Guest Authored by Eric Thrailkill
...an emerging tech layer begins to take shape
Despite a decade of federally funded EHR implementations (HITECH Act - American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009) for hospitals and physicians, a significant amount of the data is required to deliver upon the promise of personalized care lives outside these provider EHR systems. Evidence and widespread recognition of the true impact of health quality and lifetime age span exists in data associated with the domains of the social determinants of health (SDoH). The following domains of SDoH are recognized by Healthy People 2030, a program of the Department of Health and Human Services:
Understanding these “drivers of health” and acknowledging these factors are 80% of the story of one’s age expectation and quality of life, creates the necessity for a “new” tech layer allowing communication and integration with entities outside the four walls of care delivery.
An announcement by General Catalyst (a 22-year-old venture capital firm with eight funds and approximately $4 billion of invested capital) of 10 new health system partnerships, bringing necessary technology and change management resources to a total of 15 leading health systems including the likes of HCA Healthcare, Jefferson Health, UC Davis, and Intermountain Healthcare was a most impactful announcement, and recognition, of delivering on this required capability.
General Catalyst, the backer of successful companies such as Stripe, HubSpot, Warby Parker, Canva, and Kayak, is “all in” on investing and partnering side by side with leading health systems to accelerate the journey from “sick care” to “health assurance.” These health systems have concluded the pace of change has been greatly accelerated, and the future will require a new “tech layer” driven by vast amounts of data, to unlock discovery, innovation, research, and personalized care - at scale.
On display at HLTH - fireside chat with Sam Hazen of HCA Healthcare and Hemant Teneja of General Catalyst, the Future of Healthcare panels with UNC Health, Lifepoint Health, Ochsner Clinic, and UC Davis discussing the simultaneous operation and innovation models.