By SUHAS GONDI

As the Senate debated the fate of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) in Washington this past summer, healthcare was front and center in newspapers and conversations around the country. While insurance coverage and the affordability of care certainly warrant the level of nationwide attention they received, they comprise only one dimension of the systemic deficits in US healthcare: access to care. Meanwhile, the pressing need to reform our broken delivery and payment structures and address the more than $1 trillion of waste in our system was being overlooked by lawmakers in DC.

Luckily, on the other side of the country, entrepreneurs and venture capitalists throughout Silicon Valley are paying plenty of attention to opportunities to improve the efficiency of healthcare. In the first quarter of 2017, while policymakers fought about repeal-and-replace, investors poured almost $1.5 billion into digital health startups (mostly in the San Francisco Bay Area). This is on top of over $29 billion invested in healthcare startups between 2010 and 2016. Many of these budding companies are poised to significantly improve the way healthcare is administered and enhance the experience of providers and patients in novel, tech-enabled ways. Unfortunately, in addition to the myriad barriers facing any new startup, healthcare startups also encounter several unique obstacles rooted in policy failures that severely limit their potential to disrupt a system badly in need of disruption.

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BY LINCOLN WEED, JD

The following originally appeared as a guest post at the blog of the director of National Library of Medicine (NLM) and NIH Interim Associate Director for Data Science, Dr. Patti Brennan.

The risk of missed information

From the very outset of medical problem-solving, LLW argued, patients and practitioners face greater risk of loss and harm than they may realize. The risk arises as soon as a patient starts an internet search about a medical problem, or as soon as a practitioner starts questioning the patient about the problem (whether diagnostic or therapeutic).

Ideally, these initial inquiries would somehow take into account the entire universe of collectible patient data and vast medical knowledge about what the data mean. But such thoroughness is more than the human mind can deliver.

This gap creates high risk that information crucial to solving the patient’s problem will be missed. And whatever information the mind does deliver is not recorded and harvested in a manner that permits organized feedback and continuous improvement.

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By INDU SUBAYIA

Humans are aspirational by nature.

We dream big and invest tools that help us dream bigger. But we forget—sometimes willfully—that many of us are being left behind—because of racial, cultural or gender biases; poor access to connected technologies; or social stigmas associated with loneliness and sexual assault.

But if working in healthcare over the past 10 years have demonstrated anything, it’s that we are ready and willing to do something about the problems that keep all of us from looking to brighter futures.

It’s why I am proud to introduce a special session at the 11th Annual Health 2.0 Fall Technology Conference—The Unacceptables. Healthcare has too many innovators, too many dreamers, to empathizers to tolerate forgotten populations.

Leveling the Playing Field

As our society grows increasingly diverse and gaps in health among different populations increase, there is an urgency to develop solutions for underserved communities and diversify the population of innovators who are creating these solutions.

Diversity in Healthcare. As part of its mission to improve health for all, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) has placed special emphasis on creating diversity in healthcare leadership. Last year, RWJF launched four new leadership development programs to engage people working across a variety of sectors to build a Culture of Health. Hear Michael Painter, Senior Program Officer, discuss how RWJF engages professionals, community advocates and organizers, doctoral scholars, clinicians, and researchers across multiple fields, represented by participants with diverse backgrounds, perspectives, and specialties.

Women in Health IT. The numbers are startling. Women make up 80% of the workforce, but only 4% of CEOs. Women in health IT earn 20% less than their male counterparts, according to HIMSS. Progress has been made, but more could be done (hello, booth ‘girls’, for a start) to address gender roles in our industry. Lisa Suennen, Senior Managing Director Healthcare Investing, GE Ventures, lead Venture Valkyrie LLC, a publishing, and business advisory firm and is a founder of CSweetener, a not-for-profit company focused on matching women in and nearing the healthcare C-Suite with mentors who have been there and wish to give back, and which she writes about here.

Read my full article here

By ASHISH JHA, MD

Austin Frakt and Aaron Carroll recently approached me about a New York Times UpShot piece aiming to rank eight healthcare systems they had chosen: Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Singapore, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States. This forced me to think about a pretty fundamental question: what do we want from a healthcare system?

I would argue that most people want a healthcare system where they can get timely access to high quality, affordable care and one that also promotes innovation of new tests and treatments. But underlying these sentiments are a lot of important issues that need unpacking. First, what does it mean to be able to access care when you need it? A simple way to think about this is being able to see a doctor (or other healthcare professional) quickly and easily and in cases where there are follow-on tests, procedures, and treatments, you can get them without much delay. This brings up one important point: while experts often discount the importance of timeliness, regular people generally don’t: anyone who has waited weeks or months for a follow-up after an abnormal test result or to get a needed surgery knows that waiting times are not just an inconvenience. Delayed access can be stressful, agonizing and in some instances, downright harmful.

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BY MADHAVI VEMIREDDY, MD            SPONSORED CONTENT

Our day-to-day interactions with technology are changing expectations and aspirations for almost every touch point in modern life. We want instant feedback and action at the push of a button, from the digital shopping cart to the doctor’s office. That is part of why there is a constant stream of new apps and tech services being released across every industry, including wellness. But the barrage of options can be a problem of its own nature.

To better understand what people want and how to deliver resources that resonate and stick, we spent time studying how real people engage (or don’t) with personal health and well-being. What we found was instantly familiar yet full of deeply personal insights that made the struggle real and the solution obvious.

So often we design towards an end-goal or finish line. As we were reminded through our research, health is not static. For the healthy, those with chronic conditions, those actively managing to avoid serious health issues, the issues are all the same: it’s a challenge to live your healthiest life every day. It’s a daily struggle to avoid the foods we shouldn’t eat; it’s a daily struggle to exercise; it’s a daily struggle to live in the “white space” between doctor appointments.Continue reading…

By PAUL KECKLEY

Last week, the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee wrapped up hearings focused on stabilizing the individual insurance market leaving unresolved an issue that separates Dem’s and Rep’s on the committee: just how much freedom states should have in managing their insurance markets. At issue are the Section 1332 waivers which allow states to reduce essential benefits in health insurance policies, thus allowing insurers to sell policies that cover less with lower premiums.

Also last week, Republican Senators Lindsey Graham and Bill Cassidy offered what they called the “last chance” for Republicans to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. Their bill would repeal the individual and employer mandates and replace the ACA’s tax credits, Medicaid expansion, and cost-sharing payments with block grants to states so governors would have more flexibility and authority in managing their Medicaid programs and insurance markets.

But arguably more media attention was directed at Sen. Bernie Sanders’ proposal to replace the current employer-sponsored health insurance system with “Medicare for All” which would be phased on over four years and be funded by increased employer payroll taxes and higher taxes for those earning more than $250,000. What appeared to garner the media’s attention was the cadre of 15 Democrats in the Senate and 117 in the House who endorsed his proposal, though its price tag is unknown.

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By ALYX STERNLICHT                            
The tech industry is notoriously lacking diversity. Health tech also lacks diversity in both the innovators creating technology and the technology targeting diverse users.

Last Fall, at Health 2.0’s annual conference, Health 2.0, with support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, hosted a panel focusing on minority entrepreneurs and building tech products for underrepresented groups. The discussion that followed the panel was a passionate and thought provoking conversation. Some feedback included questions like: “Why isn’t this discussed more often?” and “there is dire need for inclusive products and support of underrepresented groups in tech.” With that feedback Health 2.0 decided to do something about diversity in health tech.
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