Healthcare Leadership Council: National Dialogue for Healthcare Innovation
Today, The Healthcare Leadership Council (HLC), a coalition of chief executives representing all sectors of American healthcare, is hosting the National Dialogue for Healthcare Innovation (NDHI), a forum in which leaders from private sector healthcare, government, academia and patient and consumer organizations will work together toward consensus on issues affecting healthcare innovation.
The coalition is co-chaired by David Barrett, MD, the CEO of the Lahey Clinic, and Bill Hawkins, the chairman and CEO of Medtronic.
The purpose of NDHI is to bring together a broad spectrum of leaders and organizations involved in healthcare delivery and policy for candid, transparent discussions of medical innovation in the United States, and the opportunities and challenges affecting its progress. HLC President Mary R. Grealy noted that the creation of this coalition is important because “throughout the health reform debate, the aspect of American healthcare often overlooked was innovation.
As a result, Grealy recognized the fact that “there has been an insufficient focus on how we can continue to develop and deliver new lifesaving medicines, technologies and healthcare practices to patients.” Instead, there has been a focus on transparency and oversight, which has the effect of chilling research and scaring talented researchers and scientists from collaborating with industry.
One of the goals of NDHI is to avoid the “political rancor that has too often been a part of health policy debates, and instead bring together leaders who have diverse points of view but the same goal: encouraging the innovations that help people live longer, healthier lives.”
To that effect, Grealy asserted that “whether the NDHI focuses on physician-industry collaboration or Medicare reimbursement policies or product liability laws, the goal of the coalition is to move away from gridlock and stalemate and move toward shared approaches to 21st century innovative healthcare.”
To accomplish this innovation, Barrett noted that “continued medical innovation must play a critical role.” The best way to bring about this progress according to Barrett is “by achieving a sustainable, affordable, innovative future for American healthcare that involves all stakeholders – from patients to providers to manufacturers to policymakers – forging a path together.”
Consequently, the NDHI will convene a Summit on Physician-Industry Collaboration on October 4, 2010, in Washington, DC, the first of a series of planned forums. According to Hawkins, “the October summit will provide an ideal environment to ensure that principled collaboration is preserved and enhanced for the benefit of patients.” The event is slated to have keynote speaker from the US Senate, who has worked on issues on medical innovation and collaboration consistently over the past few years.
Other goals of the summit will include identifying best practices and gaps in physician-industry collaboration, as well as strengthening patient and public confidence by minimizing perceived or real conflicts of interest.
Accordingly, the creation of NDHI is beneficial for all stakeholders because the outcome of their work will be crucial for finding ways to optimize innovation for the benefit of patients. Their forum will provide a proper venue for all stakeholders to recognize the continued need for industry and commercial involvement in progressing medicine and technology while maintaining the highest level of integrity through professional standards of conduct and transparency.