Pairing technology and medicine together has the potential to create revolutions in health care that were once considered unimaginable. But finding the right combination is tricky.
In an event hosted by Axios, Arianna Huffington, entrepreneur and founder of the health website ThriveGlobal and Aneesh Chopra, the first chief technology officer of the United States, among others, agree that a new era of medicine is upon us. Notably, they said it is up to us to decide what to do with it.
Dr. Steven Corwin, president and CEO of one of the largest hospitals in the world, talked about the mindset health care practitioners need to have to make sure the new era of medicine continues to pay dividends for patients. From developments in telemedicine to the emergence of immunotherapies, health care is undergoing big changes and the future of medicine is bright. However, keeping patients in focus is critical, says Corwin. Remembering that hospitals, medicines, and health care at large exist to benefit patients is a key part of the embracing the innovations and challenges of this new era.
Aneesh Chopra, now president of CareJourney, a company devoted to finding health care solutions for patients, agreed. The advent of telemedicine is an exciting prospect, and yet large parts of the country do not even have basic communications infrastructure, let alone the capability to use telemedicine, Chopra said. Closing this “capacity gap,” would change the framework for technology and health care for years to come—and have meaningful and lasting outcomes for the patients across the country.
PhRMA president and CEO Steve Ubl also noted that it’s imperative to change the pricing model for health care to a value-based model, where therapies can be priced based on the outcome achieved by the patient. “We are on the cusp of a golden era of medicine,” Ubl says. This intersection of technology and medicine demands innovative policy ideas to help make its passage as smooth as possible.
Technology and medicine are working together like never before to improve the lives of individuals and families. By continuing to focusing on the people during this time of innovation and progress, health care has a very exciting future.
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