Healthcare.com: Rx for Reform

Despite more than a decade of change, the U.S. health care delivery system is still in the early stages of its transformation into a truly effective, cost efficient and compassionate system. In Healthcare.com: RX for Reform, Dr. David Friend, trained in both medicine and business, delineates the symptoms of our ailing healthcare system and offers a vision for the future.

Even with the enormous turmoil our health care system has undergone - from the proliferation managed care to the closing of hospitals - large numbers of people continue to receive sub-optimal care. The author discusses several symptoms including:

increasing costs

uncertain quality of care

eroding trust in health care vendors

increasing prospect of shareholder liability

declining access to providers

unclear impact on employee productivity

It is time to discard the old, traditional way of thinking about healthcare and take a fresh look at its issues and challenges. To tackle these challenges we must strike a balance between the seemingly dissimilar disciplines of economics, medicine, technology, and politics. Dr. Friend proposes that we tear down the brick and mortar delivery model and replace it with a Virtual Health Care System.

This new model changes the roles of everyone involved in the healthcare system, from the patient to the healthcare provider. It utilizes technology to redesign health care so that it can be delivered with higher quality and greater efficiency. Healthcare.com: RX for Reform examines the actions necessary for the evolution of our current system into a Virtual Health Care System.

Features

David B. Friend, M.D., MBA, leads Watson Wyatt's consulting operations in the eastern United States and is a member of the firm's Global Management Committee. Dr. Friend also serves on the Board of Directors of Watson Wyatt and is Chairman of the Finance Committee. Prior to being appointed to his current position, Dr. Friend served as the global director of group and health care consulting for Watson Wyatt. In his consulting capacity, Dr. Friend provides strategic advice concerning the restructuring of the health care industry. His clients include employers, providers, governments and insurers. Dr. Friend has held executive positions at High Volt­age Engineering, Bank Boston, Robertson Stephenson and Sanus (now part of Aetna). Dr. Friend earned a bachelor's degree in economics from Bran­deis University, a master's of business administration from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and a medical doctorate degree from the University of Connecticut School of Medicine. He is a diplomate of the National Board of Medical Examiners and a licensed physician in the state of Massachusetts. He is also a member of the Board of the Institute for Health Policy at The Heller School of Brandeis University. Dr. Friend holds an appointment at Harvard Medical School's Brigham & Women's Hospital where he is a Visiting Scientist at the Innovation Center for Information Technology. Dr. Friend is a frequently sought out speaker and commentator. He and his wife, Susan, live in the Boston area.