Aspen Institute held a briefing September 25th to discuss the lessons learned from the Aspen Institute’s Health Innovation Project. For the past two years, Aspen Institute in partnership with WellPoint Inc. produced the white paper “Reinventing Health Care: Barriers to Innovation”.
After the release of the white paper, the project leaders decided to go on the road to spotlight notable providers, community-based organizations, and insurers across the country that are advancing innovation. The result was a summary of information that compiled findings and lessons learned in the field.
As the briefing keynoter, Patrick Conway, MD, MSc, Chief Science Officer and Acting Director for the Center for Medicare and Medicaid at CMS and Director of the Center for Clinical Standards and Quality highlighted the importance of innovation at CMS.
He explained that the CMS Innovation Center is focused on testing new payment and service delivery models to reduce program expenditures. The Innovation Center is working to quickly and efficiently develop innovative payment and service delivery models. For example, the demonstration “State Innovation Models Initiative” is an opportunity for states to design and test multi-payer payment and delivery models.
Another goal for CMS is to reduce unnecessary hospital readmissions. One of the demonstrations called the Community-Based Care Transition Program supports 101 community-based organizations working in partnership with acute care hospitals to help high-risk Medicare beneficiaries make the successful transition from hospital to home or to another post-hospital setting in order to reduce readmissions.
Another demonstration called Partnership for Patients is a nationwide public-private partnership that offers support to physicians, nurses, and other clinicians working in and out of hospitals to reduce hospital acquired conditions and to prevent readmissions.
As Dr. Conway explained, “The Innovation Center is very proud of their Health Care Innovation Awards program. The first round of the awards ranging from $1 million to $26 million were announced in 2012. One awardee, the Methodist Hospital in partnership with the Texas Gulf Coast Sepsis Network is researching how to treat sepsis before it progresses. Researchers are working on improving training and using evidence-based and systematic screening for sepsis.
A panel assembled at the briefing plus the moderator Susan Dentzer, Senior Policy Adviser at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation discussed their thoughts on innovation. The panelists included Basit Chaudhry MD, PhD, and Consulting Physician at IBM Research, Carole Roan Gresenz PhD, Jacobs Professor, Department of Health Systems Administration, School of Nursing and Health Studies at Georgetown University, Anjali Jain, MD, Managing Consultant and Senior Scientist for the Lewin Group, and Brent Parton MEd, Director, for Health Programs, at SHOUT America.
Some of the panel’s ideas expressed included:
- Developing teaching and testing the team-based model
- Developing the business model along with the concept of innovation
- Matching medical services to the workforce to be determined by what is needed
- Providing clear and thorough information on prices
- Opening minds to new ways to practice medicine
- Reorganizing physicians practices
- Improving communication problems with patients so they can make better decisions
- Engaging consumers in a meaningful way
- Sending data efficiently to the patients EHRs
- Applying engineering principles to healthcare
A second panel discussed how organizations throughout the U.S are using top innovative approaches to help beneficiaries and communities. The panel with Andy Shin, Director, Health Policy & Life Sciences, ML Strategies, as moderator included:
- Tim Kotas, Chief Operating Officer, at Welvie a company in St. Louis that helps patients who are considering surgery clarify their diagnosis and evaluate a physician or treatment plan
- Tanikka C. Price, Esq., Community Health Educator at Moms2B located in Ohio brings pregnant women together to provide information on nutrition and prenatal care
- Lynne Richardson MD Professor and Vice Chair of Emergency Medicine at the NY Mount Sinai School of Medicine have teams that manage care transitions and provide screening
- Meggan Christman Schilkie Chief Program Officer for the Parachute NYC program that deploys mobile teams to homes to help plan for recovery
- Mary Hiller, Executive Director, MedExpert Intl. located in San Francisco helps patients on a personal level to adjust to their circumstances
For more information, go to www.aspeninstitute.org.