great potential to increase the quality and efficiency of medical care. The Annual Meeting, held on October 8, 2007, brought together many of the nation's leading authorities on various aspects of the issues - both challenges and opportunities - to present their perspectives and engage in discussion with the IOM membership.

Second in a series of publications from the Institute of Medicine's Quality of Health Care in America project Today's health care providers have more research findings and more technology available to them than ever before. Yet recent reports have raised serious doubts about the quality of health care in America. Crossing the Quality Chasm makes an urgent call for fundamental change to close the quality gap. This book recommends a sweeping redesign of the American health care system and provides overarching principles for specific direction for policymakers, health care leaders, clinicians, regulators, purchasers, and others. In this comprehensive volume the committee offers: A set of performance expectations for the 21st century health care system. A set of 10 new rules to guide patient-clinician relationships. A suggested organizing framework to better align the incentives inherent in payment and accountability with improvements in quality. Key steps to promote evidence-based practice and strengthen clinical information systems. Analyzing health care organizations as complex systems, Crossing the Quality Chasm also documents the causes of the quality gap, identifies current practices that impede quality care, and explores how systems approaches can be used to implement change.

The Institute of Medicine study Crossing the Quality Chasm (2001) recommended that an interdisciplinary summit be held to further reform of health professions education in order to enhance quality and patient safety. Health Professions Education: A Bridge to Quality is the follow up to that summit, held in June 2002, where 150 participants across disciplines and occupations developed ideas about how to integrate a core set of competencies into health professions education. These core competencies include patient-centered care, interdisciplinary teams, evidence-based practice, quality improvement, and informatics. This book recommends a mix of approaches to health education improvement, including those related to oversight processes, the training environment, research, public reporting, and leadership. Educators, administrators, and health professionals can use this book to help achieve an approach to education that better prepares clinicians to meet both the needs of patients and the requirements of a changing health care system.

Learn how the future of medicine is being unlocked—one digital innovation at a time The Future of Health is an insightful and comprehensive overview of the past, present, and future of digital health. Accomplished health innovation leader Roberto Ascione delivers a practical exploration of how the latest digital technologies are transforming the practice of medicine and redefining health itself by making it more accessible, sustainable, and human. The book includes practical, real-world examples from the United States, Asia, and Europe of technology applications, companies, and start-up that have changed—or will change—our relationship with our health and the healthcare system. Readers will also find: How our health is becoming increasingly consumer and connected while technology is empowering patients in completely new ways and deeply transforming the doctor-patient relationship Discussions of how the training of medical professionals, particularly doctors, has changed—or needs to change—to meet the new digital reality Examinations of how new technologies will allow doctors to dodge many of the administrative and regulatory burdens they currently face each day Treatments of the ability of new technologies to unlock new, holistic ways of practicing medicine, with a focus on latest developments such as Digital Therapeutics and Virtual Reality Reflections on how digital health is fostering a shift “from cure to care” and will unleash a human-sized future for a more accessible, ubiquitous, and sustainable healthcare The Future of Health is required reading for medical practitioners and the managers of pharmaceutical companies. It will also earn a place in the libraries of medical device companies and healthcare entrepreneurs seeking an incisive treatment of the impact of digital technology on all aspects of healthcare. Also, the general public, interested in understanding how to take better control of their own health through digital technologies, will find this book insightful and easy to comprehend.

The anthrax incidents following the 9/11 terrorist attacks put the spotlight on the nation's public health agencies, placing it under an unprecedented scrutiny that added new dimensions to the complex issues considered in this report. The Future of the Public's Health in the 21st Century reaffirms the vision of Healthy People 2010, and outlines a systems approach to assuring the nation's health in practice, research, and policy. This approach focuses on joining the unique resources and perspectives of diverse sectors and entities and challenges these groups to work in a concerted, strategic way to promote and protect the public's health. Focusing on diverse partnerships as the framework for public health, the book discusses: The need for a shift from an individual to a population-based approach in practice, research, policy, and community engagement. The status of the governmental public health infrastructure and what needs to be improved, including its interface with the health care delivery system. The roles nongovernment actors, such as academia, business, local communities and the media can play in creating a healthy nation. Providing an accessible analysis, this book will be important to public health policy-makers and practitioners, business and community leaders, health advocates, educators and journalists.