Arizona Business and Health Summit asks attendees to innovate for value
From left: Joan Koerber-Walker, president and CEO of the Arizona Bioindustry Association; Mike Nagel, president and CEO of Vomaris Innovations; Rafal Chudzik, vice president of research and development at Innovative Health; and David Roe, CEO of Corticare, speak on the panel "Understanding the Mind of the Innovator." Photo by Shelley Valdez/W. P. Carey School of Business
Arizona State University's W. P. Carey School of Business hosted the third annual Arizona Business and Health Summit, sponsored by the Arizona Biomedical Research Centre, on Thursday, Nov. 14, in McCord Hall on the Tempe campus. More than 100 industry leaders, health experts and ASU faculty participated in the summit, themed "Innovation for Value in the Health Sector: Investing for Quality, Safety, Outcomes and Cost."
"This conference is helping break down barriers between disciplines to solve complicated problems for the communities we serve. Health care organizations are extremely complex, requiring managerial skills across a variety of areas, such as leadership, supply chain management and technology management," said Ohad Kadan, Charles J. Robel Dean and W. P. Carey Distinguished Chair in Business, in his opening remarks.
Lara Ferry, vice president of research in ASU's Knowledge Enterprise and a President's Professor, added, "Knowledge is generated not just through research, but also through innovation and entrepreneurship, and partnerships beyond the university. Health measures can still, in many cases, be determined by zip code. That is a problem, and one that we are all here together to help solve."
The summit included a series of panel discussions with notable health business leaders, including Todd LaPorte, CEO of HonorHealth; Chuck Lehn, president of Banner Health's insurance division; entrepreneurs and founders from a range of health startups; and interdisciplinary experts from across ASU.
Denis Cortese, professor and director of the ASU Center for Healthcare Delivery and Policy and former CEO of Mayo Clinic, posed the starting question for a panel on health care value: "There is not currently a shared purpose for health care in the United States. What is our common goal? Could it be to deliver value, and if so, how can we define that?"
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Mikaella Polyviou, associate professor of supply chain management, presents on health care resiliency following breakout sessions.
Photo by Shelley Valdez/W. P. Carey School of Business
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From left: Jonathon Ketcham, Earl G. and Gladys C. Davis Distinguished Professor; Sonila Tomini, associate professor of health economics at University College London; Sotris Vandoros, professor of health economics at University College London; and Chuck Lehn, president at Banner Health Insurance Division, participate in the panel "A Payer's Perspective: Domestic and International."
Photo by Shelley Valdez/W. P. Carey School of Business
Major industry entrepreneurs and leaders have contributed a great deal to drive innovation in the health sector to advance value-based care. Panelists Jacque Sokolov, chairman and CEO of SSB; Adele Oliva, founding partner of 1315 Capital; Mike Long, president and CEO of Lumeris; and LaPorte convened around this idea of "advancing vision for value." Long, in particular, focused on the value provided by and missing from primary care, and how true value realization would come from challenging some of the constraints in the current system.
Subsequent panels and roundtables looked at that question from patient, provider, payer and product perspectives.
One discussion included Mike Nagel, president and CEO of Vomaris Innovations; Rafal Chudzik, vice president of R&D and operations at Innovative Health; and David Roe, CEO of CortiCare. The three leaders shared how their companies are innovating to provide value in new ways, and to multiple stakeholders. For example, CortiCare provides remote EEG monitoring services, bringing cost-effective neurological care to rural hospitals, helping health care centers avoid costs and keep patients local, while helping patients access needed care in a timely fashion without needing to be transferred further from home.
During the final panel of the day, the summit attendees considered the payer's perspective from a domestic and international lens. Sonila Tomini and Sotris Vandoros, health economists visiting from the University College in London, contrasted some of the economics at play in the United Kingdom with those shared from the U.S. Tomini and Vandoros provided an economic lens for health care innovation in countries that offer universal coverage. While recognizing neither system is perfect, the panelists stressed learning from each other is paramount.
Health care is incredibly complex, and it is a product and service that everyone needs access to in their life. The Arizona Business and Health Summit recognized that complexity by inviting a range of experts to consider the multitude of variables at play. Gene Schneller, professor and Dean's Council of 100 Distinguished Scholar, and one of the summit organizers, reminded attendees that "there are these many different pieces of health care — the patients, the providers, the insurers — but at the end of the day, someone needs to be receiving care."
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