U.S. health care spending in 2009 was estimated to be $2.5 trillion or 16.6% of the GDP. The number is expected to reach 20.3% of the GDP by 2018.  In France, the nation with the second highest expenditures after the US, health care spending stands at 11.0% of the GDP. And yet, the US ranks 33^rd in infant mortality and 49^th in life expectancy. Clearly, we are not getting the best health care money can buy and this because our current health care system is a web of complex, fragmented, operationally limited, and perversely incented micro-systems struggling to deliver health care for the 21^st century using 19^th century infrastructure.  

George Halvorson, Chairman and CEO of Kaiser Permanente, in his book Health Care Reform Now, provides an apt prescription for what the health care industry for the 21^st system should look like:   

… [It] would be based on the best available science, the best array of informed choices, and it should be affordable to all participants.  The ideal health care world would cover everyone, with no one left uninsured or without needed care.  In an ideal health care world, market forces would be fully engaged, with those market forces aimed strategically at achieving a health care marketplace of excellence, efficiency, and informed choice   

Part of the failure of the health care system to evolve into the 21^st century vision reflected in this quote is the lack of adoption of modern technologies and information systems that have enabled other industries to provide affordable, quality goods and services at efficient, scalable, and coordinated levels. The health care industry has fallen behind, shunning technologies that would support 21^st century systems, while at the same time it adopted technologically advanced therapeutic innovations that prolonged life and improved outcomes for patients with complex medical needs. It is ironic that most health care providers would spend more than $25,000 on an advanced pacemaker with sophisticated electronics for a patient with advanced heart failure, but would rely on paper-based record systems that fail to detect when a patient’s condition deteriorates. These archaic systems put on a daily basis patients at risk for medication errors, they expose them to duplicate tests, and possible misdiagnosis.  

The objective of this event is to explore opportunities for the current generation of health care leaders to transform the industry by a) deploying modern technologies to create better coordinated systems, and b) developing innovative financing and business models that reward the deployment of technologies that enable prevention and coordination of care. The ultimate goal is to move the health care system away from the traditional model of treating acutely sick patients to a model of preventing sickness and promoting wellness. 

The opportunities are amplified by the recent passage of health care reform legislation. With more than 30 million uninsured expected to gain access to health insurance in the next four years, the need to develop effective and financially viable coordinated health care systems has become even more acute. By preemptively applying next-generation technology and associated financing and business models to health care, we can radically transform the industry, control the cost trajectory, and avoid unnecessary future government intervention. 

Objective - Gather the most influential health care and technology executives to fully explore the following:

·         How can systems that use advanced networks, data centers and mobile devices to connect providers and patients enable wellness and prevention, and support better coordination of care?

·         In what ways can fully interoperable electronic medical records support the delivery of better care and possibly lower costs?

·         What are the key sources of market failures that may prevent the commercially viable deployment of these networks and electronic medical records and how can innovations in financing and business models address these failures?