As an assistant professor in the Department of Orthopedic Oncology at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Justin Bird is focused on outcomes that add value. To enhance his knowledge in this critical area of health care, he attended the Value Measurement for Health Care program at Harvard Business School (HBS) Executive Education, where he discovered new ways of thinking about care delivery.
I wanted to gain a deep understanding of value-based health care and learn the nuts and bolts of it in practice. I strongly believe that we need to listen to our patients in order to better understand their desired outcome. By doing so, we will have a better chance of improving overall value.
The value equation really helped me frame my approach to patient care. I learned that focusing on improving outcomes from the patient's point of view will lead to providing better value for patients and improving the health care system in general. Taking the patient’s point of view is really about empathy. Empathy drives a better patient experience.
I've realized that we can improve health care if we take new approaches. One such approach is to view the patient as a customer who consumes health care. If we focus on the needs of the patient, we can make great strides in health care delivery. The academic medical culture has too often shunned the industry side of medicine and that has been both good and bad. I believe there is a better way—one in which academics embrace innovation and focus on the value of translating our science into products and services that improve outcomes for patients. If we as academics embrace the innovation process, we can be better shepherds in applying the knowledge we generate for the benefit of patients.
Yes. The framework teaches us that we can drive better value either from improving outcomes, decreasing cost, or doing both. Most of my focus right now is on the outcome part of the equation. We are doing our best to obtain data from patients and clinicians and package it a way that is useful both at the point of care and in our secondary analyses of what works well and what doesn't.
Dive into the case studies and just soak up the experience. Leave with a concrete plan to implement at least one thing into your practice to create more value in your practice. Also, be sure to network with the other participants and find ways to collaborate.
