Space Travel and Health Care
I read with great interest the recent announcement by several large health care systems of a joint effort to form “Truveta”, a new company aimed at leveraging big data analytics to enhance health care knowledge and action.Providence Health System in Washington is one of the organizations involved, along with 13 other large hospital and health systems located in other regions across the country.According to their announcement, these systems collectively care for tens of millions of patients and operate thousands of care facilities across 40 states.News reports suggest these systems comprise in the order of 15% of national health care activity.
Public statements of these health systems emphasized the good they believe their endeavor will produce.For example, Providence Health’s statement speaks to the benefits of bringing patient data together in order to improve care, develop better therapies and drugs, and to promote more equitable treatment of underserved groups.
The Truveta announcement coincided closely with news of the space ventures by two multi billionaires.The obvious personal rush that Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson sought was also wrapped around suggestions of a broader purpose to their adventures for greater good, such as beginning an age of “private” space exploration or saving our planet.
Perhaps broad benefit will be the product of all of these efforts.But experience would tell us to take these overtures of beneficial intent with a grain of salt.
I am not so well versed in space travel, but have borne witness to a large number of new health care ventures.Many related to data, but others around different health care strategies.Most public expressions of these have emphasized wonderful social and public aims of the enterprises. Underneath, all had one more overriding characteristic- a presumption that “bigger is necessarily better” in health care, and that the many would benefit from accumulation of health care activity.
Time will tell what broader good actually comes from this aggregation.While forty states and 15% of the national health care market are large numbers, it remains a fraction of patient encounters and will undoubtedly leave out the greater bulk of patient encounters that occur outside of these systems.
Meanwhile, the other major systems that control much of this other activity are investing similar energy in their own ventures on big data.History tells us that these are likely being approached as competitive, not collaborative, enterprises.Our government is unlikely to provide the means to bring such ventures together, or to do it well if they try.
Don’t get me wrong.I can see how larger data platforms could allow for a more expansive and useful set of information on health care and potential causes of disease and interventions or prevention.I’ve heard the consultant presentations several times and the possibilities are real.
But I would say that the experience to date with health care aggregation strategies around data or other matters is pretty mixed in terms of broader benefit, at best.These endeavors have clearly done much to make things better for the health care systems that have been the acquirers of scale, but with limited evidence that this has done much more than line their pockets with treasure and power.Real success in achieving good for the many has been far more elusive beyond the press announcements by the systems.
All to say that we can take interest, and maybe even dream, of the possibilities that might arise from these ventures.Those into health care data or space.Or other ideas to come in other sectors of private activity. But we might want to keep a steady eye on how these things play out in reality before just buying in to the claims of their press releases.
We might also want to consider how we should update our social accountability systems so we not only have a clearer picture on what these ventures really produce over time, but also identify more useful ways to intervene if the expressed intent of public good gives way to private gain at the expense of the many.
Greg Vigdor
President, WHF