How to Save Healthcare Systems? Focus on Patient Outcomes Says Global Health Leaders

In the hopes of decreasing cost and increasing patient satisfaction, a diverse group of medical professionals from around the world are urging for a major overhaul of healthcare systems. As outlined in a new World Economic Forum report, Value in Healthcare: Laying the Foundation for Health-System Transformation, the collaborating doctors posit that "value-based healthcare", a patient-centric system focusing on outcomes, can address the rising costs the medical industry is facing while also increasing customer satisfaction.

“Value-based care represents our best chance at ensuring that health systems of the future can deliver those outcomes that matter to patients at sustainable, long-term costs,” said Arnaud Bernaert, Head of Global Health and Healthcare Industries at the World Economic Forum.

The report outlines three basic principles to provide the basis for this care:

The report also established four key enablers of value and hopes to orient health systems around these enablers. The program already has a test city in mind: Atlanta, GA.

“Over the next several months, the Atlanta working group will design a roadmap for implementing value-based health care for patients with heart failure, and will then put our work to the test, and see real-world examples of how value-based health care can affect outcomes," said Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed, "We have a bold vision: to become a national leader in heart-failure survival in the United States while improving the quality of life and reducing the cost of care for our residents. This pilot program lays the groundwork for us to achieve this audacious, but attainable goal."

In addition to Atlanta, other pilot programs are scheduled for the Netherlands, Singapore and China.

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