21st Century Personalized Health: Accelerating Scientific Discovery and Innovation
Why is supporting and protecting scientific discovery and innovation so important to assuring all American’s have access to quality healthcare that will be available, affordable and appropriate?
The health care system in the USA will deliver state of the art care that is appropriate for the needs of each individual and will do so at the lowest possible cost.
To create an integrated health care system across the domains of discovery, development and delivery so that there is constant innovation and rapid availability of integrated solutions that will eradicate disease and preserve health. The last half of the 20th century has witnessed astounding progress in science and technology that is elucidating the genetic and molecular mechanisms responsible for disease. These discoveries are transforming medicine, enabling the development of rational interventions that can be tailored to the needs of each individual patient and will predictably achieve the desired outcome of restoring and preserving health.
In view of such progress, our current efforts should be directed not at reforming our 20th century health care system, but rather transforming its function and structure into a 21st century health care system that will be: Personalized, Predictive, Preemptive (preventive), and Participatory.
Create a heath care system whose components will enable every American to be confident their health care will be: Available, Affordable, and Appropriate.
Throughout the health care reform debate much has been made of the USA expending approximately 16% of our gross domestic product (GDP) on health care and how this is a significantly greater percentage compared to other countries.
The fact is that a nation’s expenditure for health care can be viewed as a purchase or as an investment. In most countries around the world GDP health expenditure is for purchase of medical services and products like surgical or diagnostic procedures, drugs and medical devices. In stark contrast, the United States has directed its health expenditure not only for purchase of medical care, but also as an investment in research and development of state of the art medical care. Therefore, it should come as no surprise that most of the progress in biomedical research and medical breakthroughs have occurred within the United States.
This investment has been a blessing not only for Americans but for people around the world in need of state-of the-art care for cancer or a transplant or any one of a host of miraculous-like interventions. The problem is that when one combines the cost of purchase and the cost of investment the price tag is increasingly more expensive.
Congress and the Administration must address the future of health care for Americans with careful consideration of both the price of purchase and the cost of investment. The price of purchase can be reduced without sacrifice of quality by a rational and effective approach to eliminating cost drivers. The cost of investment, however, can only be considered in the context of the return on investment.
The investments we have made are already paying dramatic dividends in lives saved and the best is yet to come. For people threatened by Alzheimer’s, dementia ,diabetes, AIDS, metastatic cancer, pandemic influenza, paralysis and a host of other acute and chronic diseases, health reform must assure them that this nation’s investment in biomedical research and development will continue.
Show your support for research and development on the CHT poll (www.healthtransformation.net).
Posted by: Rynnie | 02/23/2010 at 11:52 AM
Why can't we start with the government programs like Medicare and Medicaid reimbursing providers at a rate that is true to the cost of the service? This will bring down the price of services for customers in the private market that are currently subsidizing government customers through higher prices. This will increase the programs' budgets, but the private market could get back to reasonable rates and have relief. Once we have a true cost of the government programs, then we can cut and/or adjust those.
Posted by: Angela | 02/23/2010 at 04:08 PM
If you want healthcare for all then have all doctors, hospitals and heathcare facilities donate two days a week to those who don't have health insurance and give tax incentives.
Posted by: Salvatore R. LaRosa | 02/23/2010 at 04:51 PM