The Health Impact Project: What is this? Why now?

12/04/23 • 26 min

In the world of healthcare, where patient experience / quality of life and physician’s ability to feel fulfilled in their work are key drivers of success, defining ROI with a sole focus on finance just didn’t match what we were hearing from colleagues and seeing in the headlines.
Nearing the 15 year anniversary of HITECH, and 20th of the founding of the ONC, it seems like the industry is having a reckoning with the fact that it is still exceedingly difficult to quantify the impact of the billions of dollars of investment that have been made in IT.
After intentionally interrogating this observation with dozens of discussions validating that gut feeling, a few brilliant, deeply experienced, and like-minded folx came together to work on developing a path forward that better aligns with the actual goals of various technology investments across the sector. The team that has come together around this effort are:

After months of working on how to approach this, we’re thrilled to introduce our effort to the world, the Health Impact Project. We officially soft-launched the effort last week with the initial installment of our five-part manifesto, Assessing Health Tech Value in the Next Decade. In addition to the written word, we will be producing a series of podcasts under the Chilcast banner.
For our first podcast, get to know the team as we dive into what motivated each of us to come together for this work, the values we each bring to the table, why this has been hard for the industry to date, and what makes this work so mission-critical today.
Key Discussion Points:

1:24 - Our motivation to come together to work on this
4:54 - The values we each bring
9:46 - Why is this so dang hard in [US] healthcare?
17:35 - What makes this work so critical *now*?

1:24 - Our motivation to come together to work on this
4:54 - The values we each bring
9:46 - Why is this so dang hard in [US] healthcare?
17:35 - What makes this work so critical *now*?

Previous Episode

Building Responsible AI for Healthcare with Dr. John Halamka, Suchi Saria, and Jody Ranck, DrPH

On this episode of the Chilcast, we tackle the main topic of 2023 with three of the leading voices in the industry – the responsible development of AI for healthcare use cases with John Halamka, Suchi Saria, and moderator Jody Ranck.
Key takeaways from this episode:
- Our experts highlight the need for a balanced approach to regulation and innovation – need to ensure safety and ethical development, but don't want to stifle new advancements either.
- It is proven to be critical that diverse perspectives and voices are included in both the regulatory and development processes.
- Collaboration and continuous learning are crucial for responsible AI implementation in healthcare.
Chapters:
0:00 Introductions
4:25 Mayo Clinic Platform
7:02 Overview of The Coalition for Health AI (CHAI)
8:31 Bayesian Health Overview
11:12 Current Regulatory Discourse
23:24 Managing Tradeoffs and Social Impact
30:19 Accelerating Evidence-Based Medicine
34:30 Who Gets a Seat at the Table?
40:41 Can "Hallucinations" be Valid Hypotheses?
42:25 Evaluation as Part of the Innovation Cycle
50:41 What is the Threshold for AI Accuracy to be Implemented in Care Decisions?
54:25 Regulation Impact on Innovation
56:39 Regulation of Applications vs Models

Next Episode

Achieving Transformation and Defining Health IT Value with John Glaser

On this episode of the Chilcast, host John Moore III interviews John Glaser, Executive in Residence at Harvard Medical School and healthcare [technology] industry veteran. The conversation delves into the factors that determine whether a transformation strategy will be successful, and how to think about assessing the value of healthcare IT implementations, highlighting the need for organizations to have a customized, agreed-upon approach based on their specific goals.
Key Takeaways:

Assessing the value of digital health and health IT implementations in the healthcare industry requires a tailored approach based on the specific needs of each organization.
Financial return on investment (ROI) should not be the sole metric for assessing the value of technology, as it can overlook other important factors such as patient experience and clinical outcomes.
There are 5 specific factors required for any organizational transformation strategy to succeed.
Collaboration among multiple stakeholders is crucial for driving value and reducing costs in healthcare. Technology needs to be seen as an enabler of strategic initiatives, not as the initiative itself.

ChilCast: Healthcare Tech Talks - The Health Impact Project: What is this? Why now?

Transcript

John Moore III: [00:00:14] Welcome back to the Chillcast. I am the managing partner of Chilmark Research and your host today, John Moore. Today we are excited to introduce a new mini series as part of the Chillcast, delving into how different health care industry stakeholders think about assessing the value of digital health and health IT implementations. This session, we're going to be introducing the core group of us that have convened to actually develop what we are calling