The 2nd Annual Canada – U.S. eHealth Summit will be blogging live during the conference in Philadelphia.
David F.J. Marshall
The summit starts off with an introduction from the Canadian Consul & Senior Trade Commissioner David F.J. Marshall.
He introduces by explaining the trade relationship between Canada and the U.S. and then introduces the keynote speaker Dr. Barry Straube, CMO and Director, Office of Clinical Standards and Quality, CMS.
Dr. Barry Straube
Straube takes over the podium and describes the high expenditures per capita for healthcare, while quality is inferior to that of other nations. He continues to explain various reasons for it and goes over the concept of The “Triple Aim”.
He further talks about incentives such as P4R, ARRA/HITECH, Medicare & Medicaid to show various routes to control costs and improve quality for Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs).
William Pascal
The next keynote speaker, William Pascal, CTO, Canadian Medical Association, is being introduced by Vincent Finn, who focuses on the IT side.
He starts by explaining the metrics of Canada and how the healthcare system is funded. Pascal continues by describing policy drivers to invest in health IT, which include:
- better health outcome
- better accessibility
- more integration
- and various others.
Pascal explains the SYZYGY concept in 2000 and compares it to 2010 with respect to the Fiscal Health, ICT Awareness and Shared Risks. He wraps up the first session by presenting the bottom line, which include:
- Balancing of top down and bottom up
- Leveraging standards and registries
- Increased value to patient
- Shorter time to demonstrate value
- Lower risk
- Lower Cost
- More Flexibility
Dr John Glaser
After a short break Session I continues with the keynote presentation from Dr. John Glaser, CEO, Siemens Health Services, who talks about the Era of HITECH.
Glaser explains various ACO Models and that payments will depend on the quality of care provided. Additionally he describes the requirements for HIT vendors based on the accountability shift. Glaser talks about overall ramifications for EHRs.
Session I Panel
Session I wraps up with a panel consisting of
a.) Rachel Block/New York State
b.) Henry Fader, Esq./Pepper Hamilton
c.) Mary Madison/AHIMA Foundation
d.) Peter G./Covisint
who give brief presentations on various aspects of ACOs and Medical Homes.
Editor’s note: This series of live blog posts on the 2nd Annual Canada-Philadelphia eHealth Summit were reported and photographed by Marvin Sugirin, solutions architect and my colleague, of BluePrint Healthcare IT. — Mike Squires
