A big hit was Paul Levy who talked about healthcare and soccer (football). One choice quote is advice to a girl from the team of 11 year olds he coaches: “Think about what you are going to with the ball before it arrives.” This certainly applies to future thinking in the dynamic health care environment. Check out his book, Goal Play. Then there was Paul Grundy from IBM made the comparison of physicians as the master builders of European cathedrals, trying keeping everything in their head as knowledge explodes. This leads to his conclusion of Smarter healthcare by smarter use of data.
Much anticipated was Roni Zieger, formerly of Google Health presented on Embrace the Patient Story. He talked about his own experience with a medical problem but then discussed how patients can become experts in their own care and therefore experts with others. His collaboration with Lucien Engelen, MyHealthStory, was a beginning down his new path. Now he is planning with Gilles Frydman of ACOR a new venture called Impatient Health, because they and many patients are impatient to participate fully in not only helping others as Patient Experts but also as active participants in research.
A great surprise was the introduction to the documentary “The Waiting Room.” Afterwards I had the opportunity to view the film – it is a heart-wrenching view of the real struggles of the uninsured in the US using the emergency room for primary care. I hope with the producers that the film will have a role in the health care reform debate.
Thanks to Lucien Engelen and Corine Jansen of the Radboud Reshape and Innovation Center for making this event possible. Looking forward to The Future of Health 2013.
