After an unseasonably warm month, the fall leaves have fallen and the temperatures reflect the coming winter in New England. Thanksgiving for my family is a time to pause from our busy fall schedule. Some of us will run a turkey trot. All of us will create new memories as we gather with friends and loved ones.
Thanksgiving dinner in our home is a large event, typically with 30-40 people sitting down for the feast. It’s a time to acknowledge our blessings and offer thanks to the source of all that is good and encouraging. This is also a moment of reflection for me, personally and professionally. I have many reasons to be grateful, and here are a couple of my reflections that I’m sharing with my team, our customers, and our friends in healthcare.
Personally, I’m grateful for my family who has supported me throughout my life. My mother has always said that she feels like “her cup runn’th over” because of all she has experienced and for the wonderful family around her. This past weekend I joined a phone call with all of my eleven siblings and parents to discuss a significant health issue facing our family. We had family members in China and Kenya represented on the call and it was clear that simple solutions focused on the goals and needs of a patient are critical to defining the path forward and keeping everyone on the same page.
In other words, I was reminded again why complex care needs simple patient-focused solutions.
Professionally, I’m grateful for the many clinicians, community resources, and care teams that are embracing new ways of delivering care. We know that the next few years won’t be easy for many healthcare organizations. As we head towards 2020, the provider landscape will look very different than it does today. Optimistically speaking, I think this is a good thing because I believe it means that patients and providers will be more satisfied with the healthcare system than we are today.
While we look to the future, let’s not forget the work right in front of us. There’s still a month left in 2015 and much to do to close out the year while advancing the state of the healthcare information technology in America. But with 2016 right around the corner, I know that the future is bright for healthcare organizations – providers, payers and vendors alike – who recognize that challenge represents opportunity. And we can all be thankful for the clinicians and their families who endure holiday schedules in order to keep the clinical lights on during the holiday season.
Happy Thanksgiving and best wishes for this holiday season. We have so much to be grateful for at ACT.md and in healthcare.
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.
Photo credit: Flickr user martha_chapa95
