Session Topics

Monday, September 14, 2009

Redefining Roles

This segment will introduce the emerging roles of disruptive technology and business model innovations in making products and services in health care affordable and accessible. It will touch upon the evolution of health care delivery systems — particularly hospitals — from geographically-centered and costly entities to decentralized and more focused operations. Participants will be introduced to emerging business models in health care, including facilitated networks — online communities of people who help to teach one another about how to live with their diseases. This segment will also explore the notion that health care can be designed to minimize the degree to which it disturbs peoples' lives.

Policy Perspectives

What is the role of innovation in creating value? How can we design a system that pays for value rather than for interventions? What is value-based competition? How do we ensure dependable, affordable health care for everyone? How do we accelerate transformational change and identify better solutions that provide more choices, better health and lower cost? Our behavior determines our environment, and our environment determines our behavior; it may be no coincidence that crises in health care and the environment have emerged in parallel. Some have seen similarities in these issues and are tackling both.

Enabling Technologies

Are we taking optimal advantage of technologies that already exist? If not, how might we get more out of what we have? While we’re talking about technology, what is on the horizon regarding applications in health care? From networks & gadgets to genes, this segment will cover a broad spectrum.

Tuesday, September 15 2009

Alternative Models and How We Pay for Them

People have accessed information and purchased goods and services online for years. Now, a visit with a doctor online may be as easy as logging-in to buy a pair of shoes — and traditional third party payers already see value in this model. Participants will be introduced to specific examples, learn about payment models, explore the role of innovation in the research and development of goods and services, and understand what it takes for an innovative venture in health care to succeed.

Content, Community, Commerce, Care and Choices

Communities of people are sharing health care-related content online. This has come to be called "Health 2.0." Individuals and organizations have built business ventures around sharing content. But what does it take for these models to evolve into reliable facilitators of wellness? How can these communities link with existing bricks-and-mortar care delivery systems in ways that help people in their journey to wellness? What are "microchoices" and how might they be more powerful than all of health care?

Designing for Social Change

Innovations can bring about change for the better in health care, whether they emerge from the medical ward, the clinic, or from a person's home. In this segment we’ll be introduced to Design Thinking — an approach that produces innovations from thoughtful, experiential, participatory research. Innovating in response to human need is what designers have done for centuries. Recently, these master innovators are lending their talents to the design of health care; this segment will give a few examples of what has worked, what hasn't, and what's on the drawing boards.

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