Current architecture of knowledge generation in healthcare needs change

ISPOR, the professional society for health economics and outcomes research, held a special "Spotlight Session" this afternoon entitled, "Reinventing the Future of Knowledge Generation in Healthcare," at its ISPOR 2018 conference in Baltimore, MD, USA.

The Spotlight Session speaker was Harlan M. Krumholz, MD, SM, Yale School of Medicine and Yale-New Haven Hospital, New Haven, CT, USA. Moderating the session was Rachael L. Fleurence, PhD, National Evaluation System for Health Technology Coordinating Center, Arlington, VA, USA.

Disruptive innovation and smarter use of patient data have the potential to transform healthcare delivery-;moving from a reactive approach to proactive healthcare delivery and personalized care. Dr Krumholz outlined the problems with the current research enterprise concluding that the current architecture of knowledge generation has created a chokepoint to progress and needs to change. He noted that medicine is emerging as an information science enabled by the digital transformation and mobile devices.

Big data could serve as the source of knowledge for a learning healthcare system; becoming smarter with every healthcare interaction. Dr Krumholtz stressed that people should be partners in research and that healthcare data should be organized and connected (versus its current state of fragmented and disconnected). He sees patient rights as the "lever" to move toward this goal with patients' ability to access and obtain copies of their own health information as a right, not a privilege.