Today, the Kauffman Foundation is releasing a new report, Valuing Health Care: Improving Productivity and Quality Kauffman. The press release and link to the report is here.
The report touches on ideas for improving an assortment of aspects of the health care ecosystem, namely health care data, medical research, regulatory and legal reform, and patient involvement. If you are short on time, you will want to at least review the executive summary and tables of policy recommendations.
When you hear that the Kauffman Foundation’s report on healthcare is partially about ‘big data,’ you might scratch your head, because about a year ago, McKinsey & Co. released a report that focused on this exact issue. Section 3 of the McKinsey report talks about big data in certain industries, with the first being healthcare. After an overview, they provide 15 ‘levers’ of future developments centered around data that they project will cut healthcare costs.
There is some overlap of ideas between the reports. But our report is broader in scope and I think expends more effort on detailing exactly how reforms might be implemented and identifying who specifically should lead the change. Another key distinction is that our recommendations derive from discussion amongst a wide group of experts drawn from academia, industry, nonprofit groups, health organization executive suites, medical clinics, labs, and law.
Great report, an industry that accounts for about 18% of the nations GDP, not to mention the share of government discretionary spending that is seen as unsustainable by many observers. Most corporation when faced with structural imbalances, usually result to drastic cost cutting measures to remain a going concern, i fear that the 'urgency meter' on the need to address this imbalance is very low, the imbalance is so obvious when you see the the Health sector contributes a disproportional # to the workforce. Obviously the US cannot be compared to the so called "PIGS" in the EU zone, but the problems they are facing and the measures taken to address their budget short-fall should serve as a warning the policy makers any concerned observers or citizen. Your report should be on every policy makers desk, I believe the elections this fall, will be about illusions and reality on the part of electorate & the elected.
Posted by: Eugene Winter | April 19, 2012 at 07:06 PM