Session Topics

Monday, September 13, 2010

Health for All — 8:30-10:15 a.m.

Extraordinary gradients define national and global disparities in access to basic health care. At the same time, on the same day, on the same planet, the cost of a brief elective procedure in one place might dwarf what it would take to save many, many lives in another. In many cases these disparities span continents; but in many other cases, they exist within counties and neighborhoods — even households. Transform 2010's first theme is "Health for All".

Managing Health Care Information — 10:45a.m.-12:00p.m.

A long time ago, there wasn’t much more to health care than people doing their best to take care of themselves and others. Over time, traditions emerged, were refined, and then were passed along from generation to generation. In the grand scheme of things, biomedical science and related advances are very new and many have been impressive. Even more recently, technologies related to information and communications are downright mind-boggling.

We still live in a world where people do their best to take care of themselves and of others. Added to the present-day picture however, are hundreds of medical record formats, many hundreds of new health care-related professions, thousands of hospitals, tens of thousands of new diagnoses and procedures, millions of medications and devices, tens of millions of peer-reviewed scientific journal articles, hundreds of millions of scientific Web pages, and almost seven billion ... of us. We thought it might be worth spending a few moments on the management of health care information.

New World. New Research. — 1:30-2:45 p.m.

"Research" in health care has a whole new meaning these days. Complementing scholarly activities are rooted in the basic sciences, physiology, and quantitative measurement, are new and re-emerging approaches to how we learn about ourselves and our population. Phenomenology + grounded theory, unprecedented federal support for the sharing of information, new applications of supercomputing, and the open source health care movement are but a few of the schools of thought, new approaches, and collaboratives that are reshaping what we mean these days when we refer to “health care research.

Making Good Decisions — 3:25-4:30 p.m.

Very little of health or health care simply happens to us. Our decisions—even decisions made by others before we were born—shape who we are mentally, spiritually, and physically. Whether those decisions are about our genes or our jeans, any dialogue about the transformation of health care, is made more robust by giving some attention to making good decisions.

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Designing Transformative Business for Health — 8:30-9:45 a.m.

Our ability to understand, diagnose and treat disease has grown exponentially in recent decades; our system for delivering such knowledge and resources, however, has changed very little. Meanwhile, increases in population age, prevalence of chronic disease, patient expectations, health care provider workload, and ubiquity of mobile and other technologies, all have contributed to the familiar present state of health care experience and delivery. Countless industries have been created and reshaped by new business models. This section will include a few of the many new business models that may help to transform the health care landscape.

Designing Health — 10:15-11:30 a.m.

Whether designing space, products or services, designers (experts in thinking and doing differently) can be inspiring and empowering partners in the transformation of health care. Professionals trained in the graphic arts, architecture, product design, human factors engineering, and a variety of complementary fields are, together with experts in human behavior, biology, and other areas, learning from one another and contributing to new concepts of how and what it means to be (and stay) healthy.

Enabling Technologies — 1:50-2:40 p.m.

Throughout history, technologies have helped people to get things done. Recent technological advancements are remarkable, both in the capability they enable and in their almost universal scalability. Today, what one person learns can be learned by many, almost instantaneously. What one person experiences can be shared with another or with millions of others; and what millions have endured, one person, almost anywhere, can ponder, right now. Routines of medication management are becoming easier, safer and potentially a lot more interesting! Technologies also are helping us to learn about our own bodies from moment to moment (in some cases, helping to make those medications unnecessary in the first place). This section will showcase a few of the many technologies that help people to be well.

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