http://www.forbes.com/sites/leahbinder/2012/12/20/13-to-watch-in-2013-the-unsung-heroes-changing-health-care-forever/
Leah Binder 12/20/12 FiDA highlight added to indicate my particular heroes!
When I have a health problem, I talk to my doctor
or nurse. But when our nation has a collective health problem, doctors aren’t
the only ones who know best. While I could write a year’s worth of blogs about
inspirational physicians or nurses who are transforming our health care system
from the inside out, today I want to highlight some of the largely unsung
heroes changing health care from the outside in: these are influential leaders
who don’t wear stethoscopes or see patients, but have some important answers
for us, from pilots and business leaders to game show titans and soccer moms.
Their influence comes through social media,
conferences, publishing and even some peer reviewed medical journals. My
prediction: they will make some history in 2013.
1. John Nance
Did you
know that a checked bag on an airline flight is still exponentially safer than
a patient in an American hospital? John Nance is a former airline pilot and
veteran, who has taken lessons learned from airline safety to dissect hospital
safety – and found the latter wanting. His books on the subject, most recently,
“Charting the Course,” co-authored with his wife Kathleen
Bartholomew (a national change maker of major influence herself, but
a nurse so not on this list of outsiders), create a fictional situation where
hospitals are run with the same safety rules and procedures as airlines. The
entertaining book challenges almost everything we assume about proper hospital
administration.
2. Al Lewis
This Harvard-educated policy specialist is
considered by many the father of “disease management” — and like all good
parents, he’s the first to note when his offspring are misbehaving. Now he’s
imposing some discipline. He’s concerned that the benefits of prevention
initiatives are often oversold by overzealous consultants and vendors, so he
wrote a category bestselling book “Why Nobody Believes the Numbers” to show how
the rosy scenarios don’t always add up.
3. Suzanne Delbanco
Many self-insured employers have an astonishing
little provision buried in their contract with their health plan: they aren’t
allowed to reveal the prices they are paying for health services. The employers
are allowed to pay the bills, of course, but they just can’t tell employees how
much they paid. Thanks to Suzanne Delbanco, and her organization Catalyst
for Payment Reform (CPR), ridiculous restrictions like that will
soon be a thing of the past. CPR helps purchasers — large employers and unions
— set rules for health plans on issues like pricing and quality of care.
4. Francois de Brantes
Your hospital usually makes money if a patient
gets an infection during their stay and your doctor stands to gain financially
if he gives you the wrong care. As a businessman, Francois de Brantes was
outraged by the perverse incentives in health care that drive costs up and
drive quality down. He formed a non-profit called the Health Care Incentives Improvement Institute
to try to deal with the incentives problem, and his terrific collection of
essays highlights his blunt and logical ideas for addressing them. Although de
Brantes is not alone in calling for better economic incentives in health care,
he is unrivaled in piecing together and even applying detailed strategies to
the health care system, undaunted by the complexity involved.
5.
Rosemary Gibson
A study by
the Harvard School of Public Health and the Rand Corporation
concluded that one-third of people who were told they needed heart bypass
surgery did not need it. Studies have also shown inappropriate CT scans, other
heart surgeries, back surgery, pap smears, carotid surgery to prevent strokes
and among others. Rosemary Gibson is a quiet and highly effective opponent of
these rampant practices that harm millions and cost billions. Her
much-discussed book, “The Treatment Trap” had a significant impact
in the health policy world and put the issue of overtreatment into the
spotlight where it belongs.
6. Dave
deBronkart
Often
better known as “e-Patient Dave,” Dave deBronkart survived
stage 4 kidney cancer and today is a social media superstar who speaks
nationally and internationally on how patients should be treated in the U.S.
health system. His compelling TEDx Talk, “Let Patients Help,” is in the top half of
most-watched TED
talks of all time. He tends to turn health care’s conventional wisdom on its
head. “Why is it when patients do the right thing it’s called ‘compliance,’” he
asks, “But when doctors do the right thing it’s called ‘quality?’”
7. David Goldhill
If you are raised to think the combination of TV
and health care equals Marcus Welby, meet David Goldhill, whose day job as head
of the Game Show Network (GSN) belies his other self, a controversial thought
leader in health care who is getting a ton of attention. Watch for Goldhill’s
book to be published in the New Year: “Catastrophic Care: How American Health Care Killed My
Father.” Until his father’s death, Goldhill never considered why the
normal market competition rules that apply in other industries don’t apply in
health care. He recommends some unusual policy ideas.
8. Tom Emerick
When Tom Emerick was a global benefits executive
for Wal-Mart, he discovered (with advice from Mayo
Clinic and other leading medical experts) that thousands of his
employees had been given transplant procedures when they didn’t need them, an
unfathomable amount of suffering for people to endure. I wrote about the
improvements that Tom made in a previous post, but it’s worth calling out
again – Tom is a leading crusader for employers to protect the American public
from unnecessary and dangerous procedures. There is no disagreement in the
medical community that such harm exists; a recent consensus report from the
Institute of Medicine found that one third or more of health services are wasteful. Tom helps
employers address this issue.
9. David Knowlton
David Knowlton is a highly influential
behind-the-scenes guy in New Jersey, who is a maverick in the best
sense of the word, and has gained national attention as a result. He’s a
leading advocate for transparency, safety and quality and has been awarded
numerous national appointments in recognition of the respect he’s earned in his
home state and the value of his ideas — and his ability to turn them into
policies. For instance, he’s the co-chair of The Leapfrog Group’s Hospital
Safety Score Committee. In addition to being a key influencer behind
significant New Jersey legislation on quality and transparency over the years,
he’s been unafraid to do what was right. He published prices of common hospital
services long before anyone else in the country was doing so, and he did a
survey of New Jersey nurses to get their reputational
ratings of hospitals. Keep an eye out; he has plans for 2013.
10. Maureen Corry
Maternity care in the U.S. has serious problems,
including a rapid growth in the rate of Cesarean sections, now comprising more
than 30 percent of all births in the U.S. Procedures that are known to be
unnecessary or even harmful – like scheduled deliveries prior to 40 weeks
gestation – remain
common in American hospitals. Maureen Corry and
her 94 year old organization, Childbirth Connection, bring together
researchers, clinicians and patients to come up with solutions. Maureen is a
strong policy advocate, but also a thoughtful and purposeful researcher who
brings all sides together in very constructive ways, which is why many of the
issues she has raised over the years are now on the top of the policy agenda in
Washington.
Look for her report next year on mothers’ perceptions of the childbirth
experience.
11. Regina
Holliday
My fellow
Forbes.com blogger Michael Millenson has called Regina
Holliday the “Rosa Parks of health care.” A young widow with two
small children, Holliday speaks eloquently of her husband’s cancer and the
terrible ways the health care system added to his suffering. Her cause: all
patients should have immediate access to their medical records. She wouldn’t
move to the back of the bus when the hospital refused to share her husband’s
records, and we shouldn’t be forced to either. This effort is getting traction,
with a group of leading physicians now launching a movement called “open
notes.”
12. Wendy Lynch
Wendy Lynch is a respected thought leader in
the world of health benefits executives, and she’s a bit fed up. Now leading a
unit of the think tank The Altarum Group, Wendy wants to see more
boldness by employers in incentivizing employees to seek quality providers. Lynch
and Altarum are likely to have significant impact in 2013.
13. Gary Taubes
This science journalist and author spent five
years of his life plowing through every known study linking lifestyle factors
to conditions like heart disease, diabetes and obesity, and he then wrote a
book detailing all of it, “Good Calories, Bad Calories: Fats, Carbs, and the
Controversial Science of Diet and Health.”
The bottom line: the science doesn’t support
conventional wisdom on saturated fat, diabetes, obesity, diet and exercise.
With his remarkable colleague, Dr. Peter Attia, he started a new organization
called Nutrition Science
Institute to support more research and assure that Americans hear
directly from the scientists. Given the heavy emphasis on lifestyle and wellness
under Obamacare — including a provision allowing employers to incentivize
employee wellness with up to 30 percent of their health insurance premium —
look for Gary to help dispel some unscientific myths that undermine these
programs.
So as you clink your glasses and wish your loved
ones a Happy New Year, remember to look out for these trailblazers who will
likely make a true impact on health care in 2013.
