As I mentioned in my last blog post, I have been heavily involved with organizing the Health IT Leadership Summit. The event, which took place last week, has certainly matured in the four years it has been held. From a marketing perspective, we’ve gone from solid numbers to sell-out numbers, from a tweet stream populated by two or three accounts to one filled to bursting with participation. From a content perspective, I’ve seen the emphasis shift from HITECH and Meaningful Use to this year’s hot topics of healthcare reform and patient engagement.
No matter what session I was in the at the fourth annual event, someone – panelist, moderator, keynoter or questioner – mentioned “disruptive innovation.” That phrase was rarely uttered last year, but obviously seems to be on everyone’s radar in 2013. It was, of course, discussed intensely during a session dedicated to disruptive technologies.
The discussion quickly turned to a conversation about barriers; namely, government and regulations. One panelist, CEO of a medical device company, had no love for government regulation. There were many in the audience who seemed to share his opinion that government, the FDA in particular, needs to get out of the way of innovation.
As this was being debated on stage (and on Twitter), I couldn’t but question the sentiment. Is government truly a hindrance when it comes to innovation in healthcare IT or medical devices, or is it a help? I seem to remember former ONC’er Farzad Mostashari, MD, making the case for government’s role in innovation. I believe that agency, and other CMS and HHS-affiliated institutions, have held a number of competitions to spur innovation in healthcare IT. The Blue Button challenge comes to mind first. Further research turns up a web page devoted to the whys and wherefores around HHS competitions and challenges, which the agency notes are “important mechanisms for spurring innovation, solving tough problems, and helping agencies to advance their core missions.” There are currently four HHS competitions open right now.
I’m somewhat skeptical of government-sponsored innovation at the moment, given the fallout from Healthcare.gov. I’d be worried that any truly innovative healthcare IT solutions that came out of such a competition would ultimately get consumed by the quagmire of government bureaucracy and finger pointing we’ve seen come out of the federal exchange roll out.
Should government stay out of the innovation game all together? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below.
A Deep-dive Into Specialty Pharma
A specialty drug is a class of prescription medications used to treat complex, chronic or rare medical conditions. Although this classification was originally intended to define the treatment of rare, also termed “orphan” diseases, affecting fewer than 200,000 people in the US, more recently, specialty drugs have emerged as the cornerstone of treatment for chronic and complex diseases such as cancer, autoimmune conditions, diabetes, hepatitis C, and HIV/AIDS.
