Health care is estimated to be a $2.3-trillion industry and represents 16%–17% of GDP.
Its delivery is sickness-intervention based, fragmented, and lacks integration. If the biggest five issues were addressed—appropriate level of care, prevention strategies, chronic care management, end-of-life futile interventions, and the end of waste, duplication, reprocessing, and repetition—there would be better quality and outcomes, with money left over to reinvest in health and wellness pursuits. This model works at the commuity level and integrates information/social networking technologies with best-practice dissemination. Barriers to implementation are discussed. Audience participation is requested to vet possible improvements to the proof of concept and to utilize futurists’ expertise to help eliminate false starts and to highlight components of the model already in existence. The session will complement the article in The Futurist (March-April 2011), and a robust bibliography and hand-outs will be available for further study and networking beyond the meeting.
Who should attend: Health-care providers, hospital administrators, legislators interested in a practical solution to bending the curve/sustainability patients and end users of hospital services, and anyone interested in wellness, well-being, and healthful living.
What you’ll learn: The proposed model, implementation strategies, potential barriers, long-term applications toward solving population-wide health issues.
How this new knowledge can be applied: Immediate and direct applicability to own health documentation and maintenance best practice advice ideas to discuss with hospital administrators locally and politicians to effect change in existing “system.”
Frank W. Maletz, orthopaedic surgeon, Lawrence & Memorial Hospital, East Lyme, Connecticut
key words: health, wellness, ecosystem, integral medicine
issue areas: Health and Wellness Future, and Social and Cultural Trends